Archival Resources

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.

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.