December 11th, 2010 | by Amelia Klem Osterud | published in Big Top Wisconsin, Engage WI, Your Stories
“With research like mine, there’s always something left to do, some fact left to dig up. I sit at my desk, surrounded by pictures of tattooed women that I’ve collected, and think about what else out there I think I need to find. My first new task: Betty Broadbent’s birth certificate.” Amelia Klem Osterud completes her blog series with EngageWisconsin this week, thinking about the journey she continue to to take with the Tattooed Lady.
December 4th, 2010 | by Amelia Klem Osterud | published in Best of Engage WI, Big Top Wisconsin, Engage WI, Your Stories
Amelia Klem Osterud is back for another week of Big Top Wisconsin blogging. — “Why do people get tattooed? Very seldom are the tattooed aware of the true motives responsible for their visits to the tattooers.” So begins Albert Parry’s 1933 book Tattoo: Secrets of the Strange Art as Practiced by the Natives of the United States.
November 27th, 2010 | by Amelia Klem Osterud | published in Best of Engage WI, Big Top Wisconsin, Engage WI, Your Stories
In 1931, tattooed lady Ada Mae Vandermark commented, “When people ask me how come I’m a tattooed lady, I tell ’em it’s because I love Art…And that’s true, too—up to a certain point…I mean, I like to eat regular.”
November 20th, 2010 | by Amelia Klem Osterud | published in Big Top Wisconsin, Engage WI, Your Stories
When I read for enjoyment, I read mysteries. I love a good mystery novel- I always have. One of the first “real” books I read was The Secret of the Old Clock, the first of the Nancy Drew mysteries. My mom bought it for me when I was in the second grade. I soon devoured [...]
November 6th, 2010 | by Amelia Klem Osterud | published in Big Top Wisconsin, Engage WI, Your Stories
Bernard Kobel is a well-known name when it comes to pictures of tattooed people- many of the images published in popular tattoo books today come from Kobel’s “collection.” Kobel had a thriving mail order business for years selling photographs of tattooed people, sideshow freaks, and other shocking images, complete with catalogs with cryptic descriptions. Amelia Klem Osterud brings us inside Kobel’s mail order business and photo studio.
October 30th, 2010 | by Amelia Klem Osterud | published in Big Top Wisconsin, Engage WI, Your Stories
When I started my research back in 2002, I had no idea how much the circus impacted 19th century Americans. If you’re at all interested in how Victorians entertained themselves, you have to look at the circus. City-dwelling Americans at the end of the 19th century had steady access to some forms of entertainment, but for the rest of the country, entertainment options were pretty limited.
October 23rd, 2010 | by Amelia Klem Osterud | published in Big Top Wisconsin, Engage WI, Your Stories
Amelia Klem Osterud shares the stories of Irene Woodward and Nora Hildebrandt, the first two ladies to become “tattooed ladies,” or at least, performing tattooed ladies. These Victorian-era women were modern in both profession and marriage.
October 16th, 2010 | by Amelia Klem Osterud | published in Big Top Wisconsin, Engage WI, Your Stories
In July of 1995, my two best friends and I got in the car and headed out to Madison. I had an appointment with someone named Brian at Steve’s Tattoos that afternoon for my very first tattoo. Why though, were three Milwaukee ladies driving to Madison for this? Because in the summer of 1995, tattooing was still illegal in Milwaukee.
October 9th, 2010 | by Amelia Klem Osterud | published in Best of Engage WI, Big Top Wisconsin, Engage WI, Your Stories
Follow Engage Wisconsin’s newest blogger Amelia Klem Osterud, a circulation librarian at Carroll University (Waukesha, Wisconsin) and author of The Tattooed Lady: A History. Over the coming weeks, Amelia will share stories behind, her passion for, and researched knowledge of “tattooed ladies of the circus”.
