Springtime, with the trees and gardens blossoming all around us, is a perfect time to remember Clarissa Munger Badger (1806-1889), the Madison artist and poet who excelled in the 19th-century world of botanical illustration. From 1859 to 1867, Clarissa’s watercolor folios, along with her original poetry, were published as color

Some of us will remember the scene in the 1967 film The Graduate where Dustin Hoffman’s character is taken aside while pondering his future career after graduation. He was cryptically advised to consider “one word — plastics.” One hundred years earlier, he might have received similar advice: “Ivory.” Traded for

The Madison Historical Society has an impressive collection of swords and sabers once proudly owned by Madison men from the 1770s to the late 1800s. They are still shiny, and some have embossed or inlaid designs on their blades. As military weapons, they illustrate the skill and artistry of their