Images of businesses, residences and people of La Crosse and the surrounding area from the 1850s through the 1990s.
Photographs
All types of photographic images, including photo prints, slides and negatives.
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 College
This archive collection from Lakeshore College (previously 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 and then to Lakeshore College in 2024. The material presented in this archive collection documents and expounds upon this history as Lakeshore College continues to innovate and evolve.
Langlade County Historical Society Photos
Several towns and villages in Langlade County thrived during the heyday of logging and the timber industry but have declined in recent years. A few have virtually become ghost towns while some still exist. Langlade County, in more recent years, has marketed itself as the “Gateway to the Northwoods” and, more recently, the “The County of Trails.” This collection shows many resorts and recreational venues in Langlade County and other Northwoods destinations.
Langlade County Logging Photographs
The logging photographs in the collection of the Langlade County Historical Society document work crews, logging camps, sawmills and other aspects of Wisconsin’s logging industry from the 19th century to the 1990s. Some photographs were taken by Arthur J. Kingsbury for his picture postcard business, but many are by anonymous photographers.
Langlade County Railroad Photographs
The railroad photographs in the collection of the Langlade County Historical Society depict depots, rail yards, rail crews, locomotives and train wrecks in the Antigo area from the late 19th century to the 1990s. Some photographs were taken by Arthur J. Kingsbury for his picture post card business, but many are by anonymous photographers.
Lawrence Oliver, Photographer
Scenes of life in and around Vesper, Wisconsin in the late 1940s and early 1950s captured by local photojournalist Lawrence Oliver.
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.
