The landscapes of the Midwest have been documented by many photographers during the past 150 years, but some may have not heard of the lovely work of one H.H. Bennett. Born in Farnham, Canada in 1843, Henry Hamilton Bennett moved to the town of Kilbourn City, Wisconsin (later renamed Wisconsin Dells), at the age of 14. After receiving a severe gunshot wound at the siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War, Bennett returned home to Wisconsin to begin a long and fruitful career in photography. His career began to develop right as the Wisconsin Dells were becoming a major tourist destination, and Bennett began to use the technique of stereoscopic photography to document the various rock and cave formations around the region. The Wisconsin State Historical Society has created this online archive of 650 of his photographs for the web-browsing public, and visitors will be delighted to browse through the collection. The collection itself is divided into topics such as Devils Lake, bridges, Milwaukee, steamboats, and of course, Wisconsin Dells rock formations.
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