Recollection Wisconsin brings together digital cultural resources from Wisconsin libraries, archives, museums and historical societies and shares them with the world in partnership with the Digital Public Library of America. It’s an online virtual library. The content of Recollection Wisconsin originates from physical libraries, museums and historical societies that have been converted into electronic media that can then be viewed by anyone in the world who has access to a computer and the internet.
The website access point is https://recollectionwisconsin.org/. From the home page, users can browse photos, books, maps, artifacts, and history topics or search for specific targeted items.
The Wisconsin gateway includes hundreds of thousands of photographs, maps, letters, diaries, oral histories, artifacts and other historical resources from more than 200 Wisconsin libraries, museums and other cultural heritage institutions of all sizes. These local treasures represent every county in the state and are freely and openly available to all. Users can search all items contributed by Content Partners or browse collections to explore a particular subject (like industry or immigration) or a specific format (like maps or yearbooks).
Just a few examples of some of the Wisconsin Content Partners who are putting their collections online include Chippewa Valley Museum, the Highground Veterans Memorial Park of Neillsville, L. E. Phillips Library (Eau Claire), Marathon County Historical Society, Milwaukee Public Library, Wisconsin Historical Society, and nearly 200 others from Wisconsin.
Recollection Wisconsin is free to use. There is no membership or user charges to access the materials, nor any hosting fees to the content partners. Recollection Wisconsin provides support and training to the content partners. Much of the content that has been loaded was made available online thanks to federal, state or local grants to libraries and historical societies from funders including the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (through the Library Services and Technology Act “Grants-to-States” program), National Endowment for the Humanities, Wisconsin Council for Local History, Wisconsin Humanities Council, University of Wisconsin System and various community-based donors. Recollection Wisconsin extends the visibility and use of these grant-funded projects by connecting local collections to state and national audiences.
Recollection Wisconsin is a consortium administered by the non-profit Wisconsin Library Services organization managed by six Governing Partners: Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Milwaukee Public Library and Marquette University.
Primary funding support for Recollection Wisconsin is provided by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
The Highground Veterans Memorial Park in Neillsville is presently the only group from Clark County that is partnered with Recollection Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Historical Society, however, who is an affiliate of the Owen-Withee Area Historical Society is one of the Governing Partners in Recollection Wisconsin.
The Taylor County Historical Society of Medford is one of the newest members to Recollection Wisconsin. Taylor County has contributed a series of oral interviews of Medford area veterans to the “Listening to War Series”. The series covers firsthand local veteran accounts of their experiences in World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam and the Gulf War.
If you have access to a computer, check out the website. It is a goldmine of information. The web address is https://recollectionwisconsin.org/.
