Summary Information
Elsa Emile Ulbricht Papers
1905-1978
- Ulbricht, Elsa Emile, 1885-1980
UWM Manuscript Collection 59
- 1.6 cubic ft. (4 boxes)
- 1 oversize folder
- 2 audio reels
- 5 audio cassettes
- 19 digital audio files (7.83 GB)
- 985 digital image files (143 GB)
UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)
Miscellaneous personal papers of the former Wisconsin State
College, Milwaukee professor and chair of the Art Department, including audio cassette
tapes, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, scrapbooks, and slides. The
majority of the papers document Ulbricht's involvement with the Works Progress
Administration (WPA) Handicraft Project in Milwaukee, which employed workers to make
draperies, books, dolls, costumes, furniture, rugs, and prints. Some files were contemporary
with the Handicraft Project; others were produced at a later date. Ulbricht's records of the
Handicraft Project include scrapbooks on the design and use of marionettes and puppets for
project staff and general administrative files. Ulbricht's correspondence files, dating from
1909 to 1978, contain letters to and from friends and colleagues on a variety of topics,
including personal and professional activities and some discussion of the Handicraft
Project. The collection also contains Ulbricht's notes, text, and drawings and plates for an
unpublished book entitled A Crafts Philosophy, and files on
her activities at the Summer School of Painting in Saugatuck, Michigan, which she
directed.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-mil-uwmmss0059 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Elsa Ulbricht was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 18, 1885. In 1906 she received a
diploma from the Wisconsin State Normal School in Milwaukee and taught kindergarten from
1906 to 1909 in the Milwaukee Public Schools. Ulbricht received a certificate from the
Wisconsin School of Art in 1909 and a diploma from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York,
in 1911 and in 1930 a bachelor's degree in education from the Milwaukee State Teachers
College. She taught art and art education at the Milwaukee State Teachers College from 1911
to 1950 and the Wisconsin State College, Milwaukee, from 1951 until her retirement in 1955.
She served as director of the Art Department from 1953 to 1955. Ulbricht died on March 13,
1980.
In 1935 Ulbricht became the director and organizer of the government-sponsored Works
Progress Administration (WPA) Handicraft Project. The project helped remove hundreds from
the welfare rolls and provided many workers with the training and skills they needed to
qualify for jobs in the private sector; over five thousand unskilled poor women, paid $50
per month, produced work for this program making useful artistic items including draperies,
books, dolls, costumes, furniture, rugs, and prints. Ulbricht hired about 50 artists at $75
a month to teach the workers craft skills and design articles that could be mass produced.
The results of this project reached every state and attracted the attention of Eleanor
Roosevelt, who came to visit Milwaukee and its WPA Handicraft Project. The project was
discontinued in 1943 largely as a result of the economic recovery and the availability of
jobs in the private sector.
Preferred Citation
Citation Guide for Primary Sources
Related Material in the UWM Libraries
Special Collections has several items produced by the Milwaukee WPA Handicraft Project,
many cataloged with the subject heading Handicraft--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Researchers must use digital access copies of digitized audio records. There are no
access restrictions on the materials, and the collection is open to all members of the
public in accordance with state law.
The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel,
privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin
Statutes 19.21-19.39).
The Archives has no release forms signed by Ulbricht for her interviews, so her estate or
heirs retain copyright to the recordings.
Mary Rice, Jeune Wussow and Robert Losse (nephew of Elsa Ulbricht) donated the collection
to the Archives in 1981 (no accession number assigned). In August 2007, John Losse,
grand-nephew of Elsa Ulbricht, donated additional papers (accession 2007-019).
Angela R. Cisco processed the original donation at the Archives in September through
December 1994. Michael Doylen supervised Jody Hoks in processing the 2007-019 addition in
March 2008.
George Blood L.P digitized the audio recordings in February 2016. Audio preservation
master files were created as 96 kHz/24-bit resolution 2 channel broadcast .wav files.
Audio access copies were created as 44 kHz/192 kbps bit rate 2 channel .mp3 files.
In March 2008, Michael Doylen transferred to Special Collections the following samples of
WPA Handicraft Project materials: volume 1 and 3 of Applied Design:
Blockprinted Textiles, Ludwig Cinatl, Jr.'s Come and
Sing, Kendrick Bell's At the Zoo, and a handmade
book.
Contents List
|
Box
1
Folder
1
|
Archives of American Art, 1963-1966
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
2
|
"Art in Elementary Schools",
undated
|
|
|
Audio
1
|
Art Education, undated
Audio cassette
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
3
|
Awards, 1925-1980
|
|
|
|
|
|
Electronic Folder
\Box01\
Folder04\
|
Digital
99 digital files (25 GB)
: Digitized sample of folder
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
4
|
Physical
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
1
|
Biography, Scrapbook, 1918-1970
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
5
|
Bookbinding, 1917
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
6
|
The Castolite Company, 1962
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
7
|
Children's Art Work, Slides, 1951-1952, 1970-1976
|
|
|
|
|
|
Electronic Folder
\Box01\
Folder08\
|
Digital
51 digital files (2.93 GB)
: Digitized sample of folder
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
8
|
Physical
|
|
|
|
|
|
Electronic Folder
\Box01\
Folder09\
|
Digital
187 digital files (35.1 GB)
: Digitized sample of folder
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
9
|
Physical
|
|
|
Box
4
Folder
1
|
Correspondence, 1958-1975
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
10
|
Correspondence, 1966-1978
|
|
|
Box
4
Folder
2
|
Correspondence, Wallace Kirkland, 1952-1973, undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
11
|
Craft Outlines, undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
12
|
"Crafts Philosophy", Notes and Drafts,
undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
13
|
"Crafts Philosophy", Plates,
undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
14
|
"Crafts Philosophy", Text,
undated
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
15
|
Creative Writing, undated
|
|
|
Oversize Folder
1
|
Drawings, undated
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
1
|
"Education for Artists in Milwaukee:
1900-1923", by George Richard, circa 1960
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
2
|
"Highwayman: A Puppet Play in Three Acts",
undated
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
3
|
Hillside Class Project, Slides, 1965
|
|
|
Audio
2
|
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
4
|
"Kindergartner's Qualifications",
1905
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
5
|
"Making and Leafing a Picture Frame",
undated
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
6
|
Milwaukee State Teacher's College, Slides,
1951-1952
|
|
|
|
|
|
Electronic Folder
\Box02\
Folder07\
|
Digital
149 digital files (28.2 GB)
: Digitized sample of folder
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
7
|
Physical
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
8
|
"Objectives in Art Education",
1938
|
|
|
Photographs, undated
|
|
|
Digital
|
|
|
Electronic Folder
\Box02\
Folder09\
|
|
|
|
Electronic Folder
\Box02\
Folder10\
|
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
9-10
|
Physical
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
11
|
Printing, 1929-1937
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
12
|
Proposal for a Department of Educational Extensions,
1939
|
|
|
Audio
3
|
Puppets and Marionettes Within the School Systems,
undated
Audio cassette
|
|
|
Audio
6
|
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
13
|
Summer School of Painting at Saugatuck, Michigan,
1928-1966
|
|
|
Summer School of Painting at Saugatuck, Michigan, Marionettes Scrapbook,
1937
|
|
|
Electronic Folder
\Box03\
Folder03\
|
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
3
|
Physical
|
|
|
|
|
|
Electronic Folder
\Box04\
Folder03\
|
Digital
33 digital files (6.17 GB)
: Digitized sample of folder
|
|
|
Box
4
Folder
3
|
Physical
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
4
|
Weaving, 1929-1962
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
14
|
Willem van Langereis vs. Elsa Ulbricht, et al.,
1936-1937
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
15
|
Wisconsin Society of Applied Arts, 1938-1939
|
|
|
Works Progress Administration, Handicraft Project
|
|
|
|
|
|
Electronic Folder
\Box02\
Folder16\
|
Digital
93 digital files (2.07 GB)
: Digitized sample of folder
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
16
|
Physical
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
17
|
General, 1937-1939
|
|
|
|
|
|
Electronic Folder
\Box02\
Folder18\
|
Digital
25 digital files (1.22 GB)
: Digitized sample of folder
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
18
|
Physical
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
5
|
Marionettes, Scrapbook, 1935-1936
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
6
|
Puppetry, Scrapbook, undated
|
|
|
|
|
|
Electronic Folder
\Box03\
Folder07\
|
Digital
50 digital files (31.1 GB)
: Digitized sample of folder
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
7
|
Physical
|
|
|
Audio
4
|
|
|
|
WPA + 35, Milwaukee Handicraft Project Retrospective Exhibition
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
8
|
1968-1970
|
|
|
Audio
5
|
|
|
|
Audio
7
|
|
|
|
