UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN River Falls

Archives Resources

Archival Resources

Collections housed at the UWRF Archives are divided into two main sections: University Archives and Area Research Center (ARC) collections.

University Archives Collections

The UWRF University Archives serves as the official repository for the permanent, historical records of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. The University Archives collects and preserves materials pertaining to the establishment, development, history, and traditions of the University.

Most university records can be found in the UWRF online catalog. You may also search by the collection inventories, also called finding aids, which include important information about a collection such as a summary of the collection's content, dates of materials in the collection, and box/folder listings.

The University Archives and Area research Center has a small collection of museum items (3D objects). These are mostly university-related, but there are also some items from the four-county area. Examples include university-themed clothing and hats, a branding iron, several quilts and blankets, social and political buttons, pennants, university time capsules, and Kansas City Chiefs memorabilia from summer training camp.







 

Area Research Center (ARC) collections

ARC collections cover the geographic region of Burnett, Pierce, Polk, and St. Croix Counties. Included in Area Research Center collections are materials owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society managed locally as part of our membership in the ARC network. However, there are also a large number of locally owned manuscripts collections, photographs, newspapers on microfilm, and local history publications available for use in the reading room.

Search locally held university archives and ARC collections using UWRF Access to Memory (AtoM), which includes photographs, OR to search for newspapers, local history publications, and archival collections located at the Wisconsin Historical Society and other ARCs, use search@UW

 

Manuscripts collections are comprised of the papers, records, and photographs created by organizations, individuals, and institutions. These materials represent the lives and work of community members, businesses, and organizations from the four-county region of Burnett, Pierce, Polk, and St. Croix Counties.

Manuscript collections include materials such as the records of local businesses, community organizations, and churches, as well as personal diaries, photographs, recollections, letters, and scrapbooks. You may search for manuscripts collections in UWRF ARC collections with our archival collection search, UWRF AtoM (includes digitized photos), or look for items available in the larger Wisconsin ARC network via search@UW.

Newspapers
Newspapers
 1907 Diary of Edna J. Gerrish
1907 Diary of Edna J. Gerrish (River Falls Mss CO)
Civil War Certificate
Civil War Service Certificate
"R" Club, 1933
"R" Club, 1933
Steam shovel working on railroad construction near Somerset
Steam shovel working on Soo Line railroad construction near Somerset
River Falls freshman beanie
River Falls freshman beanie

Our local government records collections are comprised of materials generated by local government units across the four-county region of Burnett, Pierce, Polk, and St. Croix Counties, including but not limited to naturalization (citizenship) records, circuit and county court records, tax and assessment rolls, school records, city and county board minutes, and vital statistics.

You may search for local government records collections in UWRF ARC collections with our archival collection search, UWRF AtoM (includes photos), or look for collections available in the larger Wisconsin ARC network via search@UW.

Newspaper collections cover the four-county region (Burnett, Pierce, Polk, and St. Croix) and date from the mid-1800s up to the present. The vast majority of newspapers are available on microfilm in the Reading Room on the UWRF campus, and are searchable via Search@UW. However, a growing number of papers are being digitized and are searchable via our A-Z database, accessible in our reading room.

If you are interested in discovering what newspapers were published in Wisconsin and where over time, the Wisconsin Historical Society has created a guide that gives the titles, locations, and dates published for newspapers across Wisconsin. This guide is organized by county, and most of the counties located within the River Falls ARC geographic network are available on microfilm in our reading room. Feel free to reach out to us at archives@uwrf.edu to confirm that we carry the newspaper you are looking for and the dates that you are interested in searching if you are unable to locate them in Search@UW.

The UWRF Archives' Rare books and local history collections are comprised of Wisconsin and Saint Croix Valley history books; local and county histories; printed family histories and genealogies; area cookbooks; maps and atlases; books authored by local area residents; and books authored by UWRF faculty, staff, or students.

Contact Us

University Archives and Area Research Center
170 Chalmer Davee Library
(715) 425-3567
archives@uwrf.edu 

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