Digital Collections

The Appleton Public Library is pleased to be an early participant in the University of Wisconsin Digital Collection, which can be found online at http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/

This collection brings together, in digital form, two categories of primary and secondary materials: writing about the State of Wisconsin and unique or valuable materials that relate to its history and ongoing development. This project was funded, in part, through a 2005 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant. This grant provided financial support for public libraries to digitize and make available online, local library resources. Titles chosen for this first effort include:

Record of the Pioneers of Outagamie County is a wonderful collection of information, often including photos, about the people living in Outagamie County in 1898 and their families. The introduction explains how this book came to be, and how it grew to include "over 1200 names, including the children of the pioneers." The record was intended to be useful "in settling estates, as many people are very neglectful in keeping their family records." An earlier edition provides biographical sketches of about 100 of the earliest settlers of the County, and their families, their children, and grand-children, as well as the records of the Pioneer Association from 1875 to 1895. Land ownership records are also useful tools for genealogical research. This collection includes four Outagamie County plat books representing dates from 1889 to 1942. Some indexes are included within the plat book itself, and a separate name index to the 1889 Outagamie plat book is available at the Appleton Public Library. Those not available yet online are in the process of being made accessible from the Library's homepage at www.apl.org. Many more local history resources, including historic photographs and postcards, are available at www.foxvalleymemory.org.