American furniture manufacturers of the early 20th century imitated a range of popular styles from the 1700s and early 1800s. The Phoenix Chair Company of Sheboygan produced a dining suite they dubbed “The Colonial.” The suite’s elaborately turned legs are reminiscent of the turnings on a ca. 1700 Boston armchair in the collection of the Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee.   via: Phoenix Chair Company Supplement 53, Mead Public Library; Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture. Both by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.
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American furniture manufacturers of the early 20th century imitated a range of popular styles from the 1700s and early 1800s. The Phoenix Chair Company of Sheboygan produced a dining suite they dubbed “The Colonial.” The suite’s elaborately turned legs are reminiscent of the turnings on a ca. 1700 Boston armchair in the collection of the Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee.  

via: Phoenix Chair Company Supplement 53, Mead Public Library; Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture. Both by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.

“Revolutionary vet honored at Monroe by D.A.R. chapter,” 1928 The members of the Daughters of the American Revolution must be able to trace their ancestry to “patriots of the American Revolution.” The D.A.R. in Wisconsin—numbering 43 chapters and 2,761 members in 1927—placed markers at historically significant locations across the state. In 1928, the Colonel Benjamin Harrison Chapter of the D.A.R. in Monroe lauded Robert Bailey, one of a handful of Revolutionary War veterans buried in Wisconsin. In the 1950s, the Wau Bun Chapter of the D.A.R. undertook the restoration of the Fort Winnebago Surgeon’s Quarters, the only surviving building from the military garrison established at Portage in 1828. via: Wisconsin State Journal, September 27, 1928 by way of Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles, Wisconsin Historical Society visit: Fort Winnebago Surgeons’ Quarters, Portage, Wisconsin
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“Revolutionary vet honored at Monroe by D.A.R. chapter,” 1928

The members of the Daughters of the American Revolution must be able to trace their ancestry to “patriots of the American Revolution.” The D.A.R. in Wisconsin—numbering 43 chapters and 2,761 members in 1927—placed markers at historically significant locations across the state. In 1928, the Colonel Benjamin Harrison Chapter of the D.A.R. in Monroe lauded Robert Bailey, one of a handful of Revolutionary War veterans buried in Wisconsin. In the 1950s, the Wau Bun Chapter of the D.A.R. undertook the restoration of the Fort Winnebago Surgeon’s Quarters, the only surviving building from the military garrison established at Portage in 1828.

via: Wisconsin State Journal, September 27, 1928 by way of Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles, Wisconsin Historical Society

visit: Fort Winnebago Surgeons’ Quarters, Portage, Wisconsin

More than 300 persons … joined with the descendants of the aristocracy of pioneers in America in formally dedicating the site which played such an important part in the development of Wisconsin, and in paying tribute to that brave young woman, Juliette Kinzie, who brought her traditions of culture and refinement to the wilderness of Wisconsin.

The colonial revival inspired the preservation of several of the state’s earliest buildings. In 1932, the women of the Wisconsin chapter of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America—all descendants of early American colonial leaders—gathered in Portage to celebrate the completion of their restoration of the Indian Agency House. Built by the United States government in 1832, the Agency House was the home of John Kinzie, federally-appointed agent to the Ho-Chunk in the region, and his wife Juliette Kinzie.

via: Milwaukee Journal, October 23, 1932, by way of Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles, Wisconsin Historical Society

read more: Bertha A. Holbrook, “The Old Indian Agency House at Portage,” Wisconsin Magazine of History v. 29, no. 1 (1945)

visit: Historic Indian Agency House, Portage, Wisconsin

Best Loved women, 1937 In a tradition in place for several decades at Lawrence University in Appleton, the four senior women voted “Best Loved” by their classmates attended a banquet dressed in costume as George and Martha Washington and James and Dolly Madison. At the first “Best Loved” banquet in 1924, guests offered toasts to the Boston Tea Party, Valley Forge and the framing of the Constitution.  via: Lawrence University Archives Digital Collections read more: Judy Dixon, “Best Loved,” Lawrence University News Bureau, 1967 by way of Lawrence University Archives
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Best Loved women, 1937

In a tradition in place for several decades at Lawrence University in Appleton, the four senior women voted “Best Loved” by their classmates attended a banquet dressed in costume as George and Martha Washington and James and Dolly Madison. At the first “Best Loved” banquet in 1924, guests offered toasts to the Boston Tea Party, Valley Forge and the framing of the Constitution. 

via: Lawrence University Archives Digital Collections

read more: Judy Dixon, “Best Loved,” Lawrence University News Bureau, 1967 by way of Lawrence University Archives

Studio Tableau of Martha Washington’s Tea Party, ca. 1890 Americans have long been fascinated by the country’s colonial past. The historical foundations of the nation held a particular appeal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when many Americans viewed the rapid influx of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe as a threat to the American way of life.  Even in Wisconsin, where direct ties to Plymouth Rock and the Founding Fathers are tenuous, colonial revival sentiments inspired historic preservation efforts and influenced popular taste. In the 1890s in the Mississippi River town of Alma, photographer Gerhard Gessel portrayed his wife and her friends in his studio enacting “Martha Washington’s Tea Party,” dressed to the hilt in 18th century-style fashions. via: Wisconsin Historical Images WHi-25934, Wisconsin Historical Society read more: Mary Miley Theobald, “The Colonial Revival: The Past That Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal, Summer 2002
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Studio Tableau of Martha Washington’s Tea Party, ca. 1890

Americans have long been fascinated by the country’s colonial past. The historical foundations of the nation held a particular appeal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when many Americans viewed the rapid influx of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe as a threat to the American way of life. 

Even in Wisconsin, where direct ties to Plymouth Rock and the Founding Fathers are tenuous, colonial revival sentiments inspired historic preservation efforts and influenced popular taste. In the 1890s in the Mississippi River town of Alma, photographer Gerhard Gessel portrayed his wife and her friends in his studio enacting “Martha Washington’s Tea Party,” dressed to the hilt in 18th century-style fashions.

via: Wisconsin Historical Images WHi-25934, Wisconsin Historical Society

read more: Mary Miley Theobald, “The Colonial Revival: The Past That Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal, Summer 2002

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