The Recollection Wisconsin program was established in 2005 as a collaborative effort of Wisconsin libraries, archives, museums and historical societies. From 2005-2012, the program was known as Wisconsin Heritage Online (WHO). In August 2016, Recollection Wisconsin joined the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).
For a full account of our recent history, read our Annual Reports from 2013 through the present.
The founding mission of Wisconsin Heritage Online was to inspire education and discovery by making Wisconsin’s cultural heritage available to the public via the World Wide Web.
Initial goals of the program:
- Expand access to content digitized by Wisconsin’s cultural heritage institutions
- Encourage and facilitate digitization through availability of support, training, and hosting services
- Maintain the infrastructure to support digital collaboration
- Provide for content to be accessible from one place
- Assure that content is adequately indexed
- Develop and maintain shared standards for metadata
Early program materials:
Digital Exploratory Committee handouts (2004)
Wisconsin Heritage Online brochure (2009)
About Our Name
Recollection is the act of remembering or recalling to mind. Re-collection means collecting, gathering or assembling again. The name Recollection Wisconsin reflects what we do: our program “re-collects” historical resources from collections across the state into a single, virtual access point. By gathering these diverse materials together, we offer new ways to explore and understand Wisconsin’s history and create opportunities for people to make personal connections to the past.
Read more about the story behind our name and why we transitioned from Wisconsin Heritage Online to Recollection Wisconsin or find out more about the images used in our logo.
