Little is known about the provenance of the Original Collection, as a representative of the Archives did not have the opportunity to survey its condition at WLA headquarters prior to donation to the Society in 1981. As a result, it is not known if the collection represents all of the historical records then in existence, or if it was only the material which the association wished to donate at the time. A large portion of the donated material received appears to have been collected and arranged for reference purposes and to have been stored in the association's library. Even a number of the files containing correspondence and other materials normally more characteristic of administrative working files rather than library material bear evidence of having been been part of the library holdings.
Taken as a whole, the records are very incomplete, and few of the administrative departments are represented in the collection. The collection is organized as historical material, administrative records, subject files, sanatorium files, employee files, local and regional files, records of subsidiary organizations, and publications. It includes minutes, correspondence, reports, charts, photographs, publications and publicity.
The HISTORICAL MATERIAL consists of brief, published and unpublished histories and selected original documents of a related character. A longer published history, The House of the Open Door, written by Harold Holand for the 50th anniversary of the Wisconsin Lung Association in 1958 is available in the Society Library. In the employee files is Louise Fenton Brand's lengthy manuscript history which Holand used in preparing his book.
The ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS include several revised articles of incorporation and extensive runs of minutes of meetings of the board of directors and its executive committee, 1908-1969; its staff (later issued as a mimeographed publication known as This is What Happened and Staff Meeting Forum), mainly 1924-1977; and its department heads, 1943-1969. The executive board minutes were loaned to the Historical Society for filming, after which the originals were returned to the donor. In 1989 the staff minutes were also filmed because of the deteriorating physical condition of the earlier part of this series. (Selected older materials elsewhere in the collection were also filmed at the same time.) The staff minutes are an extremely useful resource, containing detailed information not only on the activities of the association but also of other tuberculosis efforts around the state. Except for a few items from 1919, the minutes prior to 1924 are nonexistent; gaps also exist for the period 1933-1938, 1964, and 1974. The inclusion in the collection of minutes of both a voluntary organization's board of directors and its professional staff warrants special note, as it provides an unusual research resource for students of organizational behavior and administration.
The alphabetically-arranged SUBJECT FILES, as noted above, are of mixed provenance, including reference material and working files. Although the files incompletely cover the association's history and activities, there are significant files here created by Hoyt Dearholt on programs dating from the 1920s and 1930s concerning Indians, children, and other topics. Coverage of concern with the health of Milwaukee blacks, which also dated to the 1920s but which begins in the collection in 1938, includes information on the work of the Volunteer Committee and on several initiatives begun during the urban unrest of the late 1960s. Also of interest are files on the participation of various Wisconsin people in the Mississippi Valley Conference of Tuberculosis (a complete transcript of proceedings is included for the 1926 conference) and the Pembine Therapy conferences, and information on WATA programs for dealing with Selective Service rejectees during World War II. (A similar program concerning World War I is not represented in the papers.) Also included here is a file of letters exchanged between Hoyt Dearholt and librarian Frank A. Hutchins, a leader in WATA.
The STAFF FILES and the SANATORIUM FILES are alphabetical reference files, and it is possible that both may have been collected by Holand for his research work. In the employee files are biographical clippings, writings, memorabilia, correspondence, and minutes, as well as an early directory of WATA employees. For Metta Bean, Hoyt Dearholt, Oscar Lotz, and Frank Reich there is also information here on the memorials established in their honor. For Bean, Dearholt, and Lotz these files consist of information on the annual lectures which bore their names. For Reich, who headed Lake Tomahawk State Camp for the rehabilitation of former patients, there are minutes, correspondence, and financial files on the loan program established to aid recovering patients. Writings filed in this series include Louise Fenton Brand's lengthy unpublished manuscript on the WATA and a large quantity of reprints of medical articles by Dearholt and Lotz. The files on Will Ross include a copy of his influential, privately-printed book, My Personal Experience with Tuberculosis (which is not included in his own papers); an unpublished manuscript, “Captain White Plague”; and some circular letters of his hospital supply company, Will Ross, Inc. A file of photographic portraits of many of these individuals is available in the SHSW Visual and Sound Archives.
The SANATORIUM FILES contain similar material relating to Wisconsin's twenty-two public and private tuberculosis sanatoriums. Included are miscellaneous reports, surveys of facilities, patient handbooks, clippings, photographs, and historical miscellany, all primarily covering the period from the late 1930s through the early 1950s. For River Pines, there is also an extensive scrapbook of advertising material, 1908-1929, sent to Dearholt in his capacity as a founder of that institution. Annual reports of the county-run institutions originally included in this file have been removed from the collection and are available in the documents section of the SHSW Library. Articles from The Crusader, which is an excellent historical resource and which is also available in the SHSW Library, were also weeded from the files. Photographs originally included in these series are available in the Visual Material Archives.
Files on the SUBSIDIARY ORGANIZATIONS concern the Come Back Clubs, which were established to aid in the rehabilitation of patients, and the Wisconsin Sanatorium Trustees Association. The Come Back Clubs, the first of which was established in 1942, were evidence of the emphasis that Wisconsin placed upon rehabilitation. The collection contains minutes of the Milwaukee Club and the Wisconsin Council of Come Back Clubs and mimeographed bulletins concerning club activities around the state. The WSATA was one of several organizations by which WATA worked to improve medical conditions in Wisconsin's sanatoriums. The WSTA is documented by a run of minutes, 1931-1974.
The LOCAL AND REGIONAL FILES, which are arranged alphabetically by locality, are quite incomplete covering only cities and counties beginning with the letters L through W. Nevertheless, the files do provide a glimpse of the activities of loabetically by locality, are quite incomplete covering only cities and counties beginning with the letters L through W. Nevertheless, the files do provide a glimpse of the activities of local organizations, which were given greater emphasis later in the association's life, and of the the work of the Qualification and Contracts Committee and the Local Associations and Volunteer Services office.
The PUBLICATIONS series includes representation of most association publications except for The Crusader, one of the oldest such journals of its type, which is available in the Society Library. Included are publications for children and for workers in WATA's educational and social work programs; “county strips,” which summarized data on the incidence of tuberculosis in Wisconsin by county; Target TB, which concerned the activities of local associations; handbooks on services provided by the state organization, reports of studies and surveys including the important study of Dunn County in 1911; brochures published or distributed by WATA; and posters.
