#uwmarchives

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Happy International Dance Day! Our Milwaukee Polonia digital collection has dozens of pictures of both ballet and folk dancers, including the image that can be seen on our website's finding aid

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Pride Month -- The UWM LGBT Collection

All month our sibling department, UWM Archives, has been highlighting materials from our joint LGBT Collection in celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The collection is the largest documentary collection of LGBTQ+ history in Wisconsin, and one of the largest in the Upper Midwest (we believe it is only surpassed by the magnificent Tretter Collection at the University of Minnesota). Shown here are pages from our collection brochure highlighting the scope and purpose of the LGBT Collection in Archives and Special Collections. It was printed several years ago, so some things have changed (e.g., the former Head of Archives Michael Doylen is now Associate Vice Provost and Director of the UWM Libraries, and the current head is Derek Webb), but the purpose and scope of the collection remains the same.

The collection includes personal papers, organizational records, oral histories, motion picture collections, sound recordings, realia, posters, brochures, newspapers, magazines, books, and other printed materials. As the collection brochure notes, the materials in both Special Collections and Archives tend to focus on the Milwaukee region with mostly post-Stonewall documentation. In Special Collections, however, “the collection extends beyond the Milwaukee area in order to preserve rare print publications dating from the pre-Stonewall period.” We will be highlighting some of these publications over the next week. If you are in our area, we hope you will make an appointment to spend some time with our LGBT Collection.

[uwmarchives]

To celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the UW-Milwaukee is showcasing the Desi Wisconsin oral history collection. During the 1950s to the 1970s, the Indian population of the city of Milwaukee grew from a few families to a community of hundreds. In a city of primarily white and black residents, these immigrants learned to navigate and raise families in a culture that was fundamentally different to the one they had left behind. Covering themes of religion, identity, family, and immigration, these interviews give insight into the experiences of the South Asian immigrants who made Milwaukee their home. 

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Finals Week

Finals week is here. Somehow no matter how prepared you are there's no escaping the stress of final exams. We're sharing some old articles from The Post to assure you that you are not alone.

(May 12, 1983) Volume 27 Number 60. Read the full issue here. UWM students vent their frustrations surrounding finals week.

(May 22, 1958) Volume 2 Number 39. Read the full issue here.

Fritz provides students advice on how to handle finals...which may not help you pass.

(May 7th, 1992) Volume 36 Number 56. Read the full issue here.

In this article the post reminds students to continue to take care of themselves and suggest some ways to do so.

We at the archives encourage you to take care of yourselves and wish you the best of luck on your exams. Have a wonderful winter break!

~Jenna-Rose

[uwmarchives]

Pride Month Spotlight: LGBTQ Film Festival

The first annual Milwaukee Gay and Lesbian Film Festival was organized by the Lavender Commitment, a student organization at UWM, in January 1983! While gay and lesbian films were screened by the Student Union in 1971, the ‘83 festival was the first annual event. From 1983-1988 the Lavender Commitment organized the festival.

In 1992, Great Lakes Film & Video (GLFV) and the Cream City Foundation began their own LGBT film and video series. This program ran annually till 1996. In 1996, GLFV programming joined with UWM’s School of Fine arts bringing the festival back home to UWM. 

The LGBT Film/Video Festival continued through 2017. For more information on the festival including original brochures and posters, check out the UWM Student Union Collection, 1948-2015, Box 6 and Box 43 Folders 6-16. 

[uwmarchives]

We're hitting it out of the park for baseball fan's day! These photographs come from our Milwaukee Neighborhood's Collection and feature players and spectators of the Kosciuszko Reds. The Kosciusko Reds were a Polish-American semi-professional team based out of Milwaukee's South Side from 1909-1919.

~Jenna-Rose

Kosciuszko Reds vs. Chicago Giants

Kosciuszko Reds spectators

Kosciuszko Reds spectators

[uwmarchives]

Pride Month Spotlight: Fr. Feldhausen, The Gay Rights Priest

As we get closer to pride month, the UWM archives wants to highlight the first gay wedding in our city and take a deep dive into a less popularized figure: the priest who married them. On Christmas Day, 1971 Donna Burkett and Manonia Evans were married by Father Joseph Feldhausen, an eastern orthodox priest. This article announcing their marriage ran in the January 1972 issue of Gay People’s Union Newspaper which circulated internationally out of Milwaukee. Their wedding marked the first gay marriage in Milwaukee and caused headlines for months before and after the date. While Donna Burkett would go on to do numerous interviews and tell her story, less is known about the life of Father Feldhausen.

Fledhausen was a somewhat well-known figure in the Milwaukee gay community through the 1970s. As a UWM student in the late 1960s, Fledhausen quickly became involved in groups on and off campus. In fact, he would go on to write occasionally for the UWM Post, host gatherings in the late 60s for students to “rap on the gospel,” become ordained in the Ukrainian Orthodox church, form an “underground” religious group of UWM students that would eventually turn into a self-run parish, buy a house to serve as a sort of commune for that parish, advocate for gay rights in religion, change religious denominations, and eventually preside over the Burkett Evans wedding.

These articles, interviews, and news footage provide only a brief glance at who Joseph Feldhausen was and his work in the Milwaukee LGBTQ+ community. Despite his eccentric nature and the role of St. Nicholas in the community at the time, Joseph Feldhausen is still most commonly associated with the historic wedding of Burkett and Evans. For more information on the Burkett and Evans wedding as well as the life of Father Joseph Feldhausen, check out the UWM Post, Kaleidoscope, GPU News, and the WTMJ-TV footage in the UWM Archives and Digital Collections!

[uwmarchives]

The third Saturday of July is National Ice Cream Day and to mark such a sweet occasion we're sharing an exterior of Ted's Ice Cream from our postcard collection. Grab a scoop or two, which you can still do at Ted's.

Greetings from Milwaukee Digital Collection

~Jenna-Rose