Happy American Archives Month!

Happy American Archives Month! During October, we like to share how awesome archives and history research can be. At the University of Wisconsin-Stout Archives, we have a wealth of online resources available to you to start your research journey. Two ways to view a slice of past UW-Stout student life is by exploring The Tower yearbooks and The Stoutonia student newspaper. The Tower was an annual publication produced by Stout students from 1909-1989, and The Stoutonia is a current publication produced by Stout students from 1915-present. They provide information and photographs about student activities, classes, organizations, staff and faculty, and the surrounding community. The archives houses physical copies of The Tower and The Stoutonia, and they are digitized and available on the archives website via the Internet Archive and Preservica:

Tower: https://archive.org/details/toweryearbook?&sort=date

Stoutonia: https://archive.org/details/stoutonia?&sort=date

Preservica:  https://uwstout.access.preservica.com/archive/

The UW-Stout archivist Heather Stecklein has also recorded video tutorials of where to find the Tower and Stoutonia on our website and how to conduct searches: https://library.uwstout.edu/tutorials/digitalprimarysources

1955-'56 Tower Yearbook staff

Tower Yearbooks

Another great resource to view past student and local life, and to understand the time period you are researching, is by looking at community and national newspapers. There are many great resources available via the UW-Stout Archives and Library website. Discover them here:

You can search the archives newspaper index, and request items to be scanned for you: https://library.uwstout.edu/arcarchives/arearesearchcenter

John Russell Articles Index (for Dunn County News): http://archives.lib.uwstout.edu/ics-wpd/russell_collection/index.shtml

New York Times Library database, etc.: https://library.uwstout.edu/az.php?a=n

Dunn County News via the Menomonie Public Library: https://menomonielibrary.org/databases/genealogy/

Rice Lake Chronotype via the Rice Lake Public Library: http://ricelake.advantage-preservation.com/

Newspapers via the Eau Claire Public Library: https://www.ecpubliclibrary.info/print-archives/

Wisconsin Newspaper Association Archive of WI Newspapers, 2005 to 90 days ago: https://badgerlink.newsmemory.com/wna/badgerlink/

Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub: https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub

Printing the Stoutonia, 1950-'51

Stoutonia staff members getting the newspaper ready to distribute, 1950-'51

Happy American Archives Month!

Happy American Archives Month! During October, we like to share how awesome archives and history research can be. The University of Wisconsin-Stout Archives is part of a larger archival network in Wisconsin called the Area Research Center (ARC) Network. The ARC Network is a collaboration between the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, the University of Wisconsin System, and the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center. Each ARC houses university, county, government, and regional interest related records for the surrounding counties such as yearbooks, newspapers, and genealogy records. UW-Stout houses records for Dunn, Barron, and Pepin Counties. If you wanted to look at records housed at a different ARC, such as UW-Green Bay, most archival items can be requested and shipped between the ARC’s in the network, so researchers do not have to travel all over the state for research purposes. Now that sounds like a cool system! Discover more about the Area Research Center Network here: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS4000

March 8, 1973, Stoutonia article, "University Archives Preserved at Library"

Dec. 3, 1971, Stoutonia article "History Records find new Home"

There are also a wealth of online resources available to you to start your research journey. From the  Archives home page, there are 3 different links you can click on to find online resources and search indexes for items held at UW-Stout, and the surrounding community. You can search through the Tower Yearbooks, Stoutonia student newspapers, alumni publications, links to library databases and genealogical indexes, and the 1925 History of Dunn County. You can also access Ancestry with a Stout ID.

Digital Collections Link: https://library.uwstout.edu/friendly.php?s=digitalprimarysources

Collection Indexes Link: https://library.uwstout.edu/arcarchives/universityarchives

Area Research Center Link: https://library.uwstout.edu/arcarchives/arearesearchcenter

Preservica:  https://uwstout.access.preservica.com/archive/

County and state online resources available for historical and newspaper research:

Menomonie Public Library: https://menomonielibrary.org/databases/genealogy/

Dunn County Historical Society:  http://www.dunnhistory.org/

Mabel Tainter: https://mabeltainter.org/

Eau Claire Public Library: https://www.ecpubliclibrary.info/explore/

Wisconsin Historical Society: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/

Roadtrip your way through history: Laura Ingalls Wilder edition

Do you want a fun way to learn about history? Take a road trip! About a 50 minute drive from Menomonie, WI, along Highway 25, is the small town of Pepin – the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura would be 153 years old today, born on February 7, 1867. Along Lake Pepin you can tour the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and a replica of the cabin the family lived in (7 miles north of Pepin on County Road CC). I have been to the museum twice and it is a great way to learn about Laura’s early days as a small girl and what Pepin was like during the late 1800s. Discover more information here: https://www.lauraingallspepin.com/ Pepin sits along HWY 35, or the Great River Road, and is a beautiful drive for a fun day trip.

Historical Marker at replica cabin in Pepin

Replica Cabin in Pepin

In the archives, we have area history books and documents related to Pepin County’s history as well as an exciting collection of letters written to Charles and Martha Carpenter of Stockholm, WI (north of Pepin), 1861-1919 and 1975-1977, Stout SC 142. They are letters from relatives, many serving in the Civil War. Martha Carpenter's maiden name was Quiner, sister to Caroline Quiner Ingalls, mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Also in the library’s 4^th floor main stacks, we have Pioneer Girl: an annotated bibliography, edited by Pamela Smith Hill, call #: PS3545.I342 Z46 2014. It follows the same timeline as the Little House on the Prairie book series written by Laura Ingalls Wilder; it is like the unedited version of her books. Hill gives context to the events in Laura's life, through research and footnotes written throughout the book.

Letters written to Charles and Martha Carpenter, sister to Caroline Ingalls, Laura's mother (Stout SC 142 located in the UW-Stout Archives)

If you are Laura Ingalls Wilder fans like we are, don’t just stop at Pepin. Laura lived in many places throughout her life, ending up in Mansfield, Missouri. Check out Julie’s fun 2011 road trip photos to the Laura homesites of Pepin, WI, Walnut Grove, MN, https://walnutgrove.org/museum.html and De Smet, SD, https://discoverlaura.org/:  

Map of Laura's Travels, located on outside of Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, Pepin, WI

Depression where Laura's dugout home was along the Banks of Plum Creek, Walnut Grove, MN

Description of Ingalls's homes and schools in De Smet, SD

The Surveyors' House where the Ingalls lived their first winter in De Smet, SD

Charles Ingalls homestead site, with the Cottonwood trees still standing that Charles planted

Julie very excited to be standing next to one of the cottonwood trees Charles planted. I was touching a part of history!

Discover Your History in the Library Lobby

Now Showing in the Lobby of the UW-Stout Library:
An American Archives Month Exhibit!

October is American Archives Month, and we're celebrating with an exhibit of collection highlights from the UW-Stout Archives and the Area Research Center.

This year, Wisconsin's Area Research Centers celebrate their 50th Anniversary. The UW-Stout and thirteen other University of Wisconsin system locations house the official government records of Wisconsin counties. The UW-Stout holds the historical records of Barron, Dunn, and Pepin Counties.

We featured some of our area history papers in the American Archives Month exhibit:

 

 

 In this 1852 Pepin County Naturalization Record, Irishman Patrick McInerny renounced his allegiance to Queen Victoria so that he could become an American citizen.

Many historians and genealogists visit the Area Research Center to trace the lives of particular residents of Dunn, Barron, and Pepin Counties.

Sometimes, researchers uncover information that surprises them. On more than one occasion, documents like this reveal unexpected countries of origin or even previously unknown relatives! 

A recent genealogical researcher at the Stout Area Research Center discovered that her grandfather had two sisters and a brother that her family had never mentioned.

The Area Research Center also includes school and company records from the area. 

The Knapp, Stout, and Co. Records at the UW-Stout Archives document the evolution of the lumber company that served as the primary industry in this area for decades. In this letter from 1889, a supervisor complains about a "sneak thief" lumberjack to company owners Henry E. Knapp and Louis Smith Tainter.

Personal correspondence provides unique accounts of daily life that are rarely replicated in official publications and histories.

We will feature more exhibit highlights throughout the remainder of American Archives Month.

Next up: pictures, papers, and articles from Stout student organizations!