The Thirty-Eighth Wisconsin Legislature convened from January 12, 1887, to April 15, 1887, in regular session.

[1] 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.

Senators representing even-numbered districts were serving the third and fourth year of a four-year term, having been elected in the general election of November 4, 1884.

[1] The governor of Wisconsin during this entire term was Republican Jeremiah M. Rusk, of Vernon County, serving his third two-year term, having won re-election in the 1886 Wisconsin gubernatorial election.