During WWII, the US Army’s Fort McCoy, in Monroe County, Wisconsin, served as a location to house German prisoners of war (POWs). David Yates was stationed at Fort McCoy during this time and managed to take photographs that now give insight into daily life for soldiers and POWs alike. This collection consists of over 100 black and white photographs that capture day-to-day activities and military personnel during WWII at a German POW camp located inside the United States.

The Burgess Photograph Collection was donated to UW-L Murphy Library Special Collection by Jean Burgess, daughter of Frances Burgess. Frances worked for the La Crosse Tribune newspaper beginning in 1935 until retiring in 1970. The collection is comprised of several thousand black and white photographic negatives taken during Frances’ tenure at the Tribune. Not every photograph was printed in the Tribune, and the physical collection contains multiple shots for most events featured. The Burgess Photograph Collection showcased here focuses on the photographs that were published in the Tribune. Although Frances Burgess is the photographer for the bulk of the photographs in this collection, other Tribune photographers are also featured including Ed Huebner. This is a long-term project, so continue to check back to find new photographs as they are added.

Fred Lesher was born in 1936 and attended Carthage College from 1954-1958. He went on to teach at Luther College in Decorah, IA, and later at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, MN, before moving to La Crosse to teach in the English Department at UWL in 1965 until retiring in 1996. Fred had a life-long interest in ornithology, and eventually became president of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, Iowa Ornithologists Union, and Minnesota Ornithologists Union. From 1958 to 2002 he kept detailed journals of his birding, which his family has entrusted to the Coulee Region Audubon Society. The journals are in 14 volumes with over 3000 pages, and for the first time they are fully available online for any and all that are interested in birding in the Coulee Region over the past 50 years.

The Freedom Flotilla, also known as the Mariel Boatlift, occurred in 1980 after President Carter opened the doors to the United States for hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees, of which nearly 15,000 would eventually arrive at the resettlement camp at Fort McCoy in western Wisconsin. Countless regional and national news articles were published following and highlighting both the positive and negative events that came with the refugees, many of whom were classified as criminals under the Fidel Castro government. This collection contains photographs and a local publication titled “El Mercurio de McCoy.” The photographs were taken by journalists reporting on the “Cuban Odyssey,” most of whom worked for the La Crosse Tribune, bringing together nearly 250 images of individuals and events directly involved with the Freedom Flotilla. “El Mercurio de McCoy” is a bilingual newspaper produced by Fort McCoy resettlement staff, the US Army Psychological Operations Company (PSYOPS), and refugees at Fort McCoy. It consists of 53 issues from June 3, 1980, to September 29, 1980. The digitization of “El Mercurio de McCoy” is a collaboration between Murphy Library at UW-La Crosse and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at UW-Milwaukee, the latter of which owns and houses the physical newspaper.

This collection is comprised of 28 annual reports of the Board of Trade of the City of La Crosse. The collection covers the years of 1879 through 1905, and each report highlights various statistical data for that given year including, but not limited to, school information, financial information, and manufacturing information for the city of La Crosse.

Covering the years from 1930 to 1955, these La Crosse County Historical Sketches present histories, stories, and biographies of events, locations, and individuals from La Crosse’s past. Published in eight series, each containing multiple written pieces and illustrations, this collection is filled with valuable insight and general information regarding history and evolution of the city and county of La Crosse.

Our digital collection of photographs represents a small but growing number of images of historical interest and relevance to the La Crosse area. This collection will continue to grow with the addition of hundreds of photographs from Murphy Library’s Special Collections. Check back frequently to find new content.

The La Crosse Plow Company Collection contains a variety of visual materials including repair guides, photographs, 3-dimensional objects, letters, and other similar items. The collection’s materials span the various phases of the La Crosse Plow Company including names such as Sta-Rite, Happy Farmer Tractor Company, and the La Crosse Tractor Company. The bulk of this collection was scanned from materials owned by Randy Reysen, and the other items featured are part of the Murphy Library Special Collections. In total, there are over 100 items included in this collection with the prospect of adding more in the future.

The Maps Collection features largely historical maps, all of which are owned by Murphy Library Special Collections. These maps feature the La Crosse area, and date from the year 1857. Often used by both local historians and local residents, zooming-in allows users to view significant changes that have occurred to roads, railroad routes, and overall city layouts in the La Crosse community and surrounding areas. This collection will continue to grow as more historical maps are digitized.

The Leaping La Crosse News (LLN) publication served as a source of information for lesbians living in the La Crosse, Wisconsin, area. It was published from 1979 to 2007 and distributed monthly. Topics covered in the newsletter include national, state, and local news about lesbian activities, legal cases, fashion, entertainment, and events, as well as social and political activities of La Crosse area lesbians. This collection includes nearly every published issue, amounting to 317 separate issues.

Murphy Library Special Collections houses numerous analog historical moving pictures, some of which are featured in this collection. The library is currently not equipped to do in-house digital conversion of video-based materials; however, as resources become available, we hope to offer more historical moving picture items in the Digital Collections.

The Odin J. Oyen firm was once a thriving business in downtown La Crosse, Wisconsin, that created original watercolors as proposed interior designs. The firm, or variations of it, existed from the late-1800s up to the Great Depression, generating countless designs for the interiors of courthouses, churches, fraternal organizations, and private residences, in locations across the Upper Midwest and beyond. These often elaborate watercolor designs are generally quite large and may contain elements of gilding lending to an even greater impact when viewing the renditions. It is known that many or most of the original pieces have been bought and sold by private collectors, resulting in a limited selection of items that remain together or in one location. However, several hundred original watercolors reside in Murphy Library Special Collections, owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, and are part of the Area Research Center (ARC). In addition to those items, local attorney Nicholas J. Passe acquired over 100 Oyen interior renditions and was willing to allow the Murphy Library Digital Collections to digitize and include those items in the Digital Collections. It is these items that currently make up the Odin J. Oyen Collection available here, with the hope that this digital collection will continue to grow with additional Oyen materials in the future.

Albert Parkinson's and Bernard Dockendorff's architectural firm was a fixture in the region surrounding La Crosse, Wisconsin, from 1905 to the 1930s. In that time, the firm completed thousands of jobs ranging from houses and schools to buildings and businesses. This collection is unique in offering online access to the nearly complete series of blueprints produced by the firm as well as additional supplemental materials including photographs and renderings. The large and on-going digital collection began in the summer of 2022 and is the result of a collaboration between the owners of the blueprints, Jenny and Marc Zettler of Zettler Design Studio, LLC., and Murphy Library. Expect to see materials continually added to this collection as we work through the thousands of blueprints.

This collection features a variety of publications that relate to La Crosse and the surrounding community. Items range from historical items to more contemporary publications. For the sake of browsing, you may find sub-collections that reflect those concepts of historical and contemporary publications. This collection is continually having new content added.

The R. W. Troxel Glass Plate Negative Collection consists of digital images of 428 glass plate negatives of various sizes. The physical collection was donated to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Murphy Library Special Collections in 1993, where it has since resided in its original wooden boxes. We do not have a lot of information about the photographer, Roley William Troxel; he was born on July 7, 1883, in Richland County, WI, and died on December 29, 1967, in Prairie du Chien, WI. The photographs were taken mostly around Eastman, WI, and other areas surrounding Prairie du Chien, likely between 1910 and 1920. The collection’s subject matter includes individuals posing, sporting teams, various buildings, and other landscape and street views. Since there is little information about each negative, most of the images are unidentified; however, the collection as a whole provides a glimpse into life around south western Wisconsin shortly after the turn of the century. Our hope is that these images will slowly be identified and increase the depth of insight offered by this collection.