In February 1961, the Madison City Farmers held a public meeting at the Dane County Fair, and thus, the Dane County Historical Society was born. DCHS started collecting archival material in 1968. In 2002, DCHS moved into the Lussier Family Heritage Center and established the Otto Schroeder Archives and Records Center. Many of our most significant collections are cataloged and available online. You can find the full online catalog by clicking here.
Below are the collections the DCHS has digitized and made available online to support researchers, students, and anyone interested in local history. Click any highlighted header to go to a separate page with more information.
Ferdinand L. Kronenberg
Architectural Drawings Collection
Front elevation of a building designed for Mr. C. Frautschi & Son.
The Kronenberg Collection, with over 1500 architectural drawings of Dane County buildings, is cataloged and accessible online, thanks to donations and funding from the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation and Michael Bridgeman.
Martin P. Schneider Architectural Drawings Collection
The Eleanor, designed by Schneider, is one of Madison’s unique triangular buildings.
Martin Schneider’s prolific body of architectural work includes designs in the most popular styles from the 1910s through the 30s. His designs include residential and commercial buildings, as well as many of today’s recognizable landmarks.
Madison Central High School Collections
The Madison Mirror
The Madison Mirror was the student newspaper for Madison’s Central High School. The paper ran from 1924 to 1969, producing a total of 575 issues. The school closed the same year.
Tychoberahn
In 1900, Central High School published the first Tychoberahn yearbook. The publication’s name combines two Indian words: “tah-hah,” meaning “lake,” and “tshopiwi,” referring to the four-lakes region around Madison, as given by the Ho-Chunk people. Alternate titles—such as Orange and Black and Mirror Magazine—appeared briefly in the 1930s.
Historic Madison Inc. Oral Histories
During the 1980s and 90s, Historic Madison Inc. conducted oral histories with prominent Madisonians, which are now digitized and available on DCHS’s YouTube Channel, providing valuable insights into local history.
Historic Madison Inc. Journals
The Journal of Historic Madison, Inc., Volumes I through XI
The Journal of the Four Lake Region, Volumes XII through XXV
Volume I 1975
Volume II
Volume III
Volume IV 1978
Volume V
Volume VI 1980-1981
Volume VII 1981-1982
Volume VIII 1982-1984
Volume IX 1985-1986
Volume X 1990
Historic Madison INDEX Volumes 1-10 1975-90
Volume XI 1993
Volume XII
Volume XIII 1996
Volume XIV 1997
Volume XV 1998
Volume XVI 1999
Volume XVII
Volume XVIII
Volume XIX 2004
Volume XX 2005
Volume XXI 2008
Volume XXII 2009-2010
Volume XXIII 2011-2014
Volume XXIV 2015-2019
Volume XXV 2020-2023
{Historic Madison Inc. Provided DCHS Permission to Publish These Materials.]
Cottage Grove Area Historical Society
Historical Pamphlets
The Beginnings of Cottage Grove, WI
Raising Tobacco in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, 1890-2009
Cottage Grove, Wisconsin: May 2009
From A Quiet Drumlin and the Glacial Drumlin Trail (1850-2010)
Do You Remember? The East Side of Main Street in the 1900s
Cottage Grove Railroad Station
Cottage Grove Village About 1900
The Early History of Flynn Hall
Cottage Grove Blacksmiths and Blacksmithing
Cottage Grove Faces Around 1900
The Three Lives of the Gaston School
The Farm That Named the Skaar Family
Cottage Grove Men in the Civil War
Cottage Grove’s Volunteer Fire Fighters (1911-2011)
Cottage Grove’s Presbyterian Churches 1846-1966
Hope: The German Settlement Along the Town Line
How the Two Cottage Groves Grew
They Served in the Pacific
Cottage Grove’s Country Stores and Garages
Philip Kearney Never Lived Here, But ____!
The Deer-Grove Emergency Medical Services 1979-2012
His Later Years: William R. Taylor, former Governor of Wisconsin
HORSEPOWER on the Road
The Transitioning of A School
Comets, Telescopes, and John Mellish
It’s Been Growing for Fifty Years
Julia Skolas, Professional Photographer (1863-1934)
Vilas: The Crossroads Where Cottage Grove Began
Cottage Grove Feed Mills
Laura’s Children
The West Side of Main Street
The East Side of Main Street
Stopping at the Beecher House in 1848
Cottage Grove Feed Mills
The Governor’s Early Years
The Governor Is In: William R. Taylor, Wisconsin Governor, 1874-1876
Tracing William C. Wells (1817-1884)
John Mellish’s Cottage Grove Years
The Farm That Named The Skaar Family
Cottage Grove’s Surface Waters
Cottage Grove Men in World War I
Cottage Grove Graded School in the 1930s
Charles Leslie and the Burwells
1916 “NEWS” (100 Years Ago)
Fowl Times In Cottage Grove
Vilas in the 1900s
Wild Visitors and Residents
The Transitioning of a School
[Cottage Grove Area Historical Society Provided DCHS Permission to Publish These Materials.]
Madison Mozart Club
The Madison Mozart Club was an all-white male amateur singing group formed in 1901 and disbanded in 1958. During that time, the group gave over 200 concerts throughout southern Wisconsin. They sang a broad range of music, from traditional choral pieces to negro spirituals to popular music and more.
Rick Burns Train Photograph Collection
CNW train 510 southbound crossing Lake Monona in June 1965 with the Capitol Building in the background. Courtesy of the Rick Burns Collection
The Rick Burns Train Photograph Collection comprises nearly 500 color slides of trains and train stations in and around Madison, taken between 1963 and 1967, while Rick was a student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Walter E. Scott Papers Collection
Cherokee Marsh
The Dane County Historical Society holds many of Walter E. Scott’s (1911-1983) papers. Scott, a well-known Madison naturalist, was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame in 1990. In addition, Scott was strongly committed to preserving local history and was one of the founders of Historic Madison, Inc.
Walter Scott assembled three scrapbooks of newspaper clippings about the early history of the public’s acquisition of Cherokee Marsh. The scrapbook’s first article, dated 1957, states that the initial conception of the 3,000-acre “Little Horicon Marsh” idea originated with the Dane County Conservation League. Some internal DNR memos are included in the Scrapbooks. It wasn’t long before Significant public land purchases came to fruition in the early 1960s, with key acquisitions made by the Wisconsin Department of Conservation (precursor to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) and the City of Madison.
To conclude, the final clipping is from a 1967 newspaper article discussing the purchase of land for Turville Park.
Interactive Maps
Dane County Historical Markers
The Dane County Historical Society’s Historical markers highlight significant people, places, and events in the County’s history. Since the program’s inception in 1963, DCHS has installed 48 markers throughout the County.
National Register of Historic Places
In Rural Dane County
The Dane County Historical Society has developed this interactive map to highlight the significant historic resources in rural Dane County. To provide additional context, each property on this map includes the National Register of Historic Places nomination form and photographs (when available). The nomination form includes an architectural description and a history of the property.
Genealogy
As a helpful tip, please note that genealogists seeking specific family information will typically not find much in our catalog. Instead, we suggest researchers check out the Dane County Register of Deeds.
The Dane County Register of Deeds has records for births, deaths, marriages, and land records specific to Dane County. Nevertheless, the Otto Schroeder Archives and Records Center houses several Dane County plat maps, atlases, and indexes, so we welcome interested researchers to examine them.
Should you have additional questions, please email the Dane County Historical Society at danecountyhistory@gmail.com with specific inquiries or to make an appointment.
That said, here are a few of our genealogical booklets and collections:
A Private Life: A Memoir by George Esser
A Private Life: A Memoir by George Esser – Index by Virginia Cox Nichols