Resources

WISCONSIN HISTORY | DECORATIVE ARTS & MATERIAL CULTURE | FURNITURE | CERAMICS| TEXTILES

Explore this selection of online and print resources for more information about Wisconsin history, specific types of objects, and the study of decorative arts and material culture in America.

WISCONSIN HISTORY

Wisconsin Heritage Online
Search the WHO research portal to discover digital collections of photographs, newspapers, books, and diaries from historical societies, museums, and libraries across Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database is also made available through WHO.

Wisconsin Historical Society
The website of the Wisconsin Historical Society features a wealth of digital resources, including a wide range of online exhibitions and collections from the Wisconsin Historical Museum and thousands of photographs from Wisconsin Historical Images.

The State of Wisconsin Collection
This digital collection from the University of Wisconsin brings together primary and secondary materials dealing with the history of the state of Wisconsin and its ongoing development.

Ostergren, Robert C. and Thomas R. Vale, editors. Wisconsin Land and Life. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997.
Ostergren and Vale, both faculty members in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have assembled a group of scholarly articles examining the state of Wisconsin from the perspectives of environment, settlement, and the economy.

Thompson, William Fletcher, general editor. The History of Wisconsin. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1973-1998.
The definitive work on the history of the state, in six volumes. Vol. I, From Exploration to Statehood, Alice E. Smith; Vol. II, The Civil War Era, 1848-1873, Richard N. Current; Vol. III, Urbanization and Industrialization, 1873-1893, Robert C. Nesbit; Vol. IV, The Progressive Era, 1893-1914, John D. Buenker; Vol. V, War, a New Era, and Depression, 1914-1940, Paul W. Glad; Vol. VI, Continuity and Change, 1940-1965, William F. Thompson.

DECORATIVE ARTS AND MATERIAL CULTURE

Wisconsin

Folk Figures: A Survey of Norwegian and Norwegian-American Artifacts
University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student Carrie Roy compiled this catalog of over 80 folk objects in Wisconsin collections, including artifacts from the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Stoughton Historical Museum, and the outdoor museum Little Norway.

Walsh, Margaret. The Manufacturing Frontier: Pioneer Industry in Antebellum Wisconsin, 1830-1860. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, 1972.

Whyte, Bertha Kitchell. Craftsmen of Wisconsin. Racine, Wisconsin: Western Publishing Company, 1971.
Profiles of Wisconsin artisans including blacksmith Cyril Colnik, rosemaler Per Lysne and woodworker Harry Nohr.

Whyte, Bertha Kitchell. Wisconsin Heritage. Boston: Charles T. Branford Company, 1954.
An eclectic survey of early Wisconsin material culture, including architecture (barns, taverns, and mills), crafts (ironwork, ceramics), and folk arts (shop signs, Norwegian artifacts).

Beyond Wisconsin

Antiques Roadshow
The PBS program's website offers a number of resources for the study of American material culture, including a glossary of terms.

Chipstone Foundation
Based in Milwaukee, the Chipstone Foundation is a private foundation for the collection and study of American decorative arts. Chipstone publishes two major annual scholarly journals, American Furniture and American Ceramics, both reproduced online. The website also includes digital versions of exhibitions presented by Chipstone at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture
This extensive resource, made possible by the Chipstone Foundation and maintained by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, includes an image database of Chipstone's collections of Early American furniture and British ceramics as well as electronic facsimiles of major primary source texts for the study of the decorative arts, such as Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director (1754) and The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, by George Hepplewhite (1788).

Material Culture Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Material Culture at UW-Madison is an interdisciplinary program that examines the forms, uses, and meanings of objects, images, and environments in everyday life. The program is dedicated to innovative research and teaching that engages the material world of diverse cultures and times.

Victoria and Albert Museum
Search the collections to find over 20,000 works from the V&A's vast holdings of British, European, Asia, and American decorative arts.

Winterthur Portfolio
A key academic journal for material culture studies sponsored by the Winterthur Museum and published by the University of Chicago Press. The Winterthur Museum, in conjunction with the University of Delaware, also sponsors the graduate-level Winterthur Program in Early American Culture.

Ames, Kenneth L. and Gerald W. R. Ward, editors. Decorative Arts and Household Furnishings in America, 1650-1920: An Annotated Bibliography. Winterthur, Delaware: The Henry Frances du Pont Winterthur Museum, distributed by the University Press of Virginia, 1989.
A survey of decorative arts-related publications, with sections devoted to furniture, metals, ceramics and glass, textiles, clocks and watches, kitchen artifacts, heating and lighting, and craftspeople. Includes a detailed annotation for each entry and explanatory essay for each section. An excellent starting point for research in the decorative arts.

Ames, Kenneth L. Death in the Dining Room and Other Tales of Victorian Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.
Ames examines some of the ways in which household objects both reflected and shaped 19th century social experiences and beliefs.

Kovel, Ralph and Terry. Kovels' American Antiques, 1750 to 1900. New York: Random House Reference, 2004.
An accessible and well-illustrated basic survey of 18th and 19th century American objects, including ceramics, glass, furniture, metals, and textiles as well as prints, jewelry, toys, and tools.

Krill, Rosemary Troy, with Pauline K. Eversmann. Early American Decorative Arts, 1620-1860: A Handbook for Interpreters. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 2001.
Based on the training handbook for guides at the Winterthur Museum, this book provides a detailed introduction to the chronology of styles in Early American household furnishings and examines the historical contexts of their production and consumption.

FURNITURE

Wisconsin

Sheboygan County Historical Documents
Part of the State of Wisconsin Collection, this group of primary source documents includes 20 catalogs from seven different Sheboygan-area furniture manufacturers.

Bakken, Reidar. Snikkaren Aslak Olsen Lie: Bygdekunstnar i Valdres og Wisconsin, 1798-1886: Craftsman on Two Continents. Translated by Ingrid Stenvik. Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, 2000.
A well-illustrated case study of Norwegian immigrant cabinetmaker Aslak Olsen Lie. In Norwegian with an English summary and captions.

Gresl, Kathleen Jacobs. "A History of Sheboygan Furniture Manufacturers." M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1972.

Holzhueter, John O. "Aslak Lie and the Challenge of the Artifact." Wisconsin Magazine of History 70, no. 1 (1986): 3-20.

Selkurt, Claire. "Domestic Architecture and Cabinetry of Luther Valley." Translated by C.A. Clausen. Norwegian American Studies 30 (1985): 247-72.
Norwegian influences in the architecture and furniture of the Luther Valley settlement in south-central Wisconsin.

Viel, Lyndon C. Antique Ethnic Furniture. Des Moines: Wallace-Homestead, 1983.
A survey of German, Norwegian, Swedish, and other ethnic influences in furniture in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest.

Woodhouse, Anne. "Manufactured Furniture from Wisconsin." Wisconsin Academy Review 30, no. 2 (1984): 56-8.
In 1900, Wisconsin boasted 250 furniture factories, mostly in the Lake Michigan area, and ranked among the top six U.S. states in furniture production. This article was published following the Wisconsin Historical Museum's 1982 exhibition "Furniture for the Millions," a survey of the state's furniture industry.

Regional Furniture

Carron, Christian G., editor. Grand Rapids Furniture: The Story of America's Furniture City. Grand Rapids, MI: Public Museum of Grand Rapids, 1998.
This book examines how late 19th and early 20th century furniture factories in Grand Rapids, Michigan established a successful, nationally-recognized industry using innovative manufacturing and marketing techniques.

Darling, Sharon. Chicago Furniture: Art, Craft, and Industry, 1833-1983. New York: Chicago Historical Society in association with W. W. Norton, 1984.
A survey of furniture production in Chicago, covering early frontier cabinetmakers, mass manufacturing, art furniture (including Arts and Crafts, Mission, and Prairie styles), and the modern design movement.

Hurst, Ronald L. and Jonathan Prown. Southern Furniture, 1680-1830: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection. Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1997.
This catalog of 183 objects, arranged by form, is the first major text to provide a detailed examination of Southern cabinetmaking. Each catalog entry includes thoroughly-researched historical information as well as a close examination of form and construction.

Knell, David. English Country Furniture: The National and Regional Vernacular, 1500-1900. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1992.
This catalog features over 600 examples of English vernacular furniture arranged by form.

Identifying Forms and Styles

Butler, Joseph T. Field Guide to American Antique Furniture. New York: Henry Holt and Company, a Roundtable Press Book, 1985.
The first section of this book is a chronological survey of American furniture styles from the 17th century through the 1930s. The second section features the progression of styles within different forms (chairs, tables, beds, etc.). Illustrated with line drawings by Ray Skibinski.

Kirk, John T. American Furniture: Understanding Styles, Construction, and Quality. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000.
Kirk examines several stylistic periods in Early American furniture, emphasizing close looking as the best way to develop skills in object identification.

Naeve, Milo M. Identifying American Furniture, 3rd ed. Alta Mira Press in cooperation with the American Association for State and Local History, 1998.

CERAMICS

Wisconsin

Mr. Bottles
This website, compiled by Wisconsin bottle collectors, features an extensive image gallery of stoneware produced in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Pottery Association
An organization for collectors of Wisconsin-made ceramics.

Pottery by Frackelton
Susan Frackelton of Milwaukee began her career as a china painter in the 1870s, published Tried by Fire, an instructional manual for china painting, in 1885, and won international acclaim for her dramatic art pottery in the 1890s. This online exhibition of her work is compiled by the Wisconsin Historical Museum.

Bruhn, Marion. "Milwaukee Stoneware-The Elusive Pottery." Ohio Antique Review (June 1979): 74-5.

Caroon, Robert. "The Pottery Industry in Nineteenth Century Milwaukee." Historical Messenger 26, no. 1 (1970).

Horney, Wayne B. Pottery of the Galena Area. 1965.
This booklet examines 19th century earthenware production in Galena, Illinois as well as potteries in the Wisconsin comminuties of Cottage Inn and Mineral Point.

Dearloff, Kenneth. Wisconsin Folk Pottery in the Collection of the Kenosha Public Museum. Kenosha, WI: Kenosha Public Museum, 1986.
This booklet surveys the work of earthenware and stoneware producers in 19th century Wisconsin.

Knipping, Mark. "The Wisconsin Pottery Industry." M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1972.
In the first scholarly work on 19th century Wisconsin ceramics, Knipping examines the history of regional earthenware and stoneware production and trade.

Korenic, Lynette. "The Decorative Fire of Susan S. Frackelton: China Painting, Art Pottery, and Book Illumination." Ph.D dissertation, University of California-Santa Barbara, 2007.

Korenic, Lynette and Dorothy Kamm. Susan S. Frackelton, Woman of Fire: The Sinsinawa Collection of Painted Porcelain and Art Pottery. Sinsinawa, Wisconsin: Sinsinawa Dominicans, 2004.

Montgomery, Maurice J. Edgerton's History in Clay: Pauline Pottery to Pickard China. 2001.

Pagel, Ori-Anne. Pauline Pottery: A Pictorial Supplement to Edgerton's History in Clay. Edgerton, WI: Arts Council of Edgerton, 2003.
This heavily illustrated catalog surveys the work of Wisconsin's Pauline Pottery circa 1890-1910, along with related regional art potteries including the American Art Clay Works, the Edgerton Pottery Company, and Norse Pottery.

TEXTILES

Wisconsin

Kort, Ellen with Maggi McCormick Gordon and the Wisconsin Quilt History Project. Wisconsin Quilts: History in the Stitches. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 2008. This book, now in its second edition, highlights some of the important findings of the Wisconsin Quilt History Project.

Gordon, Beverly. "The Great Lakes Indian Bandolier Bag: Cultural Persistence and Elaboration." Dress 19 (1992): 69-81. This article examines the genesis and cultural significance of the bandolier bag, a heavily beaded ceremonial dress element developed by Great Lakes Indians in the mid-19th century.

Whiteford, Andrew Hunter. "Fiber Bags of the Great Lakes Indians." American Indian Art Magazine 2, no. 3 (1977).

Whiteford, Andrew Hunter. "The Origins of Great Lakes Beaded Bandolier Bags." American Indian Art Magazine 11, no. 3 (1986): 32-43.

Beyond Wisconsin

International Quilt Study Center and Museum
Located in Lincoln, Nebraska, the museum offers numerous digital collections and online exhibitions.

Quilt Index
This extensive image database is a joint venture of Michigan State University and the Alliance for American Quilts.

Anderson, Clarita. American Coverlets and Their Weavers. Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg in association with Ohio University Press, Athens, 2002.

Brackman, Barbara. Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. Paducah, Kentucky: American Quilter's Society, 1993.