The Wisconsin Historical Records Survey produced 75 publications, including inventories of the records of 23 counties, two state agencies, several cities, villages and towns, and the federal agencies in the state; three volumes on county government; three volumes on county and town boundaries; four volumes of checklists of Wisconsin imprints; nine volumes on church records; a guide to manuscript depositories in Wisconsin; several volumes of transcribed territorial county board proceedings; and numerous volumes on special subjects. The great bulk of the Survey materials however is comprised of unpublished, unbound and usually unedited inventory forms and records, transcriptions, field workers' notes, and card index files. In 1942, the Works Projects Administration named the State Historical Society of Wisconsin as the depository for all the unpublished materials of the Wisconsin Historical Records Survey.
Almost half of the Survey materials, both published and unpublished, is composed of inventories of county records, the principal original objective of the Survey, and the transcriptions of county board proceedings. The Survey produced 23 published county inventories, 8 county inventories ready for publication, and thousands of unpublished completed inventory forms and related information for the remaining counties. The inventories include a description of each record arranged by county office, a historical sketch of the county, a brief explanation of the county system of government and functions of each office, and an essay on the care, housing and accessibility of the records. Each inventory contains a table of contents, bibliography, and index. A comprehensive three volume study of county government history and functions was compiled and published and provided much of the explanatory material presented in the county inventories. The county board proceedings of 53 counties from date of
creation to generally the late 1890's were transcribed usually in their entirety, though occasionally abstracted. Most of the proceedings were typed and bound into ninety-four unpublished volumes, and a considerable number, unbound and typed or handwritten, were put into file folders.
The collecting of data for the inventories of federal, state, city, village and town records followed the general procedures used in the county projects, and the inventories themselves included similar information appropriate to the specific unit of government being inventoried. Twelve volumes of inventories of the records of federal agencies in Wisconsin, two inventories of state agencies, and several inventories of cities, villages and towns were published. A large quantity of completed inventory forms and related material is unpublished.
The Survey project of inventorying newspapers in Wisconsin created a substantial amount of unpublished records consisting of information entered on survey forms which include the name and address of the newspaper and owner, frequency of publication, inclusive dates of publication, location of the newspaper, and historical information about the newspaper.
The inventorying of church records resulted in the publication of nine volumes, including two directories, and in a considerable number of unpublished completed inventory forms, along with essays on the background and organization of denominations and bibliographies of publications relating to individual churches.
Four volumes of checklists of imprints were published listing all titles of materials printed in Wisconsin, not including newspapers, between 1837 and 1863, where printed, by whom, and where the imprints were located. A fifth volume, 1864-1869, was published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in 1953. Quoting from the Forward to this volume by J. E. Boell, Chief Archivist of the Society: “When the [Imprints] project was closed out in 1942 all the work on editing entries and typing of stencils for duplicating this volume had been completed. The project was closed so rapidly that no time was allowed for mimeographing the material and binding the volume.”
The Survey published A Guide to Manuscript Depositories in Wisconsin which contains information concerning location and number of depositories in the state and size, type and condition of the holdings of each. The project assisted the State Historical Society in preparing its Guide to Manuscripts of the Wisconsin Historical Society, published by the Society in 1944. Only a few manuscript collections were inventoried by the Survey; these were not published.
The card index file compiled by the Survey workers consists of an index to the General Laws of Wisconsin, arranged by subject for the period 1848-1882, and by statute year and chapter number for the period 1887-1937, and an index to Wisconsin Private and Local Laws, 1853-1872, arranged by statute year and chapter number. The remainder of the card index relates to town boundary orders and laws, 1837-1938; general directories, 1940; Wisconsin imprints; county board proceedings; news releases; and address lists. Administratively, Survey records contain a very small amount of correspondence, progress reports, and circular letters, and a fairly extensive file of inventory instructions including the basic Manual of the Survey of Historical Records, the manual of Instructions for the Preparation of Inventories of Public Records, and numerous instructions for inventorying manuscripts, imprints and newspapers.
