In honor of Hmong Heritage Month 2021, we’re pleased to celebrate and share several Hmong collections shared by Recollection Wisconsin and our partner organizations. Hmong Heritage Month began in 2004 as an opportunity for Wisconsinites to reflect on the many sacrifices that the Hmong, or Hmoob, people have made in service to our country and… Read More…
Listening to War
Batter Up, Play Ball!
Many thanks to UW-Madison iSchool graduate student, Thalia Coombs, for her contribution to this exhibit! You may recall the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) from the 1992 film, A League of Their Own starring Geena Davis and Tom Hanks. Who will ever forget that “there’s no crying in baseball!” But did you know the… Read More…
New Recollection Wisconsin Collections
The most recent ingest of the Recollection Wisconsin collection into the Digital Public Library of American is complete and we’ve surpassed 600,000 historical photos, documents, and other resources in the collection! Among the additions this quarter are these two new collections: Listening to War brings together first-person accounts of veterans and civilians in Wisconsin during… Read More…
Finding Relevance in the Past
by Laura Jones, UW-Milwaukee SOIS My name is Laura Jones, and as a budding Library and Information Science graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, I was itching to get my hands on some materials in order to practice the skills and theories I’ve learned throughout my coursework. After the cancellation of several summer internships… Read More…
A Day to Remember
Veterans Day means a lot to me. It’s a day I take to reflect on my past and remember my experiences in the Army. When I look back, the main things I recall are the people I served with, the connections we made, and our experiences together. The past loses its meaning when we forget… Read More…
Oral Histories: Common Questions
In February I had the opportunity to speak at a meeting held by the Milwaukee County Genealogical Society to present Recollection Wisconsin as a resource for researchers and to explain our current Listening to War project. I opened the presentation with a story about my most vivid memories of Iraq and how this image helps… Read More…
NEH-funded “Listening to War” project: reflections and update
This is a photo of me taken on February 10th, 2003, in Kitzingen Germany, Larson Barracks. I am 21 years old, it is two days before my 22nd birthday, and I have been married for two months. I will arrive at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait on my 22nd birthday at 1am. I… Read More…
Recollection Wisconsin Staff Share Projects Around the State (and Beyond!)
We’ve been on the road this fall, promoting Recollection Wisconsin and our projects that champion digital stewardship of local history resources –- Curating Community Digital Collections (CCDC) and Listening to War: Digitizing Wisconsin’s Wartime Oral Histories. Here’s a recap of our adventures! We rolled into La Crosse, Wisconsin on October 24th for the 2018 Wisconsin… Read More…
NEH-Funded Project “Listening To War” Moves Forward
This spring, we shared the news of a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support our project Listening To War: Digitizing Wisconsin’s Wartime Histories. This initiative builds on the NEH-funded planning work we undertook in 2016-2017 to identify veterans’ oral history interviews in small and mid-sized libraries and historical societies… Read More…
NEH Grant Will Digitize, Share Wartime Oral Histories
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently announced $18.6 million in grants for 199 humanities projects across the country. “These new NEH-supported projects deepen our understanding and appreciation of the traditions, values, and historical figures who have shaped our country,” said NEH Senior Deputy Chairman Jon Parrish Peede. We are thrilled to share the… Read More…
Listening to War: Directory and oral history tip sheets
An important product of our yearlong NEH-funded planning project was a directory of the audiovisual collections we identified around the state. The directory, Wisconsin’s Wartime Oral Histories, is now available online. It includes descriptions of 35 A/V collections from 25 Wisconsin libraries, archives and museums. These oral history collections document Wisconsin residents’ experiences of World… Read More…
Interview with Dana Gerber-Margie
For the past year, Digital Archives Assistant Dana Gerber-Margie worked with WiLS and Recollection Wisconsin on the NEH-funded project, Listening to War: Uncovering Wisconsin’s Wartime Oral Histories to identify, inventory, and plan for the digitization and preservation of hidden, at-risk audiovisual collections across Wisconsin. This year-long planning project sought out oral history collections that capture… Read More…
The Arctic Fox Valley
Like my trip to La Crosse, I didn’t let a snowstorm keep me from a two-day trip to the Fox Valley region. The first day was clear and cold with a drive to the Arvid E Miller Memorial Library Museum, a repository for the Mohican Nation Stockbridge-Munsee Community. The next day, I conducted an inventory… Read More…
On the River: Oral Histories from La Crosse
Right after a snowstorm hit us on Saturday, I drove through subzero temperatures to spend a few days in La Crosse! La Crosse is a college town with a vibrant downtown right on the Mississippi River. I spent a full day at the La Crosse Public Library and the next day in the UW La… Read More…
Stories about Submarines
The Wisconsin Maritime Museum is yet another example of small staff museums doing big things to save its history. The museum is in a large space right off the Manitowoc River, off Lake Michigan. I had a lot to inventory, so unfortunately I had to bypass the exhibits and go straight to the archives. I… Read More…
Central Wisconsin: Four Organizations in Three Days
For my last post I talked about my trip to Stevens Point in central Wisconsin. Well, I must’ve liked it so much that I went back again to the center of the state. This time, I visited four institutions in four towns: Neillsville, Marshfield, Wausau, and Medford. The first leg of my trip was to… Read More…
Brisk Autumn Trip to Stevens Point
The end of October doesn’t just mean colorful leaves, warmer blankets and Halloween — it also means the Wisconsin Local History and Historic Preservation Conference! This year’s conference was held in Wisconsin Dells, which is kind of like one big pool party for families (it was a little too chilly for conference participants to partake… Read More…
Veterans’ stories from Green Bay and Two Rivers
My trip to the Green Bay area covered the most institutions I’ve visited so far in a single trip: over two days, I worked at the UW Green Bay Archives and Area Research Center, in downtown Green Bay at the Neville Public Museum of Brown County, and then at the Lester Public Library in Two… Read More…
A Superior Lake to Match a Superior Collection
At the end of August, I had the pleasure of making the long drive north from Madison to Superior, Wisconsin to visit the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center. I had never been so far north in Wisconsin before, so this was a real treat – and I had a great time, meeting quite lovely… Read More…
Finding Oral Histories in Eau Claire
As a proud new team member of Recollection Wisconsin, I’ll be writing a series of dispatches from my travels all over Wisconsin to find oral history collections at libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other memory organizations. I have this rare opportunity thanks to our NEH grant-funded yearlong project, Listening to War: Uncovering Wisconsin’s Wartime… Read More…
Introducing our NEH project
In March, we announced the news that we received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), as part of the Humanities Collections and Reference Resources category, to identify, inventory, and plan for the digitization and preservation of hidden, at-risk audiovisual collections across Wisconsin. More than a month into the grant, it’s time to… Read More…
RW receives NEH planning grant
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced $21.1 million in grants for 248 humanities projects. We are thrilled to share the news that among these is a $40,000 planning grant to WiLS, project manager for Recollection Wisconsin. Our NEH-funded project will identify, assess, and plan for the digitization of oral history interview recordings… Read More…
