Photographs by William Wessa of Antigo documenting the 107th Trench Mortar Battery Company during World War I. The images include the company’s first drills in Antigo; training at Camp Douglas, Wisconsin and Camp McArthur, Texas; action in the Alsace region of France and the Argonne offensive; and their return to Antigo in 1919.
Veterans and Military History
Brekke Collection – A Soldier’s Mementos of WWII
This collection represents the things that Kermit Brekke of Blair, Wisconsin, saved as mementos of his service in World War II. It includes Brekke’s uniforms, souvenirs he collected in Europe, and a scrapbook of photos, telegrams, newspaper clippings, menus, leave passes, greeting cards and other ephemera.
Brown County War History Committee Records
After World War I ended in 1919, the Brown County War History Committee interviewed 1,721 local soldiers and their families about their wartime service. They collected a wealth of personal, family and military information, including hundreds of photographs and original letters. The collection is owned by the Neville Public Museum of Brown County and housed at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Area Research Center.
Charles Nicholas Johnson Collection
Photographer and U.S. Army non-commissioned officer Charles Nicholas Johnson (1923-2005) was stationed in Tokyo from fall 1954 to September 1957. During this time he photographed color images that captured everyday life in Japan, urban scenes, landscapes, and representations of Japanese culture. The family of Charles Nicholas Johnson donated this collection of 260 slides to the UW-Parkside Archives in 2013.
Civil War Diary of Ruben Sweet
Ruben Sweet of Manitowoc, Wisconsin kept a diary of his experiences in the Civil War from November 1863-February 1865. The diary was transcribed by the Langlade County Historical Society in 2004.
Daniel Klapproth World War II Photographs and Letters
Daniel Klapproth was a soldier and a Somers, Wisconsin native who was stationed in Panama during the Second World War. This collection consists of photographs taken by Daniel during his military service, as well as letters written by Daniel to his mother in Wisconsin.
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.
Deleglise Documents
Letters written to family members by Francis Deleglise, founder of the city of Antigo, during his service with Wisconsin’s famed Iron Brigade during the Civil War. Letters describe training activities at Camp Randall and experiences at a field hospital while recovering from wounds inflicted at Gettysburg.
Eugene Walter Leach Collection
Papers of Walter Eugene Leach (1857-1938), curator of the Racine County Museum. Included are biographical materials on notable Racine residents and Leach’s writings on Racine County history, including chapters of his unpublished manuscript “The Story of Racine County, a History.” There are also records of the Racine Senate, 1844-1851, and the Racine Relief Association, 1883-1898.
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.
Kewaunee Memory Project
This collection from the Kewaunee Public Library includes photographs of ships built at the Kewaunee Shipping and Engineering Company (now Kewaunee Fabrications) during the World War II era, from 1941-1946. The photographs are from three albums stored at the Kewaunee Public Library in Kewaunee, Wisconsin.
Korean War Veterans of Mount Horeb
This collection contains oral histories, photographs, documents and color slides from six Mount Horeb residents who served in the Korean War.
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.
McFarland Gold Star Mothers
McFarland residents Mrs. Ole (Mary Lyster) Nelson and Mrs. Theodore Edwards were among the Gold Star Mothers who made a U.S. government-sponsored pilgrimage to France in 1930. Both Nelson and Edwards lost sons during World War I. This collection includes a diary, scrapbooks, letters, photographs and ephemera from the voyage as well as letters and photos from Helmer Nelson and Alvin Edwards’ World War I service.
Menominee Veterans Photographs
Portraits of veterans, including enrolled members of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin as well as local residents in Keshena, Shawano and the surrounding area, who served in World War II, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pardeeville Military Newspaper Clippings
Newspaper clippings from the Pardeeville-Wyocena Times about residents from Pardeeville, Wisconsin and surrounding areas who served in the military in World War II.
Richard Bong Photograph Collection
Richard Bong, from the small town of Poplar, Wisconsin, became a flying cadet in the US Army Air Corps, in time for America’s entry into World War II. Flying in a P-38 fighter plane, he shot down 40 confirmed enemy planes, more than any other American pilot, and became America’s all-time Ace of Aces. His many decorations for outstanding skills and extraordinary courage included the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Rufus and Charles King Collection 1830-1910
Writings and photographs of United States Army officer Charles King, who served in the American West and in the Phillipines. Also includes correspondence from King’s father Rufus King, who served as a General for the Wisconsin Volunteers (also known as the Iron Brigade) during the Civil War.
The Home Front – Manitowoc County in World War II
This collection documents the history of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin 1939-1947, including both universal homefront experiences and activities as they played out locally, and more unique activities that defined the area during WWII, specifically shipbuilding and manufacturing.
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.
Walter Butler Shipbuilders
Photographs from the Walter Butler shipyards of Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota during World War II, covering the years 1940-1945.
Wisconsin Goes to War: Our Civil War Experience
First person narrative accounts of Wisconsin soldiers and citizens during the Civil War, including letters, diaries, poems and other records.
Wisconsin in the Civil War
To mark the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), the Wisconsin Historical Society created this digital collection containing dozens of diaries, regimental histories and book-length memoirs, thousands of soldiers’ letters, hundreds of newspaper articles and more than 1,000 photographs, maps and other images.
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.
World War II Veterans of Mount Horeb
This collection brings together books, photographs, audio interviews, slides, personal scrapbooks and memorabilia collected from Mt. Horeb-area veterans of WWII.
