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Appleton is a city on the Fox River in northeastern Wisconsin and serves as the county seat of Outagamie County, with small portions also extending into Calumet and Winnebago counties.

Appleton was settled in 1847 as three separate villages along the Fox River — Grand Chute, Appleton, and Lawesburg — which merged in 1853 into the single incorporated Village of Appleton.

Appleton was incorporated as a city on March 2, 1857, with Amos Story as its first mayor.

Appleton took its name from Samuel Appleton, a New England benefactor who never visited Wisconsin but donated $10,000 to the library of the newly founded Lawrence college.

Appleton is home to Lawrence University, founded in 1847 and chartered that year, which has admitted women since its first day of classes on November 12, 1849, making it the oldest coeducational college in Wisconsin.

Appleton's first paper mill was built in 1853, and the paper industry powered by the Fox River drove the city's growth for more than a century.

Appleton made world history on September 30, 1882, when the Vulcan Street Plant on the Fox River began operation as the nation's first hydroelectric central station, and the Hearthstone House became the first residence in the world lit by a centrally located hydroelectric station using the Edison system.

Appleton was the childhood home of escape artist Harry Houdini, whose family settled there in 1878, and the city honors him with Houdini Plaza downtown, a Houdini exhibit at the History Museum at the Castle, and a Houdini Elementary School.

Appleton was home to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edna Ferber, who moved there at age 12, and actor Willem Dafoe was born in Appleton in 1955 and attended Appleton East High School.

Appleton counted 75,644 residents in the 2020 census, making it the sixth-most populous city in Wisconsin, and Census Bureau figures for 2020–2024 put it at about 31,030 households with an owner-occupied housing rate of about 67%.