Name: 37th Annual Local History Series
Start: 2025-10-06T17:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-10-06T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Brown County Library (Central Library)

James Madison Lecture
The Pursuit of Happiness
with Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia
Reception: 5 - 6 PM
Punch and culinary delights will be served.
Lecture: 6 - 7 PM
The Declaration of Independence identified “the pursuit of happiness” as one of our unalienable rights, along with life and liberty. Rosen profiles six of the most influential founders— Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton—to show what pursuing happiness meant in their lives.
Copies of Rosen’s book, The Pursuit of Happiness, will be available for purchase.
Jeffrey Rosen is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for the New Yorker.
The James Madison Lecture Series is presented by the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Center for the Study of the American Constitution at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Brown County Library is proud to host this James Madison Lecture as part of our 37th Annual Local History Series.
**The James Madison Lecture is presented in partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society**
** The Local History Series is proudly supported by the Friends of the Brown County Library**
All other Local History Series Lectures will be on Thursdays from 6:30 – 7:45 PM
Thursday, October 16, 6:30 – 7:45 PM
ANCIENT EFFIGY MOUND LANDSCAPES OF THE UPPER MIDWEST
Robert A. Birmingham, Wisconsin State Archaeologist 1989 - 2004
The Late Woodland people of the Upper Midwest used the topography and other natural features to create vast ceremonial landscapes. The effigy landscapes of this region are unique. Beautiful photography of the effigy mounds of the Upper Midwest, largely concentrated in Wisconsin, will accompany this program.
Robert A. Birmingham will present material which is included in the recently published book, Ancient Effigy Mound Landscapes of Upper Midwestern North America (Nov. 2024). Birmingham co-authored this work along with current Wisconsin State Archaeologist, Amy L Rosebrough. Bob Birmingham served as the Wisconsin State Archaeologist from 1989 - 2004, finishing his career teaching Anthropology at UW-Waukesha.
Thursday, October 23, 6:30 – 7:45 PM
ALDO LEOPOLD AND CONSERVATION IN GREEN BAY
with David J. Voelker, Ph.D., Frankenthal Family Professor of History and Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
Aldo Leopold’s participation in state-level conservation policymaking and citizen groups made him well-known to conservation-minded citizens in the Green Bay area. Learn about his influence and guidance on projects begun in this area in the 1930s and individuals connected to the projects.
In addition to teaching early U.S.-American history, David J. Voelker, Ph.D., teaches courses in environmental history and environmental humanities. He completed the Land Ethic Leaders program at the Aldo Leopold Foundation in 2013.
Thursday, October 30, 6:30 – 7:45 PM
UNWANTED IN A WHITE MAN’S WAR: THE CIVIL WAR SERVICE OF THE GREEN BAY TRIBES
with Russell Horton Wisconsin Veterans Museum Archivist
“The Menominee, Oneida and Stockbridge-Munsee nations had been pressured by government officials to abandon many of their traditional ways. . . Yet in spite of this treatment by the government, these three tribes provided a total of almost three hundred volunteers -- over eight and a half percent of their combined populations. Why would these people risk their increasing loss of land, traditions and overall way of life?” Excerpted from his article in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, Volume 88, Winter 2004-2005. Russell Horton will provide information on his study of Native American service in the Civil War.
Russell Horton is Reference and Outreach Archivist at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison. He has held this position since 2001. The Wisconsin Magazine of History published his Senior Honors Thesis which received the William Best Hazeltine award for the best original article of the year.
Thursday November, 13 6:30 – 7:45 PM
A GLIMPSE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
by Ken Burns in cooperation with PBS Wisconsin
The American Revolution, a twelve-hour series on America’s founding struggle directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, presents the story of the men and women of the Revolutionary generation, their humanity in victory and defeat, and the crisis that they lived through. This program will preview The American Revolution series, which begins on Sunday, November 16 on PBS Wisconsin.
Doug Kiel, Ph.D., Associate Professor of American History, Northwestern University, will offer comments post-program on the Iroquois Confederation in the governmental structure of the
United States.
The Brown County Library is again honored to work with PBS Wisconsin in their efforts to provide educational and entertaining programming to the residents of Wisconsin.