Title: Robert Weigend Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1951-1967 (bulk 1958-1965)

Creator:

• Weigend, Robert, 1926-2009

Call Number: Milwaukee Mss 221; PH Milwaukee Mss 221; AD 402-AD 403; CB 842

Quantity: 2.2 c.f. (6 archives boxes), 203 transparencies (1 flat box), 38 photographs and 10 negatives (1 archives box), and 3 films (16 mm)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Center
Contact Information

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of civil engineer Robert Weigend, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin civil defense employee who specialized in fallout shelter surveying and planning. The collection documents his work on local civil defense efforts, especially relating to evacuation and fallout shelter planning in Milwaukee. Records date from 1951 to 1967 (mainly 1958 to 1965). Materials include civil defense informational handouts and pamphlets, assorted disaster plans, memos, agendas, maps, shelter information, research on creating a KP Corps, and other financial and administrative documents relating to the county and city’s civil defense procedures and preparations for nuclear attack. Also included are notes and research related to Weigend’s work for the Wisconsin Electric Power Company, as well as materials related to civil defense courses he taught to the general public and to architects and engineers.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mil00221

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

Robert Edward Weigend, a civil engineer, was born on June 16, 1926 in Columbus, Wisconsin and married Carol E. Weigend with whom he had three sons. Weigend served as a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Engineering Corps from 1946-1948. He received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin in June 1953, and was a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Wisconsin. He began working for the City of Milwaukee Civil Defense Administration in June of 1958 as a civil engineer, and remained employed there until 1964. He worked on several different projects during this time period, all of which involved civil defense for Milwaukee in case of a nuclear attack. When he left the Civil Defense Administration in 1964, he went to work for the Wisconsin Electric Power Company, where his job was to develop a power grid system that could survive a nuclear attack.

Weigend was also involved in civil defense education. He contributed to materials for courses offered at the Department of Defense Staff College in Battle Creek, Michigan (the regional DOD headquarters), and he led workshops aimed at educating the general public about surviving a nuclear event. He also worked part time for the University of Wisconsin Engineering Extension Division, teaching civil defense courses to architects and engineers.

Active in his professional community, Weigend was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Wisconsin Society of Professional Engineers, and the American Society for Public Administration. He also served as a consultant to the Milwaukee-Waukesha Chapter of the American Red Cross and was on the American Red Cross Shelter Subcommittee.

Robert Weigend died August 7, 2009.

The materials in this collection date from 1951 to 1967, with the bulk of records dating from about 1958 to 1965. It is divided into four series: MILWAUKEE CIVIL DEFENSE, WISCONSIN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY, TEACHING, and VISUAL MATERIALS. Robert Weigend's papers showcase the work he did planning for and implementing initiatives in the Milwaukee area that aimed to protect the population in the event of a nuclear attack. More broadly, the collection offers a look at how federal civil defense initiatives were addressed and carried out at both the local and state levels. The bulk of the materials relate to two of Robert Weigend's main civil defense projects: the Milwaukee Metropolitan Target Area Survival Plan and the Fallout Shelter Survey of Milwaukee. These records include Weigend's research and notes, maps, fallout shelter plans and survey forms, correspondence, agendas, and newspaper clippings, plus films, photographs, negatives, and transparencies. Records dated prior to 1958 are mainly copies of ordinances, resolutions, publications and reports likely used by Weigend for research; the same is true of records dated after 1964.

The collection documents Weigend's various activities, including teaching civil defense courses to both the general public and professional architects and engineers, designing fallout shelters, surveying fallout shelters and structures/spaces conducive to fallout shelters, and planning evacuation routes. Largely absent from the collection is personal information. Included in the case file is one newspaper article from 1999, in which Robert and Carol are both interviewed regarding his work and the fallout shelter he built in their basement. This article provides some personal information, as does a résumé found in the University Extension Courses subseries.

The MILWAUKEE CIVIL DEFENSE series is by far the largest, spanning from 1954 to 1963 and documenting all of Weigend's years as a civil engineer for the city. This series provides a wealth of information regarding preparations by the Milwaukee government to both prepare and protect people in case of nuclear attack. Included are records that show the work that went into the Milwaukee Metropolitan Target Area Survival Plan, such as reports, studies, articles, correspondence, and drafts (including a final one) of the plan with Weigend's edits and notes. While he contributed to the survival plan in several ways, his main contribution was the planning of evacuation routes; the material reflects this and includes many maps of the Milwaukee area, which are marked with information about population, supplies, manufacturers, medical facilities and routes. Also well documented in this series is the Fallout Shelter Survey of Milwaukee. Weigend was the director of the survey and worked on it from inception to completion, including weathering a period when the project was challenged by an alderman and put on hold while the staff proved their and their project's worth. Included are newspaper clippings about the project (many of which name or quote Weigend), fallout shelter research and plans (many sealed by Weigend), information about tax incentives for people who built shelters, correspondence with other government employees and officials, completed survey forms, agendas, financial information, and the official Fallout Shelter Survey of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1962. There are also some documents and notes related to developing a K9 Corps in Milwaukee.

The WISCONSIN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY series documents at least a portion of the time that Weigend worked there. How long he was an employee there is unknown, but these records date from 1965-1966, and consist entirely of Weigend's research and notes about developing a power grid system that could survive a nuclear attack. There are government publications, articles, notes from a course he took about industrial civil defense, and some correspondence.

The TEACHING series spans from 1953-1967, and includes materials related to Weigend's teaching of civil defense courses and workshops. Some materials are related to the home defense courses he taught to the public, and others are related to the University of Wisconsin extension courses he taught to architects and engineers. These records include course lecture notes, papers, tests, class lists, and instructor guides. Also included are the application materials that Weigend prepared when applying to teach for the university, as well as correspondence with the university.

VISUAL MATERIALS is made up of items that apply to the MILWAUKEE CIVIL DEFENSE series and the TEACHING series, and include photographs, negatives, transparencies, and films. All of the photographs and negatives pertain to civil defense; these, plus many of the transparencies, are of various fallout shelters. Some transparencies are of civil defense employees at work and of tests done in the desert. The transparencies in the TEACHING subseries are about nuclear fallout. Two of the three films (City of Milwaukee and Blue Civil Defense Film) were shot by Weigend and are in the MILWAUKEE CIVIL DEFENSE subseries. City of Milwaukee consists of panoramic shots of the city from atop a tall building, and Blue Civil Defense Film shows rescue drills and civil defense employees outside their office. The third film, Family Fallout Skit by Staff: The Family Next Door, tells the story of a family that builds a fallout shelter and the neighbors' reactions; it was likely for teaching purposes. It is unclear whether or not the actors were Milwaukee Civil Defense employees; the person who filmed it is also unknown.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Carol Weigend, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 2008-June 2009. Accession Number: M2010-005

Processing Information

Processed by Marisa Hirsch (Practicum student), May 2010.

Milwaukee Mss 221	Series: Milwaukee Civil Defense
	Metropolitan Area Preparedness
	Milwaukee Metropolitan Target Area Survival Plan
Box   1 Folder   1-2	Final draft, undated
Box   1 Folder   6	Drafts, 1959
	Evacuation
Box   1 Folder   3	Routes, 1958-1961
Box   5 Folder   5	Correspondence, research and minutes, 1956, 1958-1959
Box   1 Folder   5	Study, 1954
	Milwaukee Target Area Movement Plan
Box   1 Folder   4	Drafts, 1958
	Civil Defense
Box   4 Folder   1	Education training, 1962
Box   1 Folder   7	Schools, undated
Box   3 Folder   5	Local publications and minutes, 1954, 1956, 1959-1960
	K9 Corps
Box   5 Folder   6	Development, 1958-1961
	Fallout Shelter Survey
Box   3 Folder   3	Fallout Shelter Survey of Milwaukee, official publication, 1962
Box   5 Folder   3	Articles, minutes, notes and information releases, 1960-1962
Box   5 Folder   4	Forms and shelter research, 1959-1961
	Shelter
Box   3 Folder   4	Information, policies, and tax exemptions, 1953-1966
Box   2 Folder   4	Research, 1959-1961
Box   3 Folder   1	Research and government information releases, 1961-1962
Box   3 Folder   2	Study and guide for architects and engineers, 1959-1960
Box   5 Folder   1-2	Construction, supplies and use, 1951, 1961-1963
	Shelter and survey research
Box   2 Folder   3	1958-1961
Box   2 Folder   5-6	1960-1961
Box   4 Folder   2-3	1961-1962
	Series: Wisconsin Electric Power Company	⇧
Box   2 Folder   1-2	Utility plant research, 1965-1966
Box   6 Folder   1-3	Industrial civil defense research, 1965
	Series: Teaching	⇧
	University Extension
Box   6 Folder   8	Courses, 1962-1965
	Public Education
	Civil defense
Box   6 Folder   6	Instructor guides, 1953, 1956, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1967, undated
Box   6 Folder   7	Training manual and school curriculum guide, 1956, undated
Box   6 Folder   5	Workshop leader's guides, undated
Box   6 Folder   4	Home Defense Course materials, 1959
PH Milwaukee Mss 221	Series: Visual Materials	⇧
	Milwaukee Civil Defense
	Metropolitan Area Preparedness
	Transparencies
Box   2 Folder   1	Opal 61 at 88th and Lisbon
Box   2 Folder   1	Rescue service trucks, DuPage County Control Center
Box   2 Folder   1	MCDA mobile comm. van, women's uniform, A-bomb bursts
	Films
AD 402	City of Milwaukee, 1958
AD 403	Blue Civil Defense Film, 1958
PH Milwaukee Mss 221	Fallout Shelter Survey
	Photographs
Box   2 Folder   1	Items to stock in fallout shelters, undated
Box   2 Folder   2	Fallout shelter construction, 1962, undated
	Negatives
Box   2 Folder   3	Fallout shelter construction negatives, undated
	Transparencies
Box   1	Civil defense fallout shelter survey
Box   1	Baley's shelter and Linus Ball's shelter
Box   1	Civil defense blast and shelter tests in desert
	Teaching
	Public Education
	Transparencies
Box   1	Civil defense training slides and scenes in Norad
	Films
CB 842	Family Fallout Skit by Staff: The Family Next Door, 1960