“Amid wonderful illustrations and photographs, Jerry Apps has added beautiful prose about barns and the people who built and used them. This updated Barns of Wisconsin is a real treasure and presents a wonderful historical perspective on a state icon.” - Larry Meiller, Wisconsin Public Radio
“More than a book about barns, Apps offers us a unique lens through which to view the rich textures and constant changes in Wisconsin rural life. Barns of Wisconsin is as lovingly crafted as the iconic structures that are its subject. This new edition helped me discover more about my own barns and more fully imagine the lives of those who built them.” - Dena Wortzel, Executive Director, Wisconsin Humanities Council
“Jerry Apps’ new edition of Barns of Wisconsin is outstanding! In this new book Jerry systematically examines many aspects of barns—from their origins to their adaptations for continuing use. His approach will be interesting and informative to the barn owner, the history buff and the preservationist. The inclusion of abundant color photographs to back up the text makes the book doubly interesting. Barns of Wisconsin will also be a useful reference for preservation groups all over North America and a model for future publications. I’m glad I have a copy.” - Bill Kimball, professor emeritus, Michigan State University, and active member of the Michigan Barn Preservation Network and the National Barn Alliance
“In Apps’s Barns of Wisconsin each barn is a book with its own stories to tell, every drive in the country is a trip to the library.” - Doug Miller, Executive Director, Folklore Village
“Jerry Apps brings these old barns back to life and keeps them breathing by telling their stories. They are all unique representations of the many different heritages that were brought to Wisconsin, such as the German designed stone barn in the Town of Chase. Jerry gives these old barns a voice and takes you back in time to experience the hardships and joys of life on the farm as if you were there.” - Christopher Jaworski and Kristin Kolkowski, Chase Stone Barn Committee
“This authoritative work integrates the settlers, crops, types of construction and even geology into a comprehensive story of Wisconsin’s barns. Unlike most books that focus on the 1870-1920 golden age of barns, author Jerry Apps takes the reader from the ethnic barns at the period of settlement to the utilitarian structures of today’s mega dairies—from when Wisconsin was the largest wheat producing state to the present when it is synonymous with cheese. An excellent treatment of the round barn phenomenon will answer the “why” of their short-lived popularity." - Charles Leik, president of the National Barn Alliance and founder of thebarnjournal.org
“Barns are the ‘heartbeat’ of a farm family's heritage, values, and dreams. Jerry Apps has captured their stories and the need for preservation.”—Dr. Clarence C. Olson, Emeritus Professor, University of Wisconsin Dairy Science
Jerry Apps is professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the author of many books on rural history and country life, including "Old Farm: A History" and "Horse-Drawn Days: A Century of Farming with Horses." Jerry was born and raised on a small farm in Waushara County, Wisconsin, where he spent countless hours working in the barn, milking and feeding cows, helping to store hay in the haymow, and appreciating the barn’s importance to the life of a farm.
Steve Apps is an award-winning photojournalist with twenty-five years in the newspaper industry. As a "Wisconsin State Journal" staff photographer he has covered a wide range of assignments including the Green Bay Packers and University of Wisconsin–Madison sports. In 2008 he received the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s prestigious Dave Boss Award of Excellence; his photo “First Down” was selected as Photograph of the Year for the 2007 season. In his off-time Steve loves to travel the state documenting Wisconsin and all its beauty, including farmsteads and barns.