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12/20/2025

Wisconsin holds a unique place in homeschooling history; the 1972 US Supreme Court case of Wisconsin v. Yoder (granting Amish parents the right to withdraw from school after 8th grade for unique religious beliefs and practices) set the stage for the legal landscape we face now.

If you were homeschooled in Wisconsin, here’s a great opportunity to be a part of that history! Click below for more information on this alumni-driven project.
https://uwm.edu/libraries/archives/services/wisconsin-homeschool-alumni-oral-history-project/

07/15/2025

Were you homeschooled in Wisconsin? Join the first-known oral history project dedicated to the voices of homeschool alumni.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Archives invites participants for the Wisconsin Homeschool Alumni Oral History Project. Wisconsin holds a unique place in homeschooling history; it was a Wisconsin case that prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that parents have a constitutional right to direct their children’s educational and religious upbringing (Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972)).

Created by homeschool alumni for homeschool alumni, the project seeks to surface key issues such as educational discrimination, anti-racist homeschooling, the civil rights of homeschooled students, the religious and political implications of homeschooling, and the impact of homeschooling on homeschool alumni as adults.

Learn more about the project:

Wisconsin Homeschool Alumni Oral History Project The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Archives invites participants for the homeschooling community’s first known oral history project. Wisconsin holds a unique place in homeschooling history; it was a Wisconsin case that prompted the U.S. Supreme C...

05/01/2025

This week we unveiled a new exhibit in our gallery on the 3rd floor of Golda Meir Library: Voices from Desi Wisconsin.

This exhibit highlights our oral history collection of South Asian immigrants to the Milwaukee area and their experiences making a new home and life in Wisconsin from the 1950s-1970s, complete with QR codes to the online interviews, which were recorded in 2020 and 2021, as well as photographs and other records from the period.

You can view the oral history collection and listen to the interviews at: https://uwm.edu/lib-collections/desi-wisconsin/

04/07/2025

Starting May 19, we’ll be open by appointment only. You can schedule a research appointment between 9:00-4:30 on Monday-Friday.

11/27/2024

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we offer this selection of materials from our collections that illustrate Native American presence and power at UWM.

📸: Sandra Harris Tran tables for the Native American Student Movement (NASM) at UWM, circa 1980. The NASM has been a key vehicle for Native student organizing, support, and expression since the late 1960s. NASM is now known as the American Indian Student Association. Call Number: UWM Photographs Collection, UWM AC 6, Box 18.

📸: A Milwaukee Sentinel clipping pictures American Indian students organizing for a dedicated academic program outside Chapman Hall in 1971. Call Number: UWM University Communications & Media Relations Records, UWM AC 134, Box 2.

📸: The cover to a 1974 catalog shows the fruits of Native student organizing in the form of the UWM Native American Studies Program (now American Indian Studies). Call Number: UWM Office of the Chancellor Records, UWM AC 46, Box 54.

📸: The UWM Native American Studies Program announces the pilot of the Wisconsin Native American Languages Project (WNALP) in 1974. This announcement is from "Anishinaabe News: UW-Milwaukee American Indian News," a newsletter of the Native American Studies Program and NASM. Call Number: UWM Office of the Chancellor Records, UWM AC 46, Box 54.



📸: Margaret Richmond offers language instruction to a class of Native "youngsters" as a Menominee Language Resource Consultant for the WNALP in 1976. Call Number: UWM Photographs Collection, UWM AC 6, Box 18. The earlier Native American Studies Program WNALP announcement anticipates an appropriate caption: "We've a lot to learn from our elders!"

In cooperation with the Great Lakes Intertribal Council, UWM Archives stewards the Wisconsin Native American Languages Project Records, 1973-1976 (UWM Mss 20). With extensive instructional materials from the WNALP, the collection continues to serve as an important resource for the study and revitalization of Wisconsin's Native languages for citizens of Wisconsin's Ojibwe, Menominee, Oneida, Potawatomi, and Ho-Chunk nations.

10/17/2024

UWM Archives’ Latine Heritage Month pop-up exhibit, “The Art of Organizing in Latinx Milwaukee,” is featured in Gallery Night MKE tomorrow, Friday, October 18, from 4-7 p.m.! Stop by our exhibit space and explore the visual culture of protest through art from Voces de la Frontera and earlier generations of Latinx activists.

As exhibit selections featured here show, the 1960s, 70s, and 80s were witness to increasing visibility and recognition for local Latinx artists, who spearheaded a variety of innovative arts programming initiatives. Organizations like Latino Arts, Inc. continue this work today, and artists represented in the Union Art Gallery “Colors of Our Communidad” exhibition, also featured in Gallery Night, testify to the persistence of this vital tradition of artistic achievement in our present.

10/08/2024

This Week: Latine Heritage Month Programming Continues at UWM Archives!

Join us on Thursday, October 10 for our talk with Sergio González about his new book, Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging and Faith in Twentieth Century Wisconsin! Drawing on a rich array of sources from UWM Archives and elsewhere, González re-frames Latinx history in Wisconsin across pivotal junctures including the farmworkers’ movement and Civil Rights-era labor organizing.

If you come for the talk, be sure to check out our Latine Heritage Month pop-up exhibit, “The Art of Organizing in Latinx Milwaukee,” which explores similar terrain! John Fleissner originals grace the cover of González’s book as well as our exhibit.

Featured here is footage of Jesús Salas and migrant farmworkers on a march to Madison in protest of farmworkers' working and living conditions in 1966, from the WTMJ News Archive. González explores the conditions and organizing of migrant farmworkers in Wisconsin through the lens of faith, belonging, and hospitality. WTMJ footage is also featured in the recently released Milwaukee PBSs documentary, Roots and Legacy, based on Salas’ recent memoir Obreros Unidos.

Watch the full clip with audio at the WTMJ News Archive: https://uwm.edu/wtmjsearch/wtmjnewsarchive/1393/

10/03/2024

Come and view The Art of Organizing in Latinx Milwaukee!

10/01/2024

UWM Archives is celebrating Latine Heritage Month with a new pop-up exhibit: “The Art of Organizing in Latinx Milwaukee.”

Featuring posters, photos, illustrations, and more, the exhibit highlights the range and dynamism of Latinx organizing in Milwaukee since the 1960s. Drawing especially on posters from the important local immigrant and workers’ rights organization Voces de la Frontera, the exhibit explores how Latinx organizers have developed a distinctive visual culture of protest as a key mode of expression for the movement’s politics and vision. A selection of historic film footage drawn from the WTMJ News Archive also dramatizes how the contemporary work of Voces organizers sits within a longer tradition of Latinx organizing.

Pictured here are three selections from the Voces de la Frontera Records (UWM Mss 356) featured in the exhibit, including poster prints by Favianna Rodriguez and John Fleissner, and a photograph captioned “Mother, Child, Labor Law.” We’ll continue to feature highlights from the exhibit as we move through the month.

Stop by the UWM Archives exhibit space to learn more, and be sure to check out related exhibits in UWM Libraries Special Collections and American Geographical Society Library, too!

09/24/2024

In 1966, Jesús Salas led the historic march of migrant farmworkers from Wautoma to Madison and organized Wisconsin’s first farmworker union.

Salas became a leader in Latinx community organizations throughout Milwaukee and Wisconsin. His work is well-documented in the UWM Archives, particularly his role in founding what is now the UWM Roberto Hernández Center.

This documentary is based on Salas' new memoir: “Obreros Unidos: The Roots and Legacy of the Farmworkers Movement."

Este documental está basado en las memorias de Jesús Salas: Obreros Unidos: Las raíces y el legado del movimiento de los trabajadores agrícolas. Reflexiona s...