Diaries, letters and other handwritten documents and personal papers.
Ada James (1876-1952) was a leading social reformer, humanitarian, and pacifist from Richland Center, Wisconsin and daughter of state senator David G. James. The Ada James Papers document the grass roots organizing and politics that were required to promote and guarantee the passage of women’s suffrage in Wisconsin and beyond.
The Aldo Leopold Archives documents not only Leopold’s rise to prominence but the history of conservation and the emergence of the field of ecology from the early 1900s until his death in 1948. The collection includes more than 500 unpublished essays and reports as well as detailed diaries and journals of Leopold’s Forest Service activity, his travels, hunting and field experience, and observations and activities at his Sand County farm.
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.
Photographs and documents depicting the evolution of Beloit College’s identity on the airwaves from 1907 to the present.
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.
Chilton Public Library is the lively local library for the city of Chilton (population about 4,000) and the surrounding areas of Calumet County, Wisconsin. This local history digital collection features images and texts from the area’s past.
Ruben Sweet of Manitowoc, Wisconsin kept a diary of his experiences in the Civil War from November 1863-February 1865. The diary was transcribed by the Langlade County Historical Society in 2004.
Letters written to family members by Francis Deleglise, founder of the city of Antigo, during his service with Wisconsin’s famed Iron Brigade during the Civil War. Letters describe training activities at Camp Randall and experiences at a field hospital while recovering from wounds inflicted at Gettysburg.
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.
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.
Fred Lesher taught in the English Department at UW-La Crosse from 1965 until his retirement in 1996. Lesher had a life-long interest in ornithology, and from 1958 to 2002, he kept detailed journals of his birding. The journals, in 14 volumes with over 3000 pages, are important documents of birding in the Coulee Region of southwest Wisconsin, northeast Iowa and southeast Minnesota.
Diaries of the travels of Austrian Norbertine priest Father Maximilian Gaertner of Wilten Abbey in Austria. Gaertner arrived in Wisconsin in 1846 and remained there until recalled to Wilten Abbey in 1858.
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.
Elizabeth Baird (1810-1890) and Henry Baird (1800-1875) were prominent 19th-century Wisconsin settlers. They were connected to most of the founders of modern Wisconsin through family ties, marriage, business interests and politics. This digital collection includes all the Baird correspondence and selected business, family and personal papers.
This digital collection contains two components: images of citizens and businesses along Main Street in the city of Fort Atkinson from the 1880s through the 1970s, and manuscripts, notes, letters, oral histories and photographs from or about poet Lorine Niedecker, who spent most of her life in the Fort Atkinson area.
This digital collection contains the complete manuscripts of Wisconsin scientist Increase A. Lapham (1811-1875) owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, including letters, diaries, scientific notes, drawings and other papers.
Jay Norwood Darling was a Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist who attended Beloit College from 1895-1900, where he served as art director for the college yearbook. The digital collection features illustrations Darling created for the 1899 yearbook as well as a selection of Darling’s letters and other writings.
Legal, administrative, educational and political documents, including correspondence and news clippings, describing events and people involved during the Menominee Termination and Restoration era, 1961-1973.
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.
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.
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.
Born February 17, 1889, Laura Janvrin Aldrich studied at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and attended Beloit College with the class of 1912. On June 16, 1914, Laura Aldrich married Elbert H. Neese. While her husband served as president of the Beloit Corporation (now known as Iron Works), she worked closely with the Beloit Foundation, the First Congregational Church, and the Art League of Beloit. She was also a practicing artist and in 1952, Beloit College awarded Neese an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts for her commitment to the discipline of art and for her longtime service to the college. This digital collection includes beautifully-illustrated diaries containing accounts of Neese’s time in Beloit and abroad.
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.
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.
Typewritten manuscripts documenting the histories of the Marinette County communities of Amberg, Coleman and Beaver Creek as well as a manuscript titled A Brief History of Marinette for Children (1960).
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.
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.
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.
Twenty-two volumes of the writings, studies and sketches of Owen Gromme, an artist, author, biologist, botanist and zoologist.
Personal reminiscences of growing up in Ozaukee County, reflections of local residents who served during wartime, histories of various local communities, and histories of public services and groups in those communities, including fire departments and women’s clubs.
Pearsons Hall was commissioned and built in the late 19th century to serve as Beloit College’s science hall. To oversee its construction, College officials sought renowned architect and urban planner Daniel Hudson Burnham. This collection contains over 70 letters, postcards and images documenting the early life of the building.
A 1914 memoir by Wisconsin pioneer and civic leader Lucien B. Caswell (1827-1919). Caswell was a lawyer in Fort Atkinson and went on to be elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly and later the United States House of Representatives. Part of the State of Wisconsin Collection, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.
Writings and photographs of United States Army officer Charles King, who served in the American West and in the Phillipines. Also includes correspondence from King’s father Rufus King, who served as a General for the Wisconsin Volunteers (also known as the Iron Brigade) during the Civil War.
Research files on Sauk City residences and commerical properties, including photographs and notes, compiled by local historian Myrtle Wilhelm Cushing in the 1970s.
Materials selected from the papers of Senator William Proxmire, who served for for 32 years in the U.S. Senate (1957-1989). Also includes transcripts of 40 oral history interviews conducted with the Senator’s friends, family and colleagues.
The State of Wisconsin Collection presents writings about the state of Wisconsin and unique or valuable materials that relate to its history and ongoing development. The collection includes published material as well as archival materials such as books, manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, maps and other resources.
Wisconsin’s oldest theater organization, the Carroll Players, was inaugurated in June 1896 with a production staged by May N. Rankin, the first female professor at Carroll College. This collection includes photographic portraits of Rankin as well as notes and letters related to the drama program at Carroll University.
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.
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.
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.
This digital collection provides access to primary sources documenting the activities and output of Works Project Administration (WPA) arts projects in Wisconsin from 1935-1943, especially the work of the Milwaukee Handicrafts Project. Materials include design portfolios, oral history interviews with artists and selections from the papers of Elsa Emile Ulbricht, director of the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, and Charlotte Russell Partridge and Miriam Frink, co-founders of the Layton School of Art.
First person narrative accounts of Wisconsin soldiers and citizens during the Civil War, including letters, diaries, poems and other records.
To mark the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), the Wisconsin Historical Society created this digital collection containing dozens of diaries, regimental histories and book-length memoirs, thousands of soldiers’ letters, hundreds of newspaper articles and more than 1,000 photographs, maps and other images.
A digital collection of diaries, letters, reminiscences, speeches and other writings of people who settled and built Wisconsin during the 19th century. These materials were selected from the collections of the Wisconsin Area Research Centers (ARCs) as well as the headquarters of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
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.
This collection brings together books, photographs, audio interviews, slides, personal scrapbooks and memorabilia collected from Mt. Horeb-area veterans of WWII.
