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Kenosha County History: Images and Texts, 1830s-1940s

Kenosha County is situated in the most southeastern part of Wisconsin adjoining the Illinois State border. Beginning in 1835 settlers arrived from New York and New England, making Kenosha County and City the southernmost settlement in the state. From 1835 through the 1880s the region's main commercial activity was agriculture. In the 1870s the County and City barely survived a local depression, which stifled industrial growth. By 1890 industrial expansion had greatly improved in the City and County with continued growth until the Great Depression of the 1930s. The C.E. Dewey Lantern Slide Collection contains images of this time period from the 1830s to the early 1940s. The eight books chosen for this collection represent the early days of European-American settlement in Kenosha County, document the history of Racine and Kenosha Counties, and profile prominent residents. This project was funded by a 2008 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant.