The UWM Libraries are excited to announce that the Archives Renovation Project has met its campaign goal of $2.8 million.

Jumpstarted by an anonymous and unsolicited gift of $1 million in 2017, along with additional donors and the state of Wisconsin completing the funding, the transformative project will provide the Archives Department with a new space within the Golda Meir Library.

The newly renovated archives will include public spaces to meet the research and learning needs of our community, including a dedicated classroom, consolidated and expanded collection storage, and essential environmental controls for collection preservation.

The UWM Archives contains the most significant civil rights collection in the city, WTMJ-TV news footage from the 1950s to 1980, an extensive photograph collection of Milwaukee’s Polonia and the largest LGBT archive collection in the state. This project will improve our ability to share these collections with the UWM community and the public.

Engberg Anderson Architects, who designed the recently completed State Archives Preservation Facility in Madison, are the lead architects on the project.

Construction is scheduled to begin in fall 2021.