The Thirty-Sixth Wisconsin Legislature convened from January 10, 1883, to April 4, 1883, in regular session.

This session also saw the implementation of an 1881 amendment to the Constitution of Wisconsin.

Senators representing odd-numbered districts were newly elected for this session and were serving the first two years of a four-year term.

Assembly members were elected to a two-year term.

[1] The governor of Wisconsin during this entire term was Republican Jeremiah M. Rusk, of Vernon County, serving the second year of a two-year term, having won election in the 1881 Wisconsin gubernatorial election.