About the collection
The Archives Department of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Libraries has the two-fold mission of documenting the history of UWM and providing access to primary sources, largely from the metropolitan Milwaukee area, that have long-term research and instructional value for UWM academic programs.
The Archives serves the university's historical needs by preserving and making accessible the records of UWM and its predecessor institutions. We acquire records from all levels of the university, including administrative and governance units; schools, colleges, and academic departments; athletic programs; and student organizations. The Archives also has a rich photograph collection, blueprints for most campus buildings, student newspapers, a complete run of yearbooks from 1896 to 1968, athletic films, and taped interviews with campus administrators.
The Archives supports research and instruction at UWM by providing access to historically significant papers and records created by individuals and organizations in the course of their activities. Manuscript collection strengths pertain to the following subject areas: social justice; racial, ethnic and other underrepresented populations; Milwaukee's brewing industry; and the historical development of the archives profession in the United States.
The Archives provides further access to primary sources by serving as an Area Research Center (ARC) of the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS). The Milwaukee ARC Collection includes local government public records of the five-county metropolitan Milwaukee area and manuscript collections produced by private individuals and organizations.
PantherCat (http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/), the UWM Libraries' online catalog, provides brief descriptions of processed collections with links to online finding aids, when they exist. As of December 2009, the Archives Department has contributed finding aids of 450 university archives and manuscript collections to Archival Resources in Wisconsin.