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The Wisconsin Historical Society Appoints Headquarters in Madison
The WHS was founded in 1846 and is today the oldest historical society in the United States to receive continuous public funding. On this day in 1900, 900 people "gathered in the general reading room of the new library and museum building of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, to fittingly dedicate the structure to public use." To this day, the building remains the WHS headquarters, located on 816 State St. Madison, WI. -
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History of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
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Hans V. Kaltenborn Donates to the Wisconsin Historical Society
Hans V. Kaltenborn, a native of Merrill, WI, was a radio news commentator whose career began in 1928 and continued for over 30 years. In 1954, Kaltenborn donated the papers and memorabilia of his long and influential career to the WHS, one of their first major collections in the area of mass media. This collection, alongside a fund set up by Kaltenborn, initiated the creation of the Mass Communications History Collection in 1958. -
WHS Acquires NBC Papers
In 1958, a deal was brokered between the WHS and NBC, in which NBC agreed to donate materials to the center which they would otherwise destroy, such as legal documents, advertisments, and promotional items. Today, this collection is the only accessible archive of a major network in the US, consisting of over 600 boxes of papers and 3,000 recordings from the early 1920s to the late 1960s. The notoriety and magnitude of the collection helped convince future donors to give their works to the WHS. -
The WHS forms Mass Communications History Center
By this time, the WHS was receiving numerous donations in the fields of print and broadcast journalism, as well as advertising and public relations. This, alongside funding from various donors, prompted the WHS to form the Mass Communications History Center as a way to categorize these collections and make future devolpment easier. Though the MCHC is a separate archive from what would become the WCFTR, the two are considered complimentary and share vault space underneath the WHS headquarters. -
The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research is Formed
Feeling that the archives could be expanded to areas of media other than mass communication, the UW's Speech and Theater department (now known as the Communication Arts department) formed the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. The Center would be funded by the university, but share space with the WHS. Today, it is one of the largest and most significant collections of performing arts history in the world. -
Tino Balio is Appointed Director of the WCFTR
In 1966, Tino Balio was appointed director of the WCFTR, marking the beginning of what is now considered "The Golden Age of Collecting" for the center. Balio's energy and initative, along with favorable tax codes that granted deductions to donors, made the following decade a strategic moment in the WCFTR's history. Balio played a pivitol role in the aquisition of some of the archive's most significant collections, such as the Kirk Douglas papers and the United Artists collection. -
WCFTR Acquires United Artists Collection
In 1969, United Artists, a major twentieth century motion picture studio, donated a collection consisting of thousands of films and scripts, as well as corporate, legal, and financial records dating back to the 1930s. Then director Tino Balio called the collection the “largest single gift of film material ever presented to a research institution." -
WCFTR Aquires Kirk Douglas Collection
In 1972, notable Hollywood actor-producer Kirk Douglas donated the documents and records of his extensive career in film, television, theater, and radio. The collection includes Douglas' correspondence and personal papers, finance and business records, as well as memorobilia from his films, all of which help document the collaborative effort of filmmaking. Like the United Arts collection, Douglas' donation helped give notoriety to the WCFTR which aided greatly in acquiring future collections. -
WCFTR Takes Collection to the Web
With the help of funding from UW alumnus Stephen Jarchow, in 2007 the WCFTR began moving some of its more notable collections online in an effort to make the archives more available to the public and attract more people to the center. The Jarchow Exhibits contain slideshows of collection highlights and accompanying descriptions. -
WCFTR to Build Second Storage Vault
Between the collections of both the MCHC and the WCFTR, the vault below the Historical Sociey headquarters building on campus has limited room for new acquisitions. In light of this, the WHS is moving forward on plans to build a new state-of-the-art storage facility in east Madison, and a significant part of the WCFTR inventory will move there. The facility is expected to be completed by 2018.
