Francis Burgess was a photographer for the La Crosse Tribune newspaper from 1935 until his retirement in 1970. This collection includes thousands of black and white photographic negatives from Burgess’ tenure at the Tribune as well as the work of other Tribune photographers including Ed Huebner.
UW-La Crosse
David A. Yates Photograph Collection
During WWII, the US Army’s Fort McCoy, in Monroe County, Wisconsin, served as a location to house German prisoners of war (POWs). David Yates was stationed at Fort McCoy during this time and managed to take photographs that now give insight into daily life for soldiers and POWs alike. This collection consists of over 100 black and white photographs that capture day-to-day activities and military personnel during WWII at a German POW camp located inside the United States.
Fred Lesher Bird Field Notes and Journals
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.
Freedom Flotilla Photograph Collection
The Freedom Flotilla, also known as the Mariel Boatlift, occurred in 1980 after President Carter opened the doors to the United States for hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees, of which nearly 15,000 would eventually arrive at the resettlement camp at Fort McCoy in western Wisconsin. This collection contains photographs taken by journalists reporting on the “Cuban Odyssey,” most of whom worked for the La Crosse Tribune, bringing together nearly 250 images of individuals and events directly involved with the Freedom Flotilla.
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.
History of UW-La Crosse
The History of UW-La Crosse Collection includes resources that document the history and evolution of this campus. The collection includes published material as well as archival materials and may eventually include additional books, manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, maps and other resources deemed important to the study of our state’s university system and its campuses.
La Crosse City Board of Trade Reports
Annual reports of the Board of Trade of the City of La Crosse from 1879-1905. Each report highlights various statistical data including school information, financial information and manufacturing information for the city.
La Crosse County Historical Sketches
Covering the years 1930-1955, these publications compiled by the La Crosse County Historical Society present histories, stories and biographies of events, locations and individuals from La Crosse’s past.
La Crosse Photograph Collection
Images of businesses, residences and people of La Crosse and the surrounding area from the 1850s through the 1990s.
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.
La Crosse Regional Maps Collection
Maps of the city of La Crosse, La Crosse County and surrounding region, including rail, highway, survey and topographic maps from the 1850s through the 1970s.
Leaping La Crosse News
The Leaping La Crosse News, a monthly newsletter published from 1979-2007, was a source of information for lesbians living in the La Crosse, Wisconsin, area. Topics covered include national, state and local news of legal cases, entertainment and events as well as social and political activities of the La Crosse area lesbian community.
Listening to War
The Listening to War digital collection brings together first-person accounts of veterans and civilians in Wisconsin during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War. These stories of everyday life during wartime come from men and women who served on the battlefront; nurses, journalists, shipbuilders, and others who contributed to wartime work at home and abroad; Holocaust survivors who immigrated from Europe to Wisconsin after World War II; and Hmong refugees from Laos who were resettled in the state following the Vietnam War.
Maps and Atlases of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, and the Upper Mississippi River
Maps and atlases of La Crosse County including plat, highway, soil and topographic maps as well as zoning, park and street maps of the city of La Crosse and other La Crosse County municipalities. Also includes representative pre- and post-lock and dam charts and maps of the Upper Mississippi River.
Moving Picture Collection
UW-La Crosse Murphy Library Special Collections houses numerous analog historical moving pictures, some of which are featured in this collection.
Odin J. Oyen Collection
The Odin J. Oyen firm was once a thriving business in downtown La Crosse, Wisconsin, that created original watercolors as proposed interior designs. The firm, or variations of it, existed from the late-1800s up to the Great Depression, generating countless watercolor designs for the interiors of courthouses, churches, fraternal organizations, and private residences, in locations across the Upper Midwest and beyond. Several hundred original watercolors reside in Murphy Library Special Collections, owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, and local attorney Nicholas J. Passe acquired over 100 Oyen interior renditions and was willing to allow the Murphy Library Digital Collections to digitize and include those items in the Digital Collections. These items currently make up the Odin J. Oyen Collection.
Publications Related to La Crosse
A variety of publications relating to La Crosse and the surrounding region, including souvenir programs and pamphlets, church histories, directories and other published and unpublished documents.
R. W. Troxel Glass Plate Negative Collection
Roley William Troxel was born in 1883 in Richland County, Wisconsin and died in 1967 in Prairie du Chien. The photographs were taken mostly around Eastman, Wisconsin and other areas surrounding Prairie du Chien, likely between 1910 and 1920. Images include posed portraits, sports teams, various buildings and other landscape and street views.
Steam Ticket: A Third Coast Review
Founded in 1996 by members of the UW-La Crosse English department, Steam Ticket: A Third Coast Review is a nationally-distributed annual literary journal that publishes poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and artwork from writers and artists around the world.
Taylor Brothers Photographs
Glass negatives created by the Taylor Brothers photographic studio of Adams County, Wisconsin, circa 1910-1930. Subjects are varied and include towns, buildings and street scenes in Adams County; construction and dedication of a new county courthouse; teachers, classes, and one-room school houses; road construction; and farmsteads, animals, and agricultural activities.
The Catalyst
Since 1971, The Catalyst, an undergraduate publication for the UW-La Crosse community, has featured original prose (fiction and nonfiction), poetry, artwork, photography, videos, music and more from UW-L students, faculty, and staff.
The Racquet Newspaper
The Racquet student newspaper was first published by the La Crosse Normal School in 1910, and remains a paper publication on the UW-La Crosse campus to this day. New issues are added to the digital collection on an annual basis.
Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee Collection
The Upper Mississippi River Conservation Survey Committee was established in Dubuque, IA, in 1943, originally comprised of 22 biologists from Iowa and the surrounding states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri. Since then, the UMRCC dropped “Survey” from their name and has grown to more than 200 resource managers working in multiple disciplines including fisheries, mussels, recreation, wildlife, water quality, vegetation, education, and law enforcement. This collection is a result of a partnership between the UMRCC and Murphy Library to provide both digital and physical access to the UMRCC Library, now housed at Murphy Library.
UW-La Crosse Alumnus Collection
More recently known as the Lantern, the alumni publication for the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse has gone by many names, including Alumnus, Crossties, La Crosse Alumnus and Alumni Briefs. It was first published as the Alumni Bulletin in 1941.
UW-La Crosse Commencement Program Collection
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.
UW-La Crosse Course Catalog Collection
Course catalogs for the Wisconsin State Normal School, La Crosse State Teachers College, Wisconsin State College and UW-La Crosse from 1910 to the present, including undergraduate, graduate and summer session publications.
UW-La Crosse Historic Steamboat Photographs
Thousands of images of steamboats on the inland waterways of the United States, primarily the Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri rivers and their tributaries. The photos depict steamboats in every phase of their life span – from construction to destruction – and every aspect of their daily operations from the 1850s to the present.
UW-La Crosse Journal of Undergraduate Research
Since 1998, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Journal of Undergraduate Research has served as a place for students to publish original research. Published annually by the Undergraduate Research Program, this collection contains individual articles written by UWL students on topics ranging from accounting and archaeology to theater and women’s studies, and everything in between.
UW-La Crosse Oral History Collection
Selections from the more than 3,000 hours of interviews recorded by the UW-La Crosse Oral History Program and housed in Murphy Library’s Special Collections.
UW-La Crosse Publications
Various newsletters distributed by UW-La Crosse departments and campus organizations, including Murphy Library, the Organization for Campus Women, the College of Business Administration, the College of Science and Health and the College of Liberal Studies.
UW-La Crosse ROTC Scrapbook & Photograph Collection
Donated to UW-La Crosse Murphy Library Special Collections in 2018, these three large scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, photographs, pamphlets, and other materials related to the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) and the Military Science department on the UWL campus. In addition to the scrapbooks, this collection contains other photographs, multiple issues of The Cadence newspaper, and several cadet handbooks. Additional manuscript material is available in UWL Special Collections.
UW-La Crosse Student Handbooks Collection
Student handbooks from the Wisconsin State Normal School and State Teachers College (precursors to UW-La Crosse) from the 1920s through the 1960s, featuring campus organizations, activities, procedures, regulations, maps and other campus and community information.
UW-La Crosse Theatre Posters and Playbills Collection
More than 400 playbills and posters from various theatrical productions on the UW-La Crosse campus from 1916 to the present.
UW-La Crosse Yearbooks Collection
The UW-La Crosse yearbook, The Racquet, from 1911 through the final volume, published in 1990.
Wisconsin Labor Advocate Newspaper
The Wisconsin Labor Advocate was a weekly newspaper published in La Crosse in 1886-1887. La Crosse was a hotbed of Labor political party activity in the 1880s and the Labor Advocate was one of at least four La Crosse area Labor-related newspapers from that time. George Edwin Taylor, the newspaper’s editor and owner, was African-American, born in Arkansas in 1857.
Wisconsin Pioneer Experience
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.
