Reviews of Books

Abstract

In this first comprehensive guide to Wisconsin's Territorial and State archives, David J. Delgado describes 87 record groups in the possession of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Further divided into subgroups and then guide entries, the records range in date from 1836 to the 1960's, amount to approximately 20,000 cubic feet, include both processed and unprocessed units, and are housed in the historical building, the eight Area Research Centers, and other locations.Each record group, which generally corresponds to an active or defunct unit of government, is introduced by a short agency or departmental history, sketching origin, function, and major organizational realignments reflected in the records. The entries are given a unique identification in the guide by unbroken numbering from 1 in record group 1 through 1,249 in record group 87. The index references are by entry number, with correlation to the repository's reference tools achieved by the inclusion of catalog numbers.The entries, tailored as overviews rather than as detailed analyses, provide dates, record types, pertinent cross references to other entries, status (unorganized, restricted, etc.), major emphasis, and quantity, which is expressed variously in boxes, volumes, packages, folders, and cubic feet. Although there is little additional descriptive material, the subject matter is usually implicit in the skeleton revealed by introductions to the record groups, definitions of functions, and listings of record types.The ambitious guide, which demonstrates again the quality and scope of the institution producing it, will be followed by more intensive descriptions of all major record groups. In the meantime, the path has been mapped for those who would explore a rich source of State, regional, and national history.

To “Lure On the Gentle Reader”

“…And of so glittering an aspect is even the first tentative advance of Progress that it casts into gloom all that which had been light before." 30 This notion of "progress" served a dual purpose for Kent: as a foil against which the author could level his critiques of capitalism and modernity; and as a reason to disregard any aspects of Greenlandic culture or society that conflicted with his views of communal life. Kent did stress that what separated Greenlanders from the West was not race, writing that "All races are created equal" and that the Greenlandic People were "equivalent to us."…”