Democratizing History: Digitization for a New Wisconsin History Museum

FAIN: ZPA-284092-22

State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Madison, WI 53706-1417)
Angela Fritz (Project Director: May 2021 to November 2021)
Angela Fritz (Project Director: November 2021 to August 2022)
Daniel Hartwig (Project Director: August 2022 to January 2026)

The installation of digitization services in a new history museum, including the retention of six jobs and the creation of three new positions.

The Wisconsin Historical Society is weathering the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic at a pivotal time in its history. The Society is in the midst of a multi-year campaign to build a new history museum, which will rely heavily on digitized collections and require robust capacity in the Society’s Digital Collections and IT teams. Pre-pandemic, the Society launched an initiative to scale up operational readiness for digitization. However, as a result of pandemic-related revenue losses, the Society had to reassign staff dedicated to digital collections access work to state agencies charged with COVID emergency response planning, setting the project a year behind. Grant funds would enable the Society to 1) hire necessary staff and provide training to support expanded digitization services, 2) conduct an assessment of current digitization services and digital stewardship practices, and 3) replace equipment to get digitization work back on schedule for the opening of the new museum.