Date in History: 1940s
The Mary Hoard Art Show, which opens at the Hoard Museum this Sunday, is being sponsored by NASCO International of Fort Atkinson. NASCO – or the National Agricultural Supply Company – started here in 1941 when Norman Eckley, a Fort Atkinson ag teacher at the high school, created some teaching aids to use in his class. He realized that other teachers were in need of similar products, so he put together a brief catalog of his educational materials.
In 1946 Hugh Highsmith and Leo Roethe purchased the new agricultural supply company and expanded the business, adding new lines of educational products. Today, NASCO offers over 60,000 products through their mail order catalogs and continues to be a convenient source of educational material for teachers.
This historic document aired on the radio as an Historic Minute on 04/12/2004.