On the Prairie: A Visit to Old World Wisconsin

OK, so Wisconsin is not the land of "Little House on the Prairie" but it is the state where Laura Ingalls Wilder set her first novel "Little House in the Big Woods" on her family's way to the land of 10,000 lakes, Minnesota.  In fact, Barnes & Noble has named "Little House in the Big Woods" as the book that names Wisconsin as its most famous setting.  About 40 miles west of Milwaukee, there is a huge museum dedicated to the early years of my state's history called Old World Wisconsin, and my friend, Megan, and I visited last Sunday for the first time since grade school.

Old World Wisconsin is a favorite field-trip destination for school classes and features many buildings that formed the infant days of our state, which became part of the Union in 1848.  The grounds are broken up by the nationalities of its earliest settlers, with the Village featuring its Irish immigrants, along with a German area, a Norweigan/Scandinavian/Finish area, and even an African American area which focused on the trials of escaped slaves before and during the Civil War.

Many of the building at the museum are original and were painstakingly taken apart, catalogued and re-built on the museum's grounds.  The photo below is of the state's first church, originally located in Milwaukee.

Other buildings highlight the state's industry including wagon-making, textiles, iron works, and agriculture.

The museum is known for its raspberry-colored one-room schoolhouse.  One thing we did learn while at the museum was teachers were not allowed to keep working once they were married.  However, they were not allowed to live alone, and boarded with families within the town, so marriage was freedom to them.  Some teachers even married their male students since they were so close in age.

The oxen in the German area reminded me of Ferdinand the bull from the children's books, so I had to take a photo of one of them sleeping in the sun.

This homestead used both wooden planks and what's known as "Cream City" bricks as the foundation for their home.  I had never seen such a combination, but I'm sure it made for a very sturdy home.

And this building was part of the African-American area.  It's a church without a cross at its apex - I'm sure that was a deliberate decision to keep former slave-owners off their trail.

I don't know why I waited so long to re-visit Old World Wisconsin, but its a great place to spend the day, not just as a photographer but as someone who loves history.  If you have a museum similar to this in your home state, I encourage you to visit.  It's a really fun way to spend a weekend day!

Musicality of the Wisconsin State Capitol

This past weekend, I spent it at my most favorite city in Wisconsin, Madison, its state capitol.  I love Madison primarily because it's a liberal city, and my hometown of Waukesha is,well, not.  I also love that it's smaller than Milwaukee and easier to navigate.  I would live there if there were jobs available, but considering there is an average of 350 jobs per week in the Milwaukee-area and 1/3 of that amount in Madison, I think I'll take my chances here.  Madison does have the largest Farmer's Market in the state, which surrounds the state capitol building, and I made sure to get there early to get a parking spot.  I did not expect that there would also be a bike race that morning, and parking was harder to find than a normal Saturday.  In fact, there were more parking spaces available in Monona Terrace, where I parked, when I left at noon than when I arrived at 9:00 a.m.

But, I did have a fantastic time in the city I love.  I bought some homemade tortillas at the Farmer's Market, which I used to make quesadillas, and saw a fantastic photography exhibit at the Madison Art Museum.  The exhibit focused on portraiture, street photography, rural photography, the human body, and photos taken "On The Road" all after 1950.

While I was at the Farmer's Market, I took some more unique photos of the Capitol building.

This one is my favorite, since I like taking photos of reflections in other buildings:

I make it a point not to get political on this blog, but for the last few weeks, our Governor has been arresting ordinary tax-paying citizens for singing protest songs inside the State Capitol building.  In fact, anyone who stops and listens to these "Solidarity Singers", are arrested as well.  The singing is in protest of Walker taking away unions' collective bargaining rights and the fact that our state has been last in job creation in the country for the last 2 years.  However, around the Capitol, musicians have been celebrating their right to assemble, and there are a myriad of performers from folk singers:

To cover artists (these guys covered the Beatles "Back in the U.S.S.R."):

To a bagpipe player:

To a violinist:

I try to get out to Madison a few times a year, but this year seemed to go by so fast that I finally had time to go this weekend.  I hope to make it back there around Christmas-time since I've never seen their seasonal decorations.  I also spent time at their Olbrich Botanical Garden on Sunday, taking photos of flowers.  I hope to post those photos sometime this week.