The Eugene Walter Leach Papers include Leach's unpublished manuscript for “The Story of Racine County, a History.” The collection also includes a biographical file of important Racine inhabitants, in addition to numerous files of clippings and manuscripts relating to Racine County. The collection contains seven scrapbooks, five of which contain clippings relating to the Spanish American War and the First World War. Also included in the collection are the records of the Racine Senate (1844-1851), and the Racine Relief Association (1883-1898).
The Visual Materials is mainly comprised of 19th and early 20th century portraits of Racine County Residents, including images of veterans, Methodist Episcopal ministers, and Baptist ministers. The portraits are cabinet cards, lithographs and copy prints of cartes-de-visite. The portraits are in two parts (PH 701 and PH 702) with each part alphabetical by surname. Names were transcribed as they appear on the image and notations made by Leach are noted in brackets after the name for PH 702. Some of the portraits include biographical information. Women are identified by their given name when known.
The visual materials also include photographs of natural disasters, soldiers, front pages of local newspapers, and proofs from Leach's books. The natural disasters include images of digging out a train caught by a blizzard in March 1961 and of the aftermath of the tornado of May 18, 1883, which to date is the fourth most deadly tornado in Wisconsin history.
