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Local Centers/Global Sounds

The Mills Music Library and the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, along with many partners at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, present a growing collection of unique, historic, regional and endangered sound recordings with related documentation. These include recordings produced for immigrant, ethnic and indigenous audiences by American companies in the first half of the 20th century as well as more than 700 hours of original field and home recordings from the 1950s through the 1990s featuring the Upper Midwest’s culturally diverse traditional musicians.

Logan Museum of Anthropology

The Logan Museum of Anthropology houses over 300,000 archaeological and ethnographic objects from 123 countries. The objects made available through Recollection Wisconsin include bandolier bags, baskets, beadwork, bitten bark, and silver jewelry. Wisconsin and Upper Great Lakes tribal affiliations represented include Ojibwe, Menominee, Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi.

Lucille B. Chapman Collection on the Menominee

Photographs and postcards of the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin and of Shawano, Wisconsin, including landmarks such as Smokey Falls, Wolf River Dells, Rainbow Falls and Spirit Rock, 1914-1975. Also contained in this collection are four programs from pageants written, produced and performed by members of the Menominee Nation from 1955-1957.

Lumen

Viterbo University’s student newspaper, in print since 1954.

Madison Central High School Yearbooks

Sixty-nine volumes of The Tychoberahn, the yearbook for Madison’s Central High School, published between 1900 and 1969. Alternate titles include Orange and Black and Mirror Magazine.

Madison Living History Project

This growing collection of oral history interviews and images gathered from community members offers a snapshot of Madison neighborhoods, places, people and events. Featured neighborhoods include Greenbush and South Madison.

Madison Mozart Club Collection

The Madison Mozart Club was an all-white male amateur singing group formed in 1901 and disbanded in 1958. During that time, the group gave over 200 concerts throughout southern Wisconsin. They sang a broad range of music ranging from traditional choral pieces to negro spirituals, to popular music, and more. The Club was founded by John Simpson, a Norwegian immigrant, and Elias Bredin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison music professor. As a significant part of the Madison music scene during the 20th century, the Club consisted of several prominent Madisonians, including Edward A. Birge (President of UW-Madison: 1900-1903 and 1918-1925), Glen D. Roberts (law partner of Robert “Fighting Bob” LaFollette), and Frank A. Maxwell (Madison’s city treasurer).

Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association Reports

This digital collection of historic reports provides accessibility to early information about the City of Madison around the turn of the 20th century. The Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association Reports denote the moneys received and expended and work done by the Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association in order to attract attention to the city’s natural beauty and surrounding lakes. The impetus behind the association was that by making Madison’s natural surroundings more accessible, visitors would get a better idea of the magnificence of the location, and advantages of Madison as a summer resort or place of permanent residence.

Madison Trust for Historic Preservation Archives

This collection includes materials from the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation’s archives. For more information about this organization and its work to celebrate and advocate for the preservation of historic places in the Madison, Wisconsin area, visit their website.