The Milwaukee Leaders Collection began in 1989 as a photo exhibit at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Milwaukee Public Library Neighborhood Library titled “Black Role Models in Milwaukee.” The honorees were selected by the community as exemplifying leading citizens for their own generation and those to follow.
Milwaukee Public Library
Milwaukee Maps
Various maps of the City of Milwaukee and the greater metro area, including population, transit and street maps, from the 1870s through the 1970s.
Milwaukee Mayors
The Milwaukee Mayors digital collection is an adaptation of a volume of images and information collected by Library staff to form the Biographical Sketches of the Mayors of the City of Milwaukee. Created more than 40 years ago, it has been updated with images of recent mayors.
Milwaukee Waterways
This collection illustrates the role Lake Michigan and Milwaukee’s rivers have played in the history of Milwaukee. Photographs of the harbor and ships from around the world show the variety of materials that passed through the Port over time. Other images illustrate the role the rivers played in the commercial development of the city.
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.
Remember When
Remember When… was a popular feature in the Milwaukee Journal from 1963 through 1994. Published twice-weekly until 1981 and weekly after that, the feature was prepared by Milwaukee Public Library staff to highlight Milwaukee’s rich and colorful past as preserved in the Historic Photo Collection of the library.
Wagons of Milwaukee Businesses
An album of 37 photographs of wagons used by Milwaukee-area businesses in the early 20th century.
Wisconsin Concert Posters
Posters and flyers advertising a variety of concerts, mostly rock and punk shows that took place in the early 1980s in and around Milwaukee. Milwaukee-area bands represented include Colour Radio, Die Kreuzen and the Violent Femmes.
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.
