Photographs

All types of photographic images, including photo prints, slides and negatives.

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.

Mable (Mabel) Seep Photograph Collection

Mable (Mabel) Thompson Seep (1890-1981), a local artist, was born in Richland County, and later farmed in Ironton and Winfield townships with her husband Frank. Mabel’s granddaughter Genie Seep donated several of Mabel’s paintings and photographs to the Reedsburg Historic Preservation Commission in 2019. The paintings can be viewed on the Commission’s website. The Commission transferred the photographs to the Reedsburg Public Library in 2025. Two letters by Mabel, owned by the Richland County History Room, and included with their permission, illuminate Mabel Thompson Seep’s early years as a school teacher, artist and author.

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 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.

Manitowoc Local History Collection

Manitowoc Local History Collection

Photographs and postcards by professional photographer Herman C. Benke from the 1890s and 1900s and images by amateur photographer Frances M. Kadow from the 1920s through the 1940s. Also includes historical texts concerning Manitowoc County, plat books and plat maps, and oral history interviews recorded with area residents in 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.

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