Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative

Digitizing Local History with the Middleton Area Historical Society

by Russell Knapp, UW-Madison iSchool (2025) This past semester, I had the pleasure of working with Middleton Area Historical Society (MAHS) as a part of the Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative. My project included digitizing items held by MAHS that related to the history of the transportation and hospitality industries in the town of Middleton. This… Read More…

Locating the “Local” in Our History at Menomonee Falls Public Library

by Elizabeth Feucht, UW-Milwaukee School of Information Studies This spring semester, I’ve had the privilege of working with the Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative and Menomonee Falls Public Library to digitize an array of objects from the Maude Shunk Local History Room Archives. These included ledgers, reports, a scrapbook, and other ephemera produced by the (erstwhile)… Read More…

Meet our Summer 2025 Cohort

We are excited to announce our next Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative cohort starting in late May 2025. This initiative brings together Wisconsin content partners and information school graduate students to create new digital collections. Content partners will choose collections to digitize, and student staff will handle the digitization and metadata work as part of a paid practicum… Read More…

Digitizing the Brooks Stevens Collection

by Rebecca Silber, UW-Milwaukee School of Information Studies As part of the Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative, I was delighted to be paired up with the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) this spring, as a student participant. I hold a BFA and have a background in design, and so spending the semester focusing on digitizing, creating descriptive… Read More…

Meet Team Menomonee Falls Library

We’re excited to work with Team Menomonee Falls Library as part of the Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative! Founded in 1906, the Menomonee Falls Public Library encourages lifelong learning by providing materials, services, and programs to enrich our community’s educational, informational, and recreational needs. It also seeks to stimulate children’s appreciation for reading and interest in learning…. Read More…

Meet Team Middleton Area Historical Society

We are thrilled to be working with the Middleton Area Historical Society (MAHS) as part of the Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative! The Middleton Area Historical Society was established in 1972 with a mission to preserve and publicize the history of the Middleton, Wisconsin area. It is two museums – the Rowley House Museum and the… Read More…

Meet Team Washington Island Museums

We are thrilled to be working with the Washington Island museums this spring as part of the Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative! Their project includes photographing and digitizing materials held by the Jacobsens Museum, part of the Town of Washington Museums group. This includes boat models (schooners) built by Jens Jacobsen (1867-1952) in the late 1800s,… Read More…

Meet Team Milwaukee Art Museum

We are thrilled to be working with the Milwaukee Art Museum this spring as part of the Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative! Their project focuses on digitizing, creating descriptive information for and providing public access to materials from the Brooks Stevens Archive, one of several special Museum Collection archives acquired from the Stevens family in 1997…. Read More…

Spring Cohort Begins Digitization Work

Our Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative spring cohort commenced last week with a 3-hour virtual training event. Participants learned more about Recollection Wisconsin, the Digital Public Library of America and WiLS. Recollection Wisconsin staff presented key digitization best practices and shared knowledge, tools and resources to support students’ scanning, metadata creation, folder- and file-naming and organization schemes, digital preservation, and creating project… Read More…

Four Historic Wisconsin Businesses

by Jacqueline Steel, UW-Madison iSchool In fall 2024, I worked collaboratively with the Eagle River Historical Society and the Nicolet Federated Library System staff to digitize and describe a collection of materials that document historical resorts and supper clubs primarily in northern Wisconsin. Working with ERHS director Vito Bortolotti and NFLS director Tracy Vreeke, I… Read More…

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