Cole Brothers "Asia" tableau, 1935. Photo courtesy of the Circus World Museum. Part of the cultural documentation in Wisconsin's Local Legacies projects.

Wisconsin

The collections of the American Folklife Center contain rich and varied materials from Wisconsin that document the diversity of the state's folk traditions. Among its recordings are music and folklore of lumberjacks, including some in French Wisconsin dialect; numerous immigrant ethnic traditions, including Croatian, Irish, Finnish, Swiss, Dutch, Swedish, German, Polish, Cornish, Bohemian, Belgian, Lithuanian, and Norwegian. In addition, the Folklife Center's collections include early cylinder recordings of Winnebago, Ojibwa, and Menominee people. In 1982, the Center's Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools Project documented a Latvian school in Milwaukee.

Collections

Finding Aid: View a complete list of our Wisconsin collections.

Local Legacies: This project provides a "snapshot" of local culture as it was expressed in the year 2000. View Wisconsin's Local Legacies projects.

Veterans History Project: Browse state collections from the Veterans History Project.

Songs of America: Browse an interactive state map for selected songs from the American Folklife Center’s collections, as well as songs from the Library’s Music Division and Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.

Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools Project Collection: Includes documentation of a Latvian school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. [catalog record] [finding aid]

Additional Resources

Educational Resources: View a list of educational materials related to Wisconsin from A Teacher's Guide to Folklife Resources.

Folklife Resources: Find state folklife-related agencies, societies, archives, higher education programs, and more, in Folklife Sourcebook: A Directory of Folklife Resources in the United States.

Exhibit: "Inside Our Homes, Outside Our Windows," Lakefront Memorial Center, Milwaukee.

Publication: Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America. [catalog record]

Published Recordings: American Sea Songs and Shanties, Library of Congress AFS L26 and L27. [audiocassette]

Folk Music from Wisconsin, Library of Congress AFS L55. [audiocassette]