MADISON – After two decades of planning, the vision for a new $120 million, 100,000-square-foot Wisconsin Historical Society museum in downtown Madison is taking shape, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
As that vision emerges, it’s clear that Wisconsin newspapers will play a prominent role in helping to tell the state’s history.
The “Laboratory of Democracy,” a themed gallery celebrating the state’s political heritage, will include a digital presentation on the gallery’s walls of newspaper headlines from the society’s archives — the second-largest in North America, surpassed only by the Library of Congress. Visitors will be able to choose from a variety of topics to explore, such as presidential elections.
The museum project had been stalled, but in early 2018, the state Department of Administration notified the Historical Society that if it could raise $50 million, the state would deliver the remaining $70 million for the museum, writes reporter Dean Mosiman. Gov. Tony Evers has included $70 million for the project in the proposed 2019-20 capital budget.
