Archiving, Collections, and Access

Preservation and Access

The Archives Program supports the mission of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures. Archiving Projects promote organizational partnerships to identify, preserve, and make accessible for public use the region’s historic and contemporary folk heritage as documented in audio and video interviews, photography, exhibits, and publications resulting primarily from ethnographic fieldwork. These projects serve the teaching, research, and outreach needs of the Center’s staff, affiliated faculty, public folklorists, scholars, documented traditional practitioners and their heirs, and others interested in exploring and promoting the region’s folk heritage.

Archiving Projects, 2002-2016

A chronological timeline of the many archiving projects currently undertaken or recently completed by CSUMC.

A downloadable poster prepared for the 2008 American Folklore Society Annual Meeting summarizing CSUMC archiving projects.

Searchable Online Collection Guides

Looking for interviews, recordings, or slides from folk arts projects in the Upper Midwest? From German-American music to legends of the supernatural in Southwestern Wisconsin, our Collection Guides describe and locate primary documentation and productions from regional projects.

Survey of Public Folklore Collections in the Upper Midwest (2005-2006)

This NHPRC report (~500kb, .PDF) identifies and reviews the status of more than 50 archival collections in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, and the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan that contain folk arts documentation generated with National Endowment for the Arts funding since the 1970s. [PDF version also available]

Surveyed Folklore Collections

A list of Upper Midwestern folklore collections—identified by state and location—that have been reviewed and described in Collection Guides and/or the regional survey report.

Regional Survey Report’s Key Findings

An expansion of the Survey’s 5 key findings with links to helpful resources.