The records of the Wisconsin Department of the Woman's Relief Corps consist of records of local Wisconsin corps and a small quantity of documentation pertaining to the departmental level of the organization. In addition to this collection, which was processed and microfilmed in 1988, the Society holds the records of several disbanded corps that presented their files to the Historical Society individually. These records had been catalogued as separate collections prior to 1988 and housed at various area research centers. As a result, they were not added to this microfilm collection.
LOCAL CORPS RECORDS primarily consist of minute books returned to the departmental headquarters when local corps disbanded due to declining membership during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. For a few local organizations, there are also financial records (sometimes interspersed within the minutes), correspondence, and scrapbooks.
The majority of the local corps are documented only during their last years, but there are long runs for several groups such as Columbus (134, Brown), Delavan (59, Thomas), Evansville (28, Sutphen), Fond du Lac (35, Brown), Monticello (83, Ross), Neenah (101, Lewis), and Omro (94, Sawyer). Also notable, although less extensive are files containing records of the organization's early days such as the records of the Colwell Corps #2 of La Crosse, which was one of the seven founding Wisconsin corps, and the records of the organization in Hillsboro.
DEPARTMENTAL RECORDS consist of several histories of the organization, sample forms, and copies of the published circular letters and general orders which pertained to Wisconsin. Published reports, convention proceedings, and rosters of the Wisconsin department are held by the Society Library.
