Browse Items (99 total)

TMER&L - or The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company, emerged in 1896, in the wake of the economic crisis of 1893-95. Electric rail, also referred to as interurban or light rail, sought to replace horse-drawn trolley while also extending…

In October 1954, the U.S. Army sought farmland sites around Milwaukee to place the Army’s Nike Ajax Missile Battery. In March 1955, Waukesha became one of the eight communities in the area to receive one. Other nearby sites included Cudahy, Hales…

There have been numerous sports leagues in Waukesha, including the Business Men’s League, which awarded Johnnie’s Shoe Shine’s team this trophy in 1959. At the time, Johnnie’s was located at 348 West Main Street, although the shop had several…

Downtown Waukesha has been home to hundreds of shops and businesses. The Five Points intersection of Main, Broadway and Grand offered a central point that anchored the business corridor on the south side of the river. This collage of shopping bags…

This red rubber ball was a promotional item for the Crown Dairy Supply Company located at 324 W. College Ave., the previous location of the Clysmic Spring bottling plant. E.B. Schurts founded Crown Dairy in 1943, later working with Frank Ruhling to…

Waukesha was once home to Wisconsin’s state chick hatchery. Brothers, Frank and Herbert Kramer began raising chicks as young men, when their father served as superintendent of the Hoard’s Dairyman experimental farm in Fort Atkinson.
Relocating to…

These 25 pound tins contained HEMO plain and chocolate flavor malted milk made by the Thompson’s Malted Milk Company. Other products included Malted Food (dietary supplement for growing children), Malted Beef Peptone, Hemo Malted Milk, and Double…

The Sunlite Dessert Company manufactured gelatin products for institutions, hotels and hospitals. It went on to produce ice cream mixes and pectin products for making jams and jellies.

The company began in 1922 under the name Waukesha Jelly Powder…

These fluted aluminum molds were promotional items for “Jiffy Jell,” the flagship products of the Waukesha Pure Food Company. The molds, which were available in various shapes, were offered, for a nominal shipping fee, in a national promotion…

The Waukesha Mineral Product Company operated in the Dairy Stock Pavilion, the hub of dairy related activity, at 921 Barstow St. It produced feed for cattle, hogs, and poultry. Mineral feed, or fortified feed, was given to livestock in addition to…