Community Partner Snapshot
Wisconsin Historical Society
Address: 816 State Street, Madison WI
Website: www.wisconsinhistory.org
Contact Name: Kurt Griesemer, School Services Director
Email: kurt.griesemer@wisconsinhistory.org
Mission: The Wisconsin Historical Society helps people connect to the past by collecting, preserving
and sharing stories.
Target Population: Wisconsin schools, residents, and historians.
Current Programs: The Wisconsin Historical Society provides a wide range of services to the public. Their
library and archives are accessible to anyone pursuing research. The Museum Archaeology Program
actively engages in the identification and preservation of Wisconsin’s cultural resources through field
research. Additionally, the Society maintains a variety of historical sites around the state as well as the
Wisconsin History Museum in Madison. It also provides educators across the state with lesson material
and programs for a variety of ages.
Project Development Guidelines: The Wisconsin Historical Society is guided by the following principles:
to reach out and partner with the broadest possible public; to present and promote sound and authentic
history; to share our riches of staff, collections and services in ways that captivate and respect our many
audiences; to collect and safeguard evidence of our diverse heritage according to the highest standards
of stewardship.
Program-Design Needs: The Wisconsin Historical Society is working towards a future in which all
individuals, families, communities and institutions actively use history to understand their own stories
and the world around them, and to pass their heritage on to succeeding generations. New programs
should contribute to this goal and continue to expand their impact.
Neighborhood resources and community institutions:
Future Programs: Both membership fees and cooperate partnerships help fund the variety of services
offered by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Former HEX Projects:
Tangibly Accessing the Past (2006-2007)
Crystal Moten (Afro-American Studies, English)
Community partner: Madison East High School, The Wisconsin Historical Society
Crystal encouraged East High School students to think about new methods of looking at the past, using
primary materials (women's cookbooks from the Civil Rights era) from the Wisconsin Historical Society
to study black women's activism during the Civil Rights Movement. For a capstone project, students
published their own historical cookbook, having gathered recipes from family members.