If you’re familiar with our former website, wisconsinheritage.org, the first thing you’ll probably notice about the new site is a new name: Recollection Wisconsin. As part of the process of refreshing our identity, we chose to move away from the name Wisconsin Heritage Online, which we’ve used since the program started in 2005. We think this new name does a better job of describing what we do: create opportunities for people to discover personal connections to the past by bringing together digital collections from across the state.
We collaborated with web designer and branding consultant Dan Saal of StudioSaal Corporation to come up with our new Recollection Wisconsin identity. Some of the ideas behind this name include:
- Recollection means: the act or power of recollecting, or recalling to mind; remembrance
- Re-collection means: the act of collecting, gathering, or assembling again
- It’s a “collection” of Wisconsin databases
- It’s a way to “re” connect to our collective history
- It’s about “re” interpreting collections
And perhaps most importantly, compared to “WHO,” it’s much easier to use in a sentence and to find in a search engine.
