University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire
Area Research Center  Researchers at work in Special Collections Location:
Special Collections Department
William D. McIntyre Library
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Eau Claire, WI 54702-5010
Phone: 715/836-2739
Hours: Contact UW-Eau Claire Library Special Collections for current hours of operation.
Contact: Colleen McFarland, Archivist
The ARC is a cooperative project of the University and the Wisconsin Historical Society to preserve historical records in an six-county region. These counties are: Buffalo, Chippewa, Clark, Eau Claire, Rusk, and Taylor.
University students and faculty, genealogists, local-history writers, and other researchers are encouraged to use the ARC.
Holdings
More than 235 original local government public records including Eau Claire, Chippewa, and Taylor county court records (1854-1976), vital statistics records for all six counties (through 1907), tax or assessment rolls for Buffalo, Clark, Eau Claire, and Rusk counties (1856-1950), school records for Chippewa and Eau Claire counties (1855-1888), County Board of Supervisors proceedings for Chippewa and Eau Claire counties (1857-present), Eau Claire City Council proceedings (1872-1859), Eau Claire mayoral and city manager files (1940-1970), and naturalization records for Eau Claire (1857-1982), Chippewa (1854-1963), Clark (1857- 1955), Taylor (1865-1955), Buffalo (1853-1950) and Rusk (1886-1954) counties.
The ARC holds over 65 collections of papers and records produced by private organizations and individuals. Among them are records of seven local labor unions; churches in Eau Claire and Chippewa counties (1857-1982); records (1875-1955) of the John S. Owen Lumber Company and the Northwestern Lumber Company (1888- 1955); papers of lumbermen Orrin H. Ingram (1857-1904), John H. Kaiser (1905-1957) and of Farm Holiday leader Arnold Gilberts (1930-1934); letters of Lucy Hastings (1855-1874), an early Eau Claire resident; papers (1945-1976) of Veda Stone--an activist in Native American affairs; papers (1959-1978) of Clark County politician Frank Nikolay; and records of the Union Mortgage Loan Company (1898-1942).
Finding Aids
Holdings are described in a printed Guide (1990) to the archives and manuscripts in the Chippewa Valley Museum, the Eau Claire Public Library, and the ARC and University Archives available from the ARC. More detailed research tools at the ARC include registers and inventories for large collections. The ARC also has all published guides to the holdings of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Network Transfer Provisions
This feature makes available in Eau Claire one of the nation's richest collections. Requests for temporary transfer of collections from Madison or other ARC's should be made to the head of the Eau Claire ARC.
Other Research Sources
In conjunction with the ARC, related collections available in the Special Collections Department include: University archives (1916- ); maps, including county plats and detailed city maps; photographs; rare books; federal census data; and small collections of oral history interviews, published local histories, and student research papers and printed materials.
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