State and Local History

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 Public Library Archives

This collection from the La Crosse Public Library Archives includes digitized texts related to La Crosse including city directories 1866-1963; city ordinances 1863-1954; and other histories including local churches. Photographs and oral histories can also be accessed here.

Langlade County Historical Society Photos

Several towns and villages in Langlade County thrived during the heyday of logging and the timber industry but have declined in recent years. A few have virtually become ghost towns while some still exist. Langlade County, in more recent years, has marketed itself as the “Gateway to the Northwoods” and, more recently, the “The County of Trails.” This collection shows many resorts and recreational venues in Langlade County and other Northwoods destinations.

Langlade County Logging Photographs

The logging photographs in the collection of the Langlade County Historical Society document work crews, logging camps, sawmills and other aspects of Wisconsin’s logging industry from the 19th century to the 1990s. Some photographs were taken by Arthur J. Kingsbury for his picture postcard business, but many are by anonymous photographers.

Lawrence Oliver, Photographer

Scenes of life in and around Vesper, Wisconsin in the late 1940s and early 1950s captured by local photojournalist Lawrence Oliver.

Lester Public Library of Arpin

The Lester Public Library of Arpin archive, preservation, and digitization project is gathering and preserving area history through video recordings of residents’ personal stories and digitization of physical materials, such as photographs and documents.

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.

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 Louis. 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 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.

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