Discovering the Wisconsin Historical Society's Flickr photostream, which includes photographs from Michael Lesy's book, "Wisconsin Death Trip"

Photograph of Carl and Roy Linnel by Charles Van Schaick (Wisconsin Historical Images ID: 29160). A copy of this photograph, eerily aligned with with a reversed image, is featured on the back cover of the 1973 edition of Michael Lesy's book, "Wisconsin Death Trip" (see below)

Normally, receiving a FlickrMail announcing that someone has made me their newest contact is a kind of ho-hum event. But when Jamie Engber made me one of his Flickr contacts on Tuesday, he inadvertently rocked my world. Let me explain…

When FlickrHQ emails the contact announcement, it includes links to the person's photostream, profile, and list of contacts so you can learn a little bit more about him. I've never met Jamie, but when I clicked on the link to Jamie's profile, I could see the "buddy icons" for some of his newest contacts, and knew I was in good company. In addition to one of the usual suspects, I saw a "buddy icon" labeled Wisconsin Historical Society. Curious to know who was using that moniker, I clicked through to that photostream.

Lo and behold! That's how I discovered the Wisconsin Historical Society has its own Flickr site – and based on the upload dates, it appears to have been launched prior to the terrific Library of Congress Flickr photostream. There was all manner of hoopla when the LOC Flickr photostream began, but this is the first time I've been aware of the WHS Flickr photostream. When I did a Google search for "Wisconsin Historical Society" and Flickr, I did find a comment from Madison's Practical Archivist, Sally Jacobs, on a January 2008 Archives Next post, noting that "…there hasn't been a lot of publicity about it,"

I hope I can change that situation a bit by publicizing the WHS Flicker photostream (hereafter referred to as WHSFP) in this post.

Right now, there are only a few hundred photos on the WHSFP, but its second-largest set is bound to thrill fans of Michael Lesy's "Wisconsin Death Trip," because it contains 141 of the photos featured in that book, originally published in 1973. Even without a lot of publicity, more than 11,000 people already have viewed this set.

Back cover of "Wisconsin Death Trip" with design referencing the photograph of Carl and Roy Linnel shown at the beginning of this post

Not only is this discovery great news in and of itself, but it's also brought me back to blogging – at least tonight. Himself, The Great Motivator, has given me several brilliant suggestions for blog posts he's certain will be even more popular than my current all-time SiteMeter-topper, "Eating Chinese Food on Christmas in Madison," but they all require more than a modicum of research, so they are still works in progress. At least now, I can direct Himself towards a great photographic playpen the next time he asks when I'm going to finish one of those posts.

And for all of this, I have Jamie Engber, a member of the Madison West High School Class of 1997 now living in LaLa Land, to thank. If you want to learn more about Jamie (or just wile away some time), there's lots of information out there on his MySpace page, on IMBd (he's been in a movie!), and, of course, his Flickr photostream. As for me, I'd rather spend my time making Himself happy…