"localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu" Archive - New WHO collections now available; more to follow!

1200 new items from 11 new coll ections now available in Wisconsin Heritage Online portal

Wisconsin Heritage Onl ine is excited to announce that 1200 photographs, documents and artifa cts from eleven new digital collections were recently added to the WHO p ortal, http://wisconsinheritage.org Ten of these new collections are local history projects hoste d by the Milwaukee Public Library and supported by the Nicholas Family F oundation Outreach and Training Grant. The last is a group of beaded b andolier bags harvested from the Milwaukee Public Museum’s extensive a nthropology collections. Museum staff worked with the University of Wi sconsin’s Shared Development Group to extract a special feed of images and data from the Museum’s server.

The new collections bring the total number of WHO resources to nearly 50,000 digital items from collections across the state and further our mission to provide a one-stop source for state and local history research. For example, searching the portal for “corn” leads to photographs of corn harvests in Mineral Point, Richland Cente r, and Wisconsin Rapids as well as oral histories from Belgian farmers in Brussels, Wisconsin and a fur trader’s account of crops raised b y the Fox and Sauk Indians. A search for “baseball” brings up imag es of early baseball teams at St. Norbert College, a 1940s program f rom women’s softball team the Kenosha Comets, and a snapshot of form er governor Tommy Thompson shaking hands with the mascot for the Madison Muskies.

Routine data harvesting for the WHO portal has resumed thanks to funding provided by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction D ivision for Libraries, Technology and Community Learning via a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant as well as a grant from the Ni cholas Family Foundation. Technical support for the harvest is provide d by the University of Wisconsin’s Shared Development Group. By earl y 2011, a total of 32 new collections will be added to the portal. S tay tuned for further updates!

Sea rch the WHO portal, http://wisconsinh eritage.org to explore these new and growing collections:
· Blanchardville Historical Society: lo cal history publications
· Hales Corne rs Historical Society: a “visual census” of local homes and busine sses
· Langlade County Historical Soc iety, Antigo: images of Ojibwe and Menominee settlements in northern Wisconsin by photographer A. J. Kingsbury

· McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids: local histor y books, clippings, photos and postcards

· Milwaukee Public Museum: beaded bandolier bags from Great Lake s tribes
· Portage Historical Society: “Tales of Old Portage” news clippings
· Preservation Racine, Inc.: four decades of member newsletters
· Richland County History Room, Richlan d Center: local history photographs
· S outh Wood County Historical Corporation, Wisconsin Rapids: images of farm and community life by photographer Lawrence Oliver

· St. Norbert College Mulva Library, De Pere: p hotographs of life on campus and the Norbertines of St. Norbert Abbey
· Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, Milwaukee: original drawings by master blacksmith Cyril Colnik