Local History

Local history materials in the Frank P. Zeidler Humanities Room at the Central Library deal with the history of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, the old Northwest Territory, and the colonies and states in the main migration pattern to this area.

Books

The primary means of identifying specific books in the local history collection is by searching MPL’s online catalog, CountyCat. If you want to search by topic try putting keywords in the general search box on the CountyCat home page. For more advanced search techniques, consult a Humanities reference librarian.

Archives Unbound - County and Regional Histories & Atlases: Wisconsin
158 Wisconsin local histories and atlases for genealogical research from Gale, spanning from 1857-1909.
Library subscription database. Available for use within MPL libraries and for remote use by City of Milwaukee library cardholders.

City Directories

Organized by name (all years) and/or by address (1921 to present).

Milwaukee City Directories (1847-present), 910.1 M662, are available in the following formats and locations:

Print
1848/1849 to 1922, located at Frank P. Zeidler Humanities Room reference desk
(Note: some volumes in this span of years not available in print format; see Humanities reference librarians for details)

1923 to present, located in Frank P. Zeidler Humanities Room
(Note: some years not published during this period; see Humanities reference librarians for details)

Microfiche
1847 to 1860, located in Frank P. Zeidler Humanities Room and at Periodicals Service Desk

Microfilm
1861 to 1960, located at Periodicals Service Desk

Online
1861-1960, digitized from microfilm, available in Ancestry Library Edition library subscription database.

Maps

The Humanities Room has an extensive map collection. Some of the most frequently used categories of maps are described here, but search CountyCat or consult a Humanities reference librarian to identify other maps in the collection.

Land Ownership Maps
See Wisconsin Land Ownership and Plat Book Index for a list of holdings by county (1858-present).

Fire Insurance Atlases
Fire insurance atlases (often referred to as “Sanborn fire insurance atlases” after one of the major companies that produced them) are maps that detailed buildings and their construction materials. In their time, they were used to assess potential risk from fire and other hazards in order to set insurance rates, but today they are a tremendous resource for historical and genealogical researchers.

Milwaukee Public Library owns five sets of fire insurance atlases for Milwaukee:

1876 base maps (with paste-on updates to 1885)
1888 base maps
1894 base maps (with paste-on updates to 1909)
1910 base maps (with paste-on updates to 1926)
1910 and later base maps (with paste-on updates to 1962)

Wisconsin Historical Society has digitized all of their pre-1923 collection of Sanborn fire insurance atlases for Wisconsin cities – 251 cities, 7,770 sheets. Find them using the phrase “sanborn and [community name]” (without the quotes or brackets) at their Maps and Atlases collection page. The included Milwaukee volumes are:

Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970
Library subscription. Available for use within City of Milwaukee libraries and by remote access to City of Milwaukee library cardholders.
More than 250 Wisconsin communities are represented in this product from ProQuest. The Help file and Frequently Asked Questions pages can help you get started if you are unfamiliar with using the maps. Maps may be printed. Milwaukee maps listed as included in this resource are:
•   1894 base maps (4 volumes)
•   1904 base maps (2 sheets)
•   1910-1937 (15 volumes)
•   1910- Dec. 1951 (15 volumes)

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee has a digital Sanborn collection, which includes the following for Milwaukee:
• 1894 base maps
• 1910 base maps

Photographs

Historic Photo Collection
This collection consists of thousands of photos from Milwaukee’s history, ranging in date from the late 19th century through the latter part of the 20th century.

See the Historic Photo Collection Index for the list of headings and sub-headings into which these photos have been organized.

See the Milwaukee Historic Photos digital collection for digitized images of a growing number of photographs from the Historic Photo Collection.

Other Photograph-based Digital Collections
Milwaukee Leaders
The Milwaukee Leaders Collection began in 1989, as a photo exhibit at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Milwaukee Public Library Neighborhood Library.

Milwaukee Mayors
The collection is an adaptation of a volume of images and information collected by library staff to form the Biographical Sketches of the Mayors of the City of Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Waterways
These photographs are from the Port of Milwaukee, Milwaukee Public Library Historic Photo Collection, and the Great Lakes Marine Collection of Milwaukee Public Library and the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. A matching grant from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program helped preserve these photographs and make them available on line.

Remember When
A popular feature of The Milwaukee Journal from 1963 through 1994 prepared by library staff to highlight Milwaukee's past as preserved in the Historic Photo Collection.

Wagons of Milwaukee Businesses
The Wagons of Milwaukee Businesses album came to the library from the estate of Theo. Habhegger, a Milwaukee manufacturer of short turn wagons. The album consists of 37 sepia-toned photographs of wagons, mostly belonging to various Milwaukee area businesses, from the early 20th century.

World War I Military Portraits
World War I Military Portraits is comprised of more than 32,000 photographs, typewritten volumes, and service records. The items were compiled from collections of the American War Mothers Milwaukee County Chapter and the Milwaukee County Council of Defense. These items contain a wealth of genealogical information and provide a candid look into soldiers’ ideas and perceptions of the First World War.