Last winter, this ornate turn-of-the-20th-century room was a scaffolded renovation in progress. Now it’s Madison’s classiest place to read or study. An April 23-24 open house will celebrate the new look. What and where is this room? Photo challenge answers are due by next Monday (how to play the challenge).
Last week’s challenge asked about Unseen Madison hero Charles E. Brown (Charlie, as he was affectionately known). Name a Madison effigy mound and Brown likely had a hand in saving it from development. From 1908 to 1944 he recorded and preserved mounds and archaeological sites throughout the state as museum director of the state historical society. For 40 years he was secretary of the Wisconsin Archeological Society, which he founded in 1903.
Charlie Brown also studied Ho-Chunk cultural traditions. Because Ho-Chunks (among other modern tribes) are probable descendants of the mound builders, Brown helps us understand Wisconsin’s effigy mound landscape. Ho-Chunks in Madison were frequent visitors to Brown’s home, and Brown heard tribal stories by visiting Ho-Chunk friends camped on Lake Wingra (some families camped there seasonally until the 1920s). Learn more about Charles Brown in our Dead Lake Ridge podcast.
Unseen Madison 
April 12, 2010 at 10:28 pm |
That’s the main atrium at the Wisconsin Historical Society Library on the UW campus. In grad school, I used to read some books for classes that were on reserve in that library because I was too cheap to buy them. 🙂
April 12, 2010 at 10:59 pm |
This is a photograph of the Reading Room at the Wisconsin State Historical Society Library located on Library Mall on the UW Campus between Memorial Union, Memorial Library, and the Humanities building (address is 816 State St). The reading room was originally built in 1900. It’s an absolutely beautiful space since the renovation.