The records in the collection largely consist of correspondence, faculty and committee
minutes, scrapbooks, and exhibition planning materials. Correspondence is between department
faculty and the chair and the dean of the School of Fine Arts as well as the dean of the
School of Education prior to 1962. Committee minutes document appointment of faculty
positions, department curricula, and policy and public relations. Files include
documentation of the Paintbox Art Center, an inner-city community center which was
co-sponsored by the UWM School of Fine Arts, and the University Extension and grants from
Title One of the Higher Education Act.
Files pre-dating 1956 mainly document the activity of the Art Students' League, the
organization which preceded the Art Department of the Wisconsin State Normal School. Art
Students' League materials include class catalogs, student rosters, and news items. Also
included are several issues (1934-1937) of the Vermilion
Dachshund, books of woodcut prints published annually by art students of the
Milwaukee State Teachers College, a predecessor institution of UWM, in the mid-1930s. Also
of interest are files relating to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Handicraft Project
(1935-1943), which provided jobs for art graduates of the Milwaukee State Teachers
College.
