[3] Founded in 1846 and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest historical society in the United States to receive continuous public funding.

With that in mind, some of Wisconsin Territory's early history-minded leaders began advocating in 1845 for creation of a state historical society.

[6]: 73–75 In January 1849, after Wisconsin became a state, interested parties met in the Senate chamber and revived the society, electing Governor Dewey as president and Increase A. Lapham as corresponding secretary, among other officers.

This iteration of the society arranged annual speeches and started a book collection, but didn't accomplish a lot because it still had no paid secretary.

The members chose Lyman Draper as corresponding secretary and adopted a new constitution which elaborated on the society's aim: The object of the Society shall be to collect, embody, arrange and preserve in authentic form a library of books, pamphlets, maps, charts, manuscripts, papers, paintings, statuary, and other materials illustrative of the history of the State, to rescue from oblivion the memory of its early pioneers and to obtain and preserve narratives of their exploits, perils and hardy adventures; to exhibit faithfully the antiquities and the past and present condition and resources of Wisconsin, and may take proper steps, to promote the study of History by lectures, and to diffuse and publish information relating to the description and history of the State.

[6]: 77–78 Unlike some other states, the founders decided that Wisconsin's historical society should not restrict its membership to elites, but should be open to anyone interested, if they paid their dues.

He hired assistants Annie Nunns, Mary Stuart Foster and Iva Welsh, who were so important to the Society that their long period of influence has been called "The Matriarchy."

Behind the colonade, in the base of the U, is a large reading room a full two stories tall, which was shared by the UW and the Historical Society.

Only one upright of the U was initially built, for lack of funds; it extended back from the south end of the base of the U and in the first years held the stacks of both the Historical Society and the UW.

[8] In 1907, as a result of the capitol fire, the legislature made the Historical Society responsible for preserving and distributing the records of the state.

Quaife was succeeded by Wisconsin native Joseph Schafer, who initiated a statewide historical survey modelled on the ancient English Domesday Book.

The Society Museum remained popular, but publications faltered, the Great Depression forced more budget cuts, and then in the early 1940s many of the old hands died or retired.

When the state began placing historical markers along roadsides to encourage tourism, the Society guided the project.

In 1952 the Society opened the Villa Louis to the public - the first of about a dozen permanent historic sites/living history museums sprinkled around the state.

After WWII, the society began collecting some materials at a national level, including archives from the McCormick family, NBC, and MTM Enterprises.

[7]: 72–80 In the 1970s the Society opened Old World Wisconsin, the living history museum which presents the farms and daily life of settlers of various ethnicities.

In 1980, with the Society's building bulging, it bought the Wolff, Kubly & Hirsig hardware store on Capitol Square and converted it to house the Museum, which moved there in 1986.

In 2001 the Society joined the nation-wide National History Day, in which students in grades six through twelve pick historical topics to research and create presentations on.

[3][11] The Wisconsin Historical Society's extensive newspaper collection is the second largest in the United States after the Library of Congress.

[4] The society coordinates an Area Research Center Network, an alliance between the Historical Society in Madison and four-year campuses of the University of Wisconsin System throughout the state and the Northern Great Lakes History Center in Ashland, to make most of the archival collections accessible to state residents.

The society's website include a large, searchable collection of historical images and a vast digital archive containing thousands of scanned documents relating to Wisconsin history.