As part of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, musicians from across the United States met for a music festival. Their common desire to encourage music education led to the formation of the National Federation of Music Clubs in 1898. The group was organized first on a national level; after which each state was organized by a vice president. In 1912 Mrs. Herbert Stapleton, the Wisconsin vice president conceived of the idea of a state federation. Her efforts culminated in an organizational meeting in Milwaukee on January 25, 1916, attended by leading citizens interested in music including such notables as Dr. David Mannes, Dr. Charles Mills, Peter Dykema, and Madame Schumann-Heink. The purpose of the state federation was to bring together groups for the encouragement of musical education and the maintenance of musical standards. From ten local clubs in 1916, the federation grew to 180 clubs with over 5,000 members in 1957. These were organized into 40 senior clubs, 20 senior associates, two schools of music, 24 church choirs, and 84 junior clubs.
The activities of the Wisconsin Federation of Music Clubs were many and varied. They sponsored contests and scholarships for promising young state musicians and composers, and were responsible for a state supervisorship of music in the schools. The federation worked for music credits in public schools, music shelves in public libraries and higher standards for church music. In 1931 it began an annual Little Theatre Project at the state fair which grew into a cultural program on a Milwaukee radio station. In addition, the Wisconsin Federation of Music Clubs organized a project to collect materials on folk music, particularly that of Wisconsin.
Its most ambitious undertaking was the Musical Equipment for Servicemen Project which began in December, 1941. Entirely through volunteer efforts the committee collected instruments, records, and sheet music for U.S. servicemen around the world. In 1944 the work was expanded into the Music in Hospitals Project which continued as a permanent project after the end of the war to bring musical entertainment to the hospitals of the state.
