Milwaukee Public Library

CETA Arts Program Photographs

The exhibit of “The Spirit of Milwaukee” was a cooperative agreement between the Common Council’s Special Committee on Public Information and the students and faculty of the Milwaukee Center for Photography. The photographs were taken between February and May of 1976 in Milwaukee, documenting Milwaukee life during the 1976 Bicentennial. After the Bicentennial, the City of Milwaukee CETA Arts Program hired student photographers from the Milwaukee Center for Photography to take pictures and document Milwaukee. The Department of City Development would exhibit the photographs and other art created under the program.

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.

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.

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.

Horace Seaman Wisconsin Infantry Collection

Photographs from Colonel Horace M. Seaman’s service with the Wisconsin National Guard. The majority of the images come from his service with the 4th Wisconsin Infantry in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

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.

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 Historic Menus

The Historic Menus digital collection includes a variety of menus from the Milwaukee area from the early twentieth century to the present.

Milwaukee Historic Photos

Selections from the Milwaukee Public Library’s Historic Photo Collection. The full collection includes over 50,000 photographs of Milwaukee dating from the late 19th century to the present.

Milwaukee Historic Trade Cards

Printed color trade cards distributed by Milwaukee businesses. This collection, housed in the Milwaukee Public Library’s Richard E. and Lucile Krug Rare Books Room, provides a snapshot of Milwaukee’s retail and service economy in the late 19th century.

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