Making Milwaukee Mighty
Manufacturing History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, "Make Milwaukee Mighty" was a slogan the city and its industries used in the 1920s.
Location, Location, Location
The City of Milwaukee is built where three major rivers join to form one of the best protected bays on the entire Great Lakes. Many railroads served the city and the first international passenger airliner in the United States flew out of the city. Combined with a growing workforce, including many immigrants, and the rich resources of the region, the city grew to be the tenth largest in the U.S. in the 1920s.
Made Milwaukee Famous
When your tagline is "The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous", you have to be first in our list of some of the local breweries. Schlitz started out like many others in Milwaukee, small, local and well-crafted. They seized upon opportunities though, like the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 which put that nearby city's beer production on the sidelines for a decade.
Live the High Life
Miller is the last of the large four breweries of Milwaukee still producing on large quantities at their location. Begun in 1855, Miller grew to be the largest in the city of Milwaukee partially due to its purchase by Philip Morris in 1969. Today it is owned by Molson Coors and brews some beers under contract, including Pabst.
Blue Ribbon Brewing
Jacob Best beginning his brewery in 1844, two years before the city of Milwaukee was formed. Jacob's grand-daughter married a steamship pilot by the name of "Captain" Frederick Pabst. Captain Pabst's flagship Pilsner style beer was rebranded as Pabst Blue Ribbon after it was awarded many ribbons and medals, including at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.
More Brewers Than Just the Majors
Cream City Brewing Company's rare poster, seen here, represents the "other guys" of Milwaukee's brewing history. The Falk's, Gettelman's, Jung's, Lake Brewery, John Beck, West Hill, Stock, Jacob Wind, Graf's and so many others that helped make the city famous in the quality and quantity of their fine beer.
Ice Cream Making in the Dairy State
In the 1920, half of the ten largest ice cream manufacturers were located in Milwaukee. This is a testament to the dairy production of Wisconsin and the ingenuity of the Milwaukee companies. Luick Ice Cream was the largest of them all. In an era before frozen shipping, they never grew beyond a regional output supplying many local ice cream parlors. They were also a full service dairy product delivering company.
The Original Food
Campfire Company of Milwaukee's tagline meant that it was a unique food concept, not that it was necessarily the first. They did pioneer many advances though. Growing from packaging in metal containers like this. To being the first in the 1920s to use a patented triple-quality with a wax lined cardboard box wrapped in cellophane, keeping the marshmallows fresh.
Baking a Better Desert
The Robert A. Johnston company was formed in 1899 and made delicious crackers, cookies and chocolates in Milwaukee until 1969. Some food companies based in the city have only grown. Like Gehl Foods which started as a small, traditional dairy 125 years ago.
Cleaning Milwaukee
Washing with soap does more than just get you visible clean, it helps reduce the spread of communicable diseases. Having such an iconic soap company as Palmolive being based in Milwaukee, almost certainly led to better washing habits. The city won national healthy citizen competitions frequently in the 1930s.
Made for Walking
When Prohibition arrived in 1919, the only two Milwaukee industries larger than brewing were the metal and leather factories. These men's shoes have never been worn and are from the F. Mayer Boot and Shoe Company of Milwaukee. Other tanneries and leather shops included Weinbrenner, Pfister, Vogel, Trostel and Gallun, with the industry peaking during WWI before most closed during the Great Depression. Less expensive leather was imported from South America and Australia at that time.
Growing Too Large for the City
The heart of Milwaukee's industry, the Menomonee River Valley, was already becoming too crowded by the end of the 19th century. In 1892, Patrick Cuday moved Cudahy Brothers' meat packing business out of the valley and south of the city to what is now the town of Cudahy, Wisconsin
A City of Factories
This factory of the National Enameling and Stamping Co in Milwaukee (NESCO) proves the city's industrious with the billowing smoke from the stacks. In the background can be seen one of the many navigable rivers that led to the busy Milwaukee harbor.
So Many Milwaukee Factories
Too many to list in fact. The Milwaukee Road machine shops, Allen Bradley Company, Bucyrus International, Briggs & Stratton, Johnson Controls, Master Lock, etc. had shown an ability to employee thousands of people and change product lines. This A. O. Smith Advertisement shows just that. Today the company is known for producing water heaters and small motors, not large trucks like this.
Cool Before Electricity
I large urban population requires food that cannot grow themselves. Preserving this food supply for future consumption has always been a challenge. Before quick freezing made it possible to enjoy fresh harvests months later, cooling in your home's ice box could at least lengthen the time to enjoy perishable foodstuffs. For this purpose, a large city needed a large ice supply, preferably local.
Connecting America
If not for Chicago's location at the bottom of Lake Michigan, Milwaukee might have become the hub for the north central United States. The harbor was ideal for shipping and passenger travel among the Great Lakes. The railways that served Milwaukee then interior lands of the booming country.
Harley-Davidson Motorcycles
After beer, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles is what most people think of when they hear "Milwaukee". This classic symbol of America unites people from all over the world every year for Harleyfest in Milwaukee. In the early years of the motorcycle, its speed thrilled visitors at motordrome's like that at Wonderland Park in Milwaukee.
Beautiful Parks of Milwaukee
The citizens of Milwaukee may love the city for all the jobs it provides, but visitors today marvel at the variety of parks just as they did in the early 20th century when Wonderland Park was an attraction just north of the city. The current and past parks of Milwaukee are a story by themselves.
Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear
Museum Curator:
Joel Willems
