Michael E. Stevens, Author, Historian and PLATO President will discuss his book that explores the migration experience to this state.

  This lecture is free to the general public.

Free enclosed parking.  

Registration is not required.
    

Lecture Description

 Between the mid 1830s and the 1850s, nearly three quarters of a million people moved to Wisconsin.  The Making of Pioneer Wisconsin;  Voices of Early Settlers,  tells the migration experience through the words of ordinary people, How did it feel to decide to move, adapt, and create a new society?  Meet an excited young man who is delighted by the abundance of food in Wisconsin, or a teenaged girl who missed her schoolmates, or immigrants who worried about their children forgetting their old language.  It is easy to think of the first generation of settlers as stiff, cardboard figures as they appear in their portraits. By exploring their joys, sorrows, and humor, we come to understand their lives and even a title more about our own.

ISBN: 978-0-87020-889-8, Published by Wisconsin Historical Society Press

Michael E. Stevens

Michael Stevens is Wisconsin State Historian Emeritus.  Stevens retired from the Wisconsin Historical Society in 2013,  He holds a Ph.D in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has published 15 books and more than 30 articles.  Since his “retirement,” Stevens has continued to research and write history.  He has taught at Marquette Unversity as a visiting history professor.

Stevens serves on the Fitchburg Landmarks Commission and a federal commission advising the National Park Service, and has been an on-screen narrator and consultant for C-SPAN and is currently President of PLATO.  His most recent book, The Making of Pioneer Wisconsin:  Voices of Early Settlers, was published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press in October 2018.

Location & Parking Instructions: 

Lecture Location:

Oakwood Village University Woods Auditorium/Arts Center  
6205 Mineral Point Road    
Madison, Wisconsin 53705    
608-230-4427  
www.oakwoodvillage.net  

 
Free parking is available in designated spaces at Oakwood Village - University Woods outdoors & underground. 

To access underground parking:

• Enter at the stoplight on Mineral Point Rd.; take the left fork & go to the SECOND driveway on the right.  Look for the sign indicating parking. 
• Press the button located next to the garage door to speak to attendant; say you are there for a PLATO Lecture.
• Park in any available Visitor space.

Questions?   Contact information: Aleta Murray, a-murray@sbcglobal.net.