Jim Draeger

Enjoy summer and discover Wisconsin history with author talks with the Wisconsin Historical Museum, the last Thursdays in June, July and August, on the 30 on the Square plaza. Free! Books will be available for purchase at the talks.

Rain location: Wisconsin Historical Museum, 30 N. Carroll St.

Bottoms Up: A Toast to Wisconsin's Historic Bars and Breweries, with Author Appearance by Jim Draeger.

Celebrate Wisconsin's taverns and the breweries that fueled them with Bottoms Up author Jim Draeger. Beginning with inns and saloons, Draeger explores the rise of taverns and breweries, the effects of temperance and Prohibition, and attitudes about gender, ethnicity, and morality. "Bottoms Up" traces the development of the megabreweries, dominance of the giants, and the emergence of microbreweries. Contemporary photographs of unusual and distinctive bars and breweries of all eras, historical photos, postcards, advertisements, and breweriana illustrate the story of how Wisconsin came to dominate brewing and the place that bars - and beer hold in our social and cultural history.

Fans of the book Bottoms Up will love the companion documentary produced by Wisconsin Public Television, Bottoms Up: Wisconsin's Historic Bars and Breweries.

Jim Draeger is an architectural historian and the State Historic Preservation Officer at the Wisconsin Historical Society with more than twenty-five years of historic preservation experience. From roadside architecture to Northwoods resorts, Draeger celebrates the importance of ordinary buildings to our daily lives through his research, writing, and lectures.