Documents

Pamphlets, conference proceedings, reports, studies, sheet music, recipes, marriage records, military service records and other records.

Alan Williams Collection

This collection of four scrapbooks with photographs, postcards, documents, and booklets was donated to the Angie W. Cox Public Library by Alan Williams in July 2022. Alan Williams’ father, Payson (P. K.) Williams, was the cousin of Pardeeville Public Library’s founder Angie Williams Cox. He is the grandson of Charles Harvey (C. H.) Williams, who was the founder of the Pardeeville Times newspaper. His great-uncle, Robert Thompson, was the publisher of the Crank newspaper.

Americana Sheet Music

The Americana Sheet Music Collection database was developed to provide bibliographic access to the Americana Collection of sheet music, one of the special collections of the Mills Music Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Some records for selected compositions have associated images of the scanned sheet music. Over time additional images may be added to the collection.

Anne Bassett Kelley Collection

Anne Bassett Kelley (Beloit College class of 1907), known as Nan, became a missionary teacher in China. Her great niece donated an extensive collection of Kelley’s correspondence from China during 1919-1923 as well as letters from her adopted daughter in China to Kelley and other family members, dating from the 1940s through the 1990s. The digital collection currently includes Kelley’s 1919-1923 letters.

Barneveld Local History Collection

Barneveld Local History Collection

This collection spans more than a century of Barneveld’s history, from early settlement through the devastation of the 1984 tornado and the rebuilding effort. Content includes books, photographs, video, business and village records, and personal scrapbooks and memorabilia.

Beloit Relays

From the 1930s through the 1970s, Beloit College hosted track and field events for athletes from more than 50 colleges and universities. This digital collection contains images of cover pages from the official Beloit Relays program booklets as well as photographs of some of the Beloit athletes who took part in the events.

Brandon Times

A local newspaper from Brandon, Wisconsin, dating back to the 1800s with search results presented in original format/context.

Brown County War History Committee Records

After World War I ended in 1919, the Brown County War History Committee interviewed 1,721 local soldiers and their families about their wartime service. They collected a wealth of personal, family and military information, including hundreds of photographs and original letters. The collection is owned by the Neville Public Museum of Brown County and housed at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Area Research Center.

Brown Deer Local History

Materials documenting the history of the Village of Brown Deer including brochures, booklets, pamphlets, photographs, unpublished reports and full issues of the Brown Deer Historical Society Newsletter, published quarterly since 1973.

Chippewa Valley History

Publications including Eau Claire city directories 1880-1923, Eau Claire high school yearbooks 1900-1923, Eau Claire area histories, Wisconsin county histories and various periodicals published in Eau Claire in the early 20th century.

Daniel Klapproth World War II Photographs and Letters

Daniel Klapproth was a soldier and a Somers, Wisconsin native who was stationed in Panama during the Second World War. This collection consists of photographs taken by Daniel during his military service, as well as letters written by Daniel to his mother in Wisconsin.

Dr. James Cameron Pamphlet Collection

Thirty-eight self-published pamphlets by civil rights activist Dr. James Cameron (1914-2006). Dr. Cameron was the founder of America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee. Topics addressed in the pamphlets include slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, lynching, the Ku Klux Klan, the civil rights movement and Milwaukee police/community relations.

Ecology and Natural Resources Collection

Ecology and Natural Resources Collection

Research in ecology and natural resources conducted by University of Wisconsin faculty and staff and unique or valuable resources in these fields held by the University of Wisconsin Libraries. Sub-collections include unpublished works from the UW-Madison Arboretum, Crandon Mine and Kennecott Flambeau Mine reports, the Geology of Wisconsin Survey of 1873-1883, USGS topographic maps, technical bulletins from the Wisconsin DNR, slides and recordings of lectures by plant ecologist Virginia M. Kline and Wisconsin Bordner Survey maps.

Eldon Murray Papers

Eldon Murray was a prominent activist in the Milwaukee LGBT community. In addition to his work with the Gay Peoples Union (GPU) and the Milwaukee AIDS Project, Murray was the founder of SAGE/Milwaukee, the first organization in Wisconsin dedicated to serving the needs of older gay, lesbian, and bisexual people through community building and counseling services. The digital collection includes selections from the Eldon Murray Papers, including an extensive series of newspaper clippings from the 1940s to the 1970s, photographs, fiction and nonfiction writings, activist organization records, and a handful of publications.

Eugene Walter Leach Collection

Papers of Walter Eugene Leach (1857-1938), curator of the Racine County Museum. Included are biographical materials on notable Racine residents and Leach’s writings on Racine County history, including chapters of his unpublished manuscript “The Story of Racine County, a History.” There are also records of the Racine Senate, 1844-1851, and the Racine Relief Association, 1883-1898.

Evansville, Wisconsin Collection

Evansville, Wisconsin Collection

The digital collection of materials from the Eager Free Public Library History Room includes Rock County, Wisconsin plat books from 1891, 1904, and 1917. Evansville was settled in 1839 and became an important stop on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway system. The digital collection includes histories and memories that give accounts of settlement and Evansville’s growth and prosperity. City Directories and photo collections of portraits, homes, and businesses are also included in the project.

Gesu Parish Grade School

This collection of photos, directories, programs, alumni newsletters, and objects documents the Gesu School,  founded in 1895 after the combining of St. Gall and Holy Name parishes. After sixty-nine years of continuous educational service, Gesu School held its last graduation exercises on June 7, 1968.  

Great Lakes Maritime History Project

An overview of Wisconsin’s maritime history. Includes records on individual ships as well as photographs, postcards and pamphlets related to commerce and tourism on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.

Green Lake County Reporter

The Green Lake County Reporter, digitized by the Caestecker Public Library in Green Lake, includes all editions from 1919-2005. The original microfilm collection was created by the Dartford Historical Society. The more recent issues are shared with permission from the Berlin Journal Newspapers publishing company. Editions of the Green Lake County reporter from 2005 to present (with a 90-day embargo) can be found at the Archive of Wisconsin Newspapers. For the most current news in the area, please visit Caestecker Library or a local newsstand for this week’s edition of the Green Lake Reporter.  

Green Lake Spectator

The Green Lake Spectator was published from 1860-1866 and was preserved in microfilm by the Dartford Historical Society. The Caestecker Public Library in Green Lake digitized all owned copies ranging from mid-1861 through the end of publication.

Helen Brace Emerson Correspondence

This collection includes letters written to Helen Brace Emerson from her cousin, suffragist and president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Frances Willard, between the late 1860s and Willard’s death in 1898. Correspondence from other writers provide details about Willard’s final days.

Historic Recipe File

From the 1960s until the 1980s, librarians at the Milwaukee Public Library clipped hundreds of recipes from the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel. These clipped recipes are the nucleus of the Historic Recipe File digital collection, which provides a glimpse into the local and ethnic foods that were popular in Milwaukee in the second half of the 20th century.

Histories of Beloit College

The Histories of Beloit College Collection includes published commencement addresses and essays as well as Beloit College President Edward Dwight Eaton’s 1928 history, which contains a thorough account of the College’s origins and development, and a history begun by faculty member Robert Richardson in the 1940s that updates Eaton’s account. Never published, this book contains a great deal of valuable footnotes and marginalia.

History of Wisconsin Agriculture and Rural Life

The History of Wisconsin Agriculture and Rural Life collection is based on a bibliography compiled as part of the National Preservation Project for Agricultural Literature. Content includes reports from county agricultural and home agents for the UW-Extension and annual publications including the Wisconsin Crop and Livestock Reporter, Milwaukee Milk Producer, Transactions of the Northern Wisconsin Agricultural and Mechanical Association, proceedings from the annual meetings of the Southern Wisconsin Cheesemakers’ and Dairymen’s Association, and catalogs for the “short course” offered by the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture.

Home Economics to Human Ecology – A Centennial History at the UW

Home Economics to Human Ecology – A Centennial History at the UW

Home Economics to Human Ecology: A Centennial History at the University of Wisconsin – Madison is a digital collection of photographs and ephemera illustrating aspects of the past 100 years at the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, including examples of student activities involving life in the Home Management House, work in laboratories, and the functions of student organizations such as Phi Upsilon Nu, Omicron Nu, and the Euthenics Club; portraits of administrators and past faculty; scenes of classrooms and buildings; illustrations of faculty and students working together; and illustrations of extension projects.

I’ll Tell You A Story – Memories of Pre-Holocaust Europe

In 1983, volunteers from the Generation After (an organization of children of Holocaust survivors) conducted interviews with 65 Jewish immigrants residing in metropolitan Milwaukee. The digital version of the Generation After Oral History Project consists of 25 interview transcripts for subjects with surnames between A-L.

Irene Bishop Goggans Collection

The Irene Bishop Goggans collection contains materials pertaining to the African American community in Milwaukee and across the country. Materials collected by Irene Goggans (1926-2017) are mostly from the 1950s to the early 2010s and include newspaper clippings, photographs, event programs, and more.

Jane Morgan Memorial Library

In 2018, the Jane Morgan Memorial Library and the Cambria-Friesland Historical Society began to digitize materials from their archives that are important to the history of Cambria and nearby communities in Columbia County, Wisconsin. The digital collection includes photographs, postcards and pamphlets such as a booklet published for the 1944 Cambria centennial and the “Cambria Victory Homecoming” after World War II.

Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details

The Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details digital collections includes two of the twelve volumes from an original 1890-1913 publication. The volumes include volume IX, Dados, with a note on the process of fresco paintings in Jeypore and volume X, Parapets.

Kaukauna Memory Project

Local history materials from the community of Kaukauna, Wisconsin including early 20th century postcards, marriage licenses ca. 1905-1959, materials related to the Riverview Sanatorium tuburculosis hospital, a membership roll for the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic, high school graduation programs and publications including Kaukauna 175th Jubilee Album (1965) and Industrial Kaukauna (1939).

Kenosha County Digital Archive

These collections, from Community Library (Salem), Kenosha Public Library, and Kenosha County Libray System, feature photographs, documents, genealogy records, letters, and maps from Kenosha County cities, towns, and schools.

Korean War Veterans of Mount Horeb

Korean War Veterans of Mount Horeb

This collection contains oral histories, photographs, documents and color slides from six Mount Horeb residents who served in the Korean War.

Ku Klux Klan in Northwestern Wisconsin 1915-1950

Records, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, ephemera and artifacts documenting a popular movement that most Americans would rather forget – a so-called “reform” movement driven by xenophobia and bigotry. Although largely gone from the state by the late 1920s, the Klan persisted in northwestern Wisconsin, including Chippewa, Clark, and Pierce counties, through the 1940s.

Kvamme Local History Collection

Selected materials from the Kvamme Local History Collection maintained by Stoughton Public Library. Documents in this collection include Stoughton city directories and telephone directories as well as volumes of newspaper clippings on topics of local interest including World War II, Syttende Mai, the Martin Luther Children’s Home and the Stoughton Ski Jump.

La Crosse City Board of Trade Reports

Annual reports of the Board of Trade of the City of La Crosse from 1879-1905. Each report highlights various statistical data including school information, financial information and manufacturing information for the city.

La Crosse Plow Company Collection

The La Crosse Plow Company Collection contains a variety of visual materials including repair guides, photographs, 3-dimensional objects, letters, and other similar items. The collection’s materials span the various phases of the La Crosse Plow Company including names such as Sta-Rite, Happy Farmer Tractor Company, and the La Crosse Tractor Company. The bulk of this collection was scanned from materials owned by Randy Reysen, and the other items featured are part of the Murphy Library Special Collections. In total, there are over 100 items included in this collection with the prospect of adding more in the future.

Lakeshore Technical College

This archive collection from Lakeshore Technical College compiles yearbooks, photographs, and documents showing the college’s history from the early 20th century into the 21st century. Vocational education in Sheboygan County and Manitowoc County began in the 1910s with city schools in Sheboygan, Manitowoc, and Two Rivers. They were consolidated in the late 1960s to create Lakeshore Technical Institute. A comprehensive technical school was built in the early 1970s in Cleveland, WI. The name was changed from Lakeshore Technical Institute to Lakeshore Technical College in 1988. The material presented in this archive collection documents and expounds upon this history as Lakeshore Technical College continues to innovate and evolve.

Legislative Audit Bureau

The Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau conducts objective audits and evaluations of state agency operations. This collection contains the reports produced by the financial audits and program evaluations.

Legislative Council

The Legislative Council prepares reports on proposed administrative rules, informational publications for Legislators and the public, and committee materials for suggested legislation, including materials on state-tribal relations.

Legislative Fiscal Bureau Publications

The Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau provides fiscal and program information and analyses to the Wisconsin Legislature, its committees, and individual legislators. This collection contains publications produced by the LFB pertaining to the Wisconsin State Budget. Topics include taxation, public welfare, transportation, housing, education, corrections and insurance.

Legislative Materials

This collection contains items created by the Wisconsin Legislature and its committees as well as the text of speeches given before the legislature. Content includes State of the Tribes addresses, comparative studies of public pensions and party platform materials.

Legislative Reference Bureau Publications

All briefs, bulletins and special publications from the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau and its predecessor, the Legislative Reference Library, since the 1950s.

Legislatively Mandated Reports

Reports that the Wisconsin Statutes mandate state agencies provide to the legislature on the progress, status, or results of specific programs and initiatives, including those related to the University of Wisconsin System, environment, elections, rural and underserved health services and substance abuse services.

Lester Public Library of Arpin

The Lester Public Library of Arpin archive, preservation, and digitization project is gathering and preserving area history through video recordings of residents’ personal stories and digitization of physical materials, such as photographs and documents.

Libraries and Schools in Marathon and Lincoln Counties

This collection documents schools and libraries in the central Wisconsin counties of Lincoln and Marathon. A project of the Central Wisconsin Digitization Project, a consortium of libraries, archives, museums and historical societies in Lincoln and Marathon counties. Part of the State of Wisconsin Collection, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.

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.

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.

Manitowoc Public Library

The Manitowoc Public Library County School Records collection contains daily registers belonging to various schools located in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin from the 1900s through the 1970s.

March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project

Primary sources from the UW-Milwaukee Libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society that provide a window onto Milwaukee’s civil rights history in the 1960s. The efforts of civil rights activists and their opponents are documented in photographs, unedited news film footage, text documents and oral history interviews.

Marquette University – In the Spotlight

This collection presents unique materials from the Raynor Memorial Libraries’ Department of Special Collections and University Archives. In the Spotlight highlights materials that are relevant to current events, historical anniversaries, or that are central to Marquette University’s rich heritage.

Marquette University Intercollegiate Athletic Hall of Fame

This collection illustrates the accomplishments of Marquette University’s most elite athletes and coaches, all enshrined in the M Club Athletic Hall of Fame. The bulk of this collection presents photographs, negatives, and color transparencies. Select paintings, sketches, plaques, and textual materials have also been digitized.

Medical College of Wisconsin History Collection

Commencement announcements from the Marquette University School of Medicine in the 1910s, photographs of Milwaukee County General Hospital and Milwaukee Children’s Hospital, and the publication An Anchor for the Future: A History of the Medical College of Wisconsin (1991).

Menominee Collection on the Termination and Restoration Era, 1961-1973

In 1954, the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin was terminated under federal policy that stripped them of their status as a recognized federal tribe. The 1973 Restoration Act allowed the Menominee Indian Tribe to restore their federally-recognized tribal status. The materials in this digital collection tell a personal and national story of the Menominee struggle for sovereignty during the Termination period.

Milwaukee Annual Reports

These yearbooks for city government were produced by the Milwaukee Common Council from 1921 until 2000, after which they were replaced by the city’s website. Designed to be a way to communicate directly with Milwaukee’s citizens, they highlighted activities by the various departments and were a quick-reference guide for city information. In addition to yearly accomplishments, most of the later years’ editions feature biographies of elected officials, maps of aldermanic districts, budget summaries, phone directories, photos, and handy facts about the city.

Milwaukee County Marriage Certificates

This collection of more than 20,000 marriage certificates dating from 1822-1876 was digitized from microfilm and indexed by the Milwaukee County Genealogical Society.

Milwaukee Medical College

Course catalogs and commencement programs from the Milwaukee Medical College and School of Dentistry. In 1913, Milwaukee Medical College merged with the Wisconsin College of Physicians and Surgeons to become the Marquette University School of Medicine and later the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Milwaukee Socialism: The Emil Seidel Era

This digital resource offers an introduction to some of the rich materials related to the history of socialist politics in Milwaukee contained in the collections of the UWM Archives. Our collections are focused especially on Milwaukee’s first socialist mayor, Emil Seidel. This digital collection includes the entirety of Seidel’s personal papers, his official papers from his time serving as Mayor of Milwaukee, and his unpublished autobiography. Additionally, the digital collection includes selections from the UWM Special Collections’ monographs by and about the Milwaukee Turners.

Milwaukee Street Name Index

This collection of index cards, compiled by unknown city employees, lists locations of and changes to street names in the city of Milwaukee and neighboring communities in Milwaukee County, some of which were annexed by the city. As the card titled “Uniform Street Numbering System” explains, most of the city’s current street names were enacted in 1930, but many were changed individually by stand-alone legislation.

Monarch Digital Collection

The Monarch Digital Collection program was created by the Monarch Library System to expand access to local historical material that previously had limited or no accessibility. The goal is to continue digitally preserving and promoting the histories of the four counties that make up Monarch Library System (Dodge, Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Washington) for a fuller and richer view of these communities and Wisconsin.

Mount Horeb Area History

A variety of resources depicting the early 20th century in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin including church histories, family memoirs, books about the historic Norway Building, and information about Mount Horeb’s production of Song of Norway. Centennial books from the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society, Perry Historical Center, and Springdale Township are also included.

MPL’s Own Archives

MPL’s Own Archives contains the history of the Milwaukee Public Library system. Encompassing written records, photographs, and film the collection offers a look back at how the library has served the community of Milwaukee since its founding. This online portion of the collection contains an interview with Toni Morrison, a handful of PSAs, informational videos, and a partial episode of “Library Playhouse”, a library created TV program.

New Glarus and Green County Local History

New Glarus and Green County Local History

This collection focuses on the first 100 years of New Glarus’s history, including narratives of the settlement and early history of the village, family records from the first church in New Glarus, tax rolls of the Town of New Glarus, maps and plat books of Green County, the first yearbook of the New Glarus High School, and photographs of individuals and families, school groups, community organizations, events, street scenes, businesses, and agriculture.

Northeast Wisconsin Technical College

The archives of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College illustrate how vocational education began in the city schools of Green Bay and Marinette in 1912 and eventually expanded to include all Northeast Wisconsin and beyond. This collection was digitized and shared as NWTC prepared to celebrate 110 years of education.

Northernaire Resort Collection

The digital collections from the Three Lakes Historical Society document culture and social life in Northwoods Wisconsin in the 20th century. The Northernaire Resort Collection features photographs, postcards and newsletters related to the history of the Northernaire Resort, founded by Carl Marty, Jr. in 1947.

Opening the Doors: Wisconsin Mental Health Heritage

The Winnebago Mental Health Institute admitted its first patient on April 23, 1873 and was known as the Northern Hospital for the Insane. In 1935, the facility name was changed to the Winnebago State Hospital and was changed again in 1973 to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. This collection includes annual reports authored by physician superintendents and issues of The Cue, a newsletter written and edited by patients at the hospital from 1968-1973.

Oshkosh Businesses

Photographs, newspaper articles, postcards, pamphlets and catalogs of businesses that once flourished in Oshkosh, including Deltox Rug Co., Oshkosh Trunk Co., and Stein’s clothing store.

Oshkosh City Directories

Browse or search the collection to discover all kinds of interesting facts about historic Oshkosh as well as sketches of prominent people, local businesses and their advertisements, and views of Oshkosh. Each directory has been divided into sections: surnames, businesses, street directories, and more. Some directories include Menasha, Neenah, Omro, and Winneconne. Funding for the project was obtained from a grant from the Alberta Kimball Foundation.

Public Documents of the State of Wisconsin

Public Documents of the State of Wisconsin, commonly known as Wisconsin Public Documents (WPD), consists of the annual and biennial reports of all important Wisconsin state agencies from 1852 through 1914.

Publications Related to La Crosse

A variety of publications relating to La Crosse and the surrounding region, including souvenir programs and pamphlets, church histories, directories and other published and unpublished documents.

Ralph Metcalfe – The Olympic Years 1932-1936

Photographs, newspaper clippings, and other printed materials documenting sprinter Ralph Metcalfe between 1932-1936, when the Marquette undergraduate was known as “The World’s Fastest Human.”

Recollection Wisconsin Shared Collection

Wisconsin’s story is still being written, folding in the customs and traditions of everyone who calls this place home. You’re invited to help build a shared history of our state by contributing your photos, documents and audio files to the Recollection Wisconsin Shared Collection.

Reedsburg Historic Survey Collection

This collection contains photos and surveys of architecturally and historically significant buildings in the city of Reedsburg which were compiled from 1983-1984.

Ripon Pedrick Genealogy Notebooks

During his lifetime, Samuel Pedrick, a prominent Ripon figure, lawyer and local historian, compiled genealogical information and family histories into numerous notebooks. In 2006, the Ripon Public Library completed a restoration project in which the entirety of the Pedrick genealogical notebooks was digitized and indexed.

Rock Springs Public Library

The Rock Springs Public Library collection includes documents and photographs related to the Rock Springs Memorial Community Center as well as documents related to the history of the village, images of community sites, events and residents of Rock Springs (formerly Ableman) and the surrounding area.

Rural Schools of Wood County

A series of histories of rural schools composed by the staff and students at each school in 1956, apparently as part of the celebration of the centennial of Wood County. They vary widely in content and depth, with some including photographs, farm histories, rosters and school board extracts. Schools are also geo-located on this map.

South Milwaukee Public Library

This collection showcases and preserves the history of South Milwaukee through digitized images, texts, and other media. The collection is a collaboration of resources held by both the library and the South Milwaukee Historical Society.

Turning Points in Wisconsin History

Primary sources, including eyewitness accounts, images and objects documenting key events in Wisconsin history. Resources are divided into ten topic categories: early Native peoples; early explorers, traders and settlers; the territorial period and statehood; immigration and settlement; the Civil War Era; mining, lumber and agriculture; the Progressive Era; 20th century wars; industrialization and urbanization; and 20th century change.

University of Wisconsin Collection

University of Wisconsin Collection

Images, manuscripts, books and other materials documenting the history and mission of the University of Wisconsin System. Includes content from all four-year campuses and nearly all of the two-year colleges in the UW System.

Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee Collection

The Upper Mississippi River Conservation Survey Committee was established in Dubuque, IA, in 1943, originally comprised of 22 biologists from Iowa and the surrounding states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri. Since then, the UMRCC dropped “Survey” from their name and has grown to more than 200 resource managers working in multiple disciplines including fisheries, mussels, recreation, wildlife, water quality, vegetation, education, and law enforcement. This collection is a result of a partnership between the UMRCC and Murphy Library to provide both digital and physical access to the UMRCC Library, now housed at Murphy Library.

UW-La Crosse Commencement Program Collection

This collection features every University of Wisconsin-La Crosse commencement program that is housed in Special Collections, dating back to the “First Annual Commencement” of the State Normal School in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on June 23, 1910. Additional materials are available for select years that may include everything from speeches and scripts to invitations and graduate lists. Each year expect that this collection will include the most recent commencement programs.

UW-La Crosse Journal of Undergraduate Research

Since 1998, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Journal of Undergraduate Research has served as a place for students to publish original research. Published annually by the Undergraduate Research Program, this collection contains individual articles written by UWL students on topics ranging from accounting and archaeology to theater and women’s studies, and everything in between.

UW-La Crosse ROTC Scrapbook & Photograph Collection

Donated to UW-La Crosse Murphy Library Special Collections in 2018, these three large scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, photographs, pamphlets, and other materials related to the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) and the Military Science department on the UWL campus. In addition to the scrapbooks, this collection contains other photographs, multiple issues of The Cadence newspaper, and several cadet handbooks. Additional manuscript material is available in UWL Special Collections.

UW-La Crosse Student Handbooks Collection

Student handbooks from the Wisconsin State Normal School and State Teachers College (precursors to UW-La Crosse) from the 1920s through the 1960s, featuring campus organizations, activities, procedures, regulations, maps and other campus and community information.

UW-Milwaukee Latino Activism

This collection includes photographs, documents, newspaper articles and video documenting efforts during the 1970-71 academic year to improve conditions for the Latino community at UW-Milwaukee. In November 1970, UWM opened its Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute, a forerunner of today’s Roberto Hernandez Center.

Verona Public Library

The Verona Public Library’s Local History digitization project is a growing selection of digital materials culled from the physical archives of their Local History Collection. This digital archive will include access to photographs, city directories, and community writing projects. 

Waukesha County History 1870-1920

Waukesha County History 1870-1920

The materials in this digital collection depict the industries, people and structures important to the development of Waukesha County from 1870-1920. Many of the images come from the collection of Warren S. O’Brien (1898-1988), a prolific Waukesha photographer.

Waunakee Public Library

The Waunakee Public Library local history collection features photographs, newspaper clippings, books, government documents, board minutes, and more from the local Waunakee area and surrounding towns. There is a wide range of materials ranging from the early 1900’s until present day.

Wetherby Cranberry Library

Cranberries have been grown commercially in Wisconsin for over 150 years. This collection includes photographs, clippings, pamphlets and recipes related to the cranberry industry in Wisconsin as well as eight decades of Cranberries, a national trade publication.

Wild Rose Historical Ephemera

This collection contains 9687 pages of Wild Rose Historical items that have been digitized to protect the originals and to make searching easier. Scrapbooks by the Wild Rose Women’s Club, The Rambling Rosies, Plays by Pearl Dopp, Wild Rose Home of the Original Music Man Scrapbook, and many typed family histories from families who helped settle or lived in Wild Rose.

Wisconsin Census Records

Covering various counties in Wisconsin, page through these United States census books from the 1850 and 1860 censuses. Digitized by the Caestecker Public Library in Green Lake, with respect to the Dartford Historical Society for preserving the records in microfilm.

Wisconsin Citizen Petitions, 1836-1891

This collection comprises citizen petitions written to the legislatures of the Wisconsin Territory and later the State of Wisconsin, from 1836 to 1891. At the time, petitions were the only direct means for citizens to communicate with the government. From requesting dams, roads, and money to build schoolhouses, to recording views on slavery, suffrage, and statehood, these petitions reveal what settlers wished to achieve for their communities, and the ways in which they hoped to connect Wisconsin to the expanding commerce and intellectual life of the United States.

Wisconsin Cranberry School Proceedings

The Wisconsin Cranberry School is the primary meeting for Wisconsin cranberry growers, whether members of a cooperative or independent growers. The school is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Extension and the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association.

Wisconsin Digital Archives

This growing collection of documents about the activities, functions and policies of Wisconsin State Government contains documents published by the Executive and Judicial branches, state government task forces, initiatives, boards, commissions, councils and special study groups. The Wisconsin Digital Archives is a collaborative effort managed by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction as part of the Wisconsin Document Depository Program.

Wisconsin Public Land Survey Records

Wisconsin Public Land Survey Records

The field notes and plat maps of the public land survey of Wisconsin are a valuable resource for original land survey information, as well as for understanding Wisconsin’s landscape history. The survey of Wisconsin was conducted between 1832 and 1866 by the federal General Land Office. This work established the township, range and section grid; the pattern upon which land ownership and land use is based.

Wisconsin Sheet Music Database

Wisconsin Sheet Music Database

This collection from the Mills Music Library at UW-Madison consists of music written by Wisconsin composers, published by Wisconsin publishers and/or pieces whose subject matter is Wisconsin. The publications date from the late 1850s to the present.

Wisconsin Women’s History

A selection of manuscripts and ephemera documenting the lives of women in Wisconsin, focusing on women who were active in social movements such as suffrage, temperance, abolition, civil rights and other efforts to reform society as well as women who ran for public office.

World War I Military Portraits

This collection of more than 30,000 items includes World War I service records transcribed by the Milwaukee County Chapter of the American War Mothers, portraits of service men and women in military uniform, snapshots of individuals at their homes or serving in the theater of war, and records from the publication A Record of the Heroes of Milwaukee County Who Answered Their Country’s Call in the World War.