Special Collections: What we collect

We collect materials from the Congregation of the Most Holy Rosary of the Order of Preachers that pertain specifically to the Sisters’ role in founding, leading, and attending the university. (For other activities of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, please see the order’s own archives, which were scheduled for transfer to the Catholic Religious Archives Repository at Boston College in spring 2025.)

Our holdings include hundreds of pages of handwritten and typed annals recording the names of Sisters assigned to the convent or school, the names of lay teachers, improvements to buildings and grounds, the number of pupils, the names of graduates, and notable events through the year.

Women of Edgewood University, a collection of oral histories, highlights Sisters whose dedication and direction helped lead the way for women to pursue higher education. As this collection grows, it will also encompass lay leaders, faculty, staff, and alumni who contributed to the success of the institution.

Cadwallader C. Washburn, former governor of Wisconsin, donated the Edgewood campus property to the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa in 1881. One of the property’s previous owners, Samuel Marshall, co-founded Marshall & Ilsley bank. The archives holds materials from the Marshall and Washburn families as well as photographs of the Edgewood Villa property, including structures that predated the college. Related holdings from these time periods also include bulletins, catalogs, and yearbooks from St. Regina Academy and Sacred Heart Academy.

The archives has images of campus buildings and grounds in a variety of photographic media as well as extensive records from campus master planning and construction projects that created the university’s present-day physical plant.

The archives retains governance and policy documents tracing the institution’s educational and fiscal development and its leadership by Sisters and, later, by lay presidents and trustees. The archives retains individual presidents’ papers as well as membership lists and minutes from the Board of Trustees and its predecessors. Self-study reports and related accreditation records are particularly important in reflecting the establishment and expansion of key programs, such as teacher education, nursing, and business degrees. Our administrative holdings also include records from the university’s membership in various consortiums and organizations, affiliations and partnerships with other educational institutions in the Madison area, and state and federal governmental reporting.

In addition to records from the Vice President of Academic Affairs (formerly the Academic Dean’s Office) and from faculty and staff assemblies and committees, the archives retains commencement programs and photographs, materials related to Summer Session and Winterim, and records from various continuing education programs. We actively collect in the following areas:

• Departmental records and reports
• Conference proceedings
• Event and exhibit invitations
• Performance programs and audiovisual recordings

Edgewood’s participation in sanctioned intercollegiate sports dates to the 1970s, when the eagle was designated as the athletics mascot. (The Sinsinawa Dominicans may derive their name from a Sioux word meaning “home of the young eagle.”) The archives retains Eagle Athletics newsletters, media kits, and press releases as well as numerous team and individual photographs. Our holdings for individual teams vary widely but typically include some combination of roster information, scorebooks, statistics, and tournament memorabilia.

Some records date from Edgewood’s membership in the former Lake Michigan Conference (LMC), which was part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) before its later affiliation with the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Division III. Mergers and reorganizations in the 2000s created the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), in which the Eagles currently compete.

The archives seeks to capture what campus life was like for students throughout the university’s past and present. With this goal in mind, we collect a wide range of formats and material types:

• Scrapbooks
• Photographs
• Performance programs
• Memorabilia and realia
• Student organization and club records, including posters, photographs, and correspondence

The archives holds complete or near-complete runs of most student and institutional publications. We also collect outside publications that mention the university, including local newspapers, magazines, and web publications. Broadly speaking, we collect across the following categories:

• Student publications — newspapers, yearbooks, creative arts journals, web publications
• Internal university publications — faculty handbooks, staff association newsletters, faculty/staff directories, commencement programs
• External university publications — campus maps, viewbooks, fact sheets, event invitations, degree program brochures, admissions mailings, community newsletters, alumni magazines, class reunion directories, web publications

The archives collects materials from faculty, staff, and alumni who made major contributions to their disciplines and/or to the university. These collections often contain personal and professional correspondence, biographical material, records of committees, literary manuscripts, lecture notes, conference presentations, and photographs.

Collections in this area provide additional perspectives on efforts to expand the university’s presence both locally and globally, not only physically but also programmatically:

• Correspondence, meeting minutes, and newsletters documenting the university’s relationship with the Dudgeon-Monroe and Vilas Neighborhood Associations
• Correspondence, contracts, and collaborative committees formed with area hospitals and educational institutions, including the University of Wisconsin–Madison and St. Mary’s School of Nursing
• Photographs and gifts from the university’s exchange trips with Vajiravudh College in Bangkok and the visit of Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand to Edgewood’s campus