Wisconsin Digital Collections
Below are several digital collections from the Wisconsin Historical Society. For a full list click here.
- March on MilwaukeeThis digital collection presents primary sources that provide a window onto Milwaukee’s civil rights history. During the 1960s, community members waged protests, boycotts, and legislative battles against segregation and discriminatory practices in schools, housing, and social clubs. The efforts of these activists and their opponents are documented in the primary sources found here, including photographs, unedited news film footage, text documents, and oral history interviews.
- Somos Latinas Oral History ProjectThe Somos Latinas (We Women) History Project (2012-2016) was created to document the many significant and largely hidden contributions of Latinas in Wisconsin engaged in their communities to positively impact society in K-12 and post-secondary education, civil rights, women's rights, domestic abuse services, immigration reform, political representation, peace and justice, and other areas.
- Turning Points in Wisconsin HistoryLearn about the most important historic events in Wisconsin through hundreds of eyewitness accounts, pictures, archaeological sites, rare books, museum objects, early engravings, handwritten manuscripts, essays, lesson plans and reference tools. From early native peoples, geography, Indian Mounds, Aztalan, and Iroquois Wars through response to 20th century change, Turning Points in Wisconsin History covers more than 12,000 years of Wisconsin History.
- Wisconsin in the Civil WarRead 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, totaling more than 20,000 original documents. The Civil War (1861-1865) was one of the bloodiest and most tragic, with over 600,000 soldiers killed. During its four long years, more than 90,000 Wisconsin soldiers fought for the Union cause. This collection goes beyond basic facts about Wisconsin military units. It offers personal, in-depth, and moving portraits of Wisconsin soldiers in war.
- Wisconsin Sound ArchiveThe Wisconsin Sound Archive is an ongoing effort to digitize and make the audio heritage from and about the state of Wisconsin available to the public online. While this digital collection is still growing, we anticipate a rich collection of recordings spanning the state of Wisconsin that will include traditional oral histories or historical reminiscences; captured events, such as speeches and conferences; limited commercial recordings, such as radio and advertising; interviews; environmental recordings, and more.
- Wisconsin Women's HistoryThe Wisconsin Women's History digital collection shares a selection of manuscripts and ephemera documenting the lives of women in Wisconsin. Begun in 2015, it focuses initially on women who were active in social movements such as suffrage, temperance, abolition, civil rights, and other efforts to reform society, especially those whose careers are summarized at the Wisconsin Women Making History website.
On This Page
This page provides links to online archival collections.
But what, exactly are archives? Unlike materials held in libraries, which have all been published (meaning, they were created with the intention of making many copies available to many people), archives are unpublished material. They are evidence of everyday life and business created for a purpose other than having them used by outside people. Archives can be any format of material, such as letters, diaries, meeting minutes, photographs, or tweets. Archival collections are kept together in groups based on their creator.
National Digital Collections
- Digital Public Library of AmericaThe DPLA is an umbrella organization that brings together millions of digital collections from cultural heritage institutions across the the U.S.
- Library of Congress Digital CollectionsA vast array of material from the U.S. and beyond held at the Library of Congress.