Neenah Public Library Local History Collection

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Jump to: About the Collection | Local Histories | City Directories | Phone Directories | Plat Map | Photographs | Funding | Technical Note | Copyright

About the Collection

Neenah, a city of 25,000, is a part of the Fox Cities and located in east-central Wisconsin, on the northwest shore of Lake Winnebago. Originally known as Winnebago Rapids, Neenah was incorporated as a village in 1856 and had a population of 1,296 in 1860. Thanks in part to its location on the Fox River, in the mid-1800’s Neenah attracted flourmills and the lumber industry. By the 1870’s paper mills began to take over the industrial landscape of the area and has continued to play an important role in the city’s economy.

The Neenah Public Library’s digital collection presents the history of Neenah primarily from the early 1800’s to the 1950’s. The two Neenah histories highlight the development and important events of Neenah from pre-settlement to the late 1950’s. The city directories provide valuable information to genealogists, while the searchable photograph collection captures life in the Neenah area from the mid-1800’s to the 1950’s. Neenah’s digital collection will be of use to local historians, students, genealogists, and anyone interested in the history of Neenah!

Local Histories

History of Neenah, Illustrated by G. A. Cunningham (1878).

Written by the editor of the Neenah Gazette, this title is a self-described "brief sketch of earlyday Neenah history." The "History of Neenah" covers the settlement and development of Neenah in the early to late nineteenth century, includes a section on "Neenah in the Rebellion," a city directory of every male over 21, a business directory, and a history of churches in Neenah.

 

A History of Neenah by S. F. Shattuck (1958).

 

Index to Shattuck History of Neenah, 1878-1958 and a summary of earlier years by Terry A. Nyman (1979).

Compiled by S. F. Shattuck in collaboration with the Neenah Historical Society. This work is divided into two parts. Part I highlights and evaluates significant developments and events of Neenah, decade by decade, from the 1840's to the 1950's. Part II describes individual service and manufacturing businesses, church history, social organizations, city government, Theda Clark Hospital, and local schools. The Neenah Historical Society generously granted permission to provide this work digitally.

 

Memories of Doty Island: a link between two cities edited by Winifred Anderson Pawlowski (1999).

An informal history of Doty Island primarily before World War II. The book highlights the settlement of the island, the history of churches and schools, business and industrial development, and more. Doty Island is divided between the cities of Neenah and Menasha.

 

Neenah Historical and Architectural Survey Project: Intensive Survey Report by Peter Adams (1982).

The survey was prepared in 1982, and its purpose was to compile a list of districts and individual properties within Neenah that were potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The survey studied 1,087 properties within the City of Neenah. Included in the survey report is a brief history of Neenah, short biographies of prominent citizens, the history of various residential and commercial districts, and background information on selected properties.

 

The Parks of Neenah: an historical interpretation by William E. Dunwiddie (1993).

A history of the origins and development of parks in the City of Neenah

 

Valley of the Lower Fox: historical, descriptive, picturesque/Art Publishing Company (1887).

An informal history of the Lower Fox Valley including a collection of photographs mainly from the late nineteenth century of the Fox Valley region from Neenah to DePere.

 

Art Work of the Fox River Valley by Deborah Beaumont Martin (1902).

A collection of turn of the century photographs primarily of the Lower Fox River Valley from Neenah to Green Bay. An informal history of the region with some background information on local communities is also included.

 

Windows of worship: stained glass windows in the churches of Neenah and Menasha: a photo album by Philip Munroe (2002).

Color photographs of the stained glass windows of the churches of Neenah and Menasha. Some background information is included for most of the churches.

 

History of the Neenah-Nodaway Yacht Club of Neenah, Wisconsin: an account yacht racing on Lake Winnebago from 1859 to 1957 by James C. Kimberly (1957).

A history of the club and yacht racing on Lake Winnebago including photographs and race results.

 

Centennial story, 1848-1948: program, history, letters, and tributes/First Presbyterian Church (1948).

 

First Presbyterian Church, Neenah, Wisconsin, 1848-1998; 150 years of mission and ministry/First Presbyterian Church (1999).

 

The Council Tree/Neenah High School (1920).

The yearbook for the Neenah High School class of 1920. The yearbook includes faculty and senior photographs, and group photographs of the junior, sophomore, and freshman classes.

 

The Cub: the Neenah High School annual/Neenah High School (1926).

 

The Cub: the Neenah High School annual/Neenah High School (1928).

 

Soil Survey of Winnebago County, Wisconsin (1932).

 

Neenah and Menasha Water Power Co. Fox and Wisconsin Improvement Co. letter to the Secretary of War, relative to storage of water in Lake Winnebago, complete history of the Neenah Dam. Its private ownership and rights/Crescent Printing House (1900).

 

25 Years of Basketball at Neenah High School Under Ole Jorgensen, 1926-1951

 

City Directories

Sterling's Neenah, Wis. Directory, 1920-21.

 

Sterling’s Menasha, Wis. Directory, 1920-21.

 

Wright’s Neenah City Directory, 1924.

 

Wright’s Menasha City Directory, 1924.

 

Zabel’s rural route directory of Winnebago County, 1928.

 

Neenah-Menasha, Wisconsin community directory, 1928.

 

W. H. Lightfoot Co.’s Winnebago County, Wis. Directory 1928-1929.

 

Neenah-Menasha, Wisconsin, city directory, 1931.

 

Neenah-Menasha, Wisconsin, community directory, 1934.

 

Neenah-Menasha, Wisconsin, community directory, 1937.

 

Neenah-Menasha, Wisconsin, community directory, 1939.

An alphabetical directory of heads of households and other adult residents of a household. Each listing usually provides occupation and place of employment of the individual, and first name of a spouse if applicable. The directories also provide a street address directory, a business directory, a listing of local governmental departments, churches, social organizations, and clubs.

Phone Directories

Directory of Neenah, Menasha and Appleton exchanges/Wisconsin Telephone Company (1907).

 

Neenah-Menasha telephone directory including Appleton, Greenville, and Little Chute/Wisconsin Telephone Company (1913).

 

Plat Map

Atlas of Winnebago County, Wisconsin/W.W. Hixson & Co. (1928).

Atlas of Winnebago County, Wisconsin/W.W. Hixson & Co. (1928). The atlas provides plat maps of Winnebago County, Wisconsin including property owners and the amount of acreage owned by individuals. City maps of Neenah, Menasha, Oshkosh, Omro, and Winneconne are included.

Photographs

Local Photographs

A collection of 400 photographs of the Neenah-Menasha area, primarily from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. The collection includes photographs of small businesses and industries, churches, schools, parks, downtown and neighborhood scenes, and the people of Neenah-Menasha at work and play.

For further sources on Neenah and Winnebago County see:

• Neenah Public Library Genealogy and Local History Links
• Oshkosh Atlases and Histories-UWDC Wisconsin Collection
• University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Area Research Center

Funding

The Neenah Public Library Local History Collection is a collaborative project completed by the UWDCC and the Neenah Public Library.

Neenah Public Library Local History Collection was funded, in part, through a 2006 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant. This grant provided financial support for public libraries to digitize and make available online, their local library resources. For more information about LSTA grants in Wisconsin, contact the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning or visit the LSTA grant Web site at: http://dpi.wi.gov/pld/lsta.html.

Technical Note

Please note that full-text searching for the electronic-facsimile texts in our collections is based on uncorrected OCR (Optical Character Recognition) results. While such text is often highly accurate, it will contain errors that may affect your search results. In particular, texts with the following characteristics are particularly prone to error (in some cases, accuracy for such texts is so low that we have decided not to attempt to provide full-text searching):

• Hand-written texts;
• Texts that contain diacritics;
• Texts that contain non-Latin scripts;
• Texts that contain obsolete characters (including the "long S" [looks like an "f"]);
• Texts that are printed in a font in which the letters are difficult for the software to differentiate.

Copyright Statement

These materials may be copied freely by individuals or libraries for personal use, research, teaching ( including distribution to classes), or any "fair use" as defined by copyright laws. Fair use is specifically an American legal doctrine that is not found in most other national copyright laws. The British commonwealth nations have a concept of "fair dealing" but it is much more restrictive in scope. Our reserve policy, for example, is based on "fair use" in U.S. copyright law. Please include this statement and author or photographer attribution with any copies you make. The materials may be linked to freely in non-commercial, non-subscription Internet editions created for an educational purpose.

Anyone interested in any other use of these materials, including for-profit Internet editions, should obtain permission from the Univeristy of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries; and the Neenah Public Library