What We Offer

The collection at the Historical Research Center contains more than 1,000,000 documents and more than 500,000 images. It is comprised of things like scrapbooks, research books on genealogical topics and history, school yearbooks, State of Wisconsin Blue Books, church histories and anniversary books, tax records, diaries and biographies, local history books written by local authors about many of Sheboygan County’s villages, Garton Toy catalogs, Phoenix Chair and other furniture company catalogs and Sheboygan Press newspapers.

Library Collections

The entire collection is made up of hundreds of smaller collections. The main library and first floor of the Research Center house the following: General information files (alphabetical files on everything from families to churches to businesses to events and organizations. The library has church history, obituaries, Plymouth Post entries, yearbooks, marriage license applications, vital statistics, marriage and anniversary clippings, genealogies, biographies, land records, assessment and tax records, maps and plat books, cemetery records and listings.

Archival Collections

Archival collections are stored in SCHRC’s basement. They are smaller collections organized by donor or subject. Examples include: Sheboygan Redskins and Redwings, Road America statistics and programs. All are available to researchers.

Photo Collections

The photo collection at the Research Center surpasses the 750,000 mark; they’re prints of all sizes, tin types, slides, negatives.

Online Collection

This is a collection sites that offer Sheboygan County information. Much of it has come from SCHRC and been scanned as a part of other regional projects. Or it may be public domain info that is shareable. Or it may be from projects of which SCHRC was a part.

Donate to Collections

Everyone must complete the following forms in order to donate material to the Research Center.

  • Acquisition and Disposition of Collection Materials Policy
  • Donor Form

Items Accepted

  • Photos, slides, negatives, postcards
  • Paper records of all kinds- birth, death and marriage, tax records
  • Genealogies, family histories, pedigree charts
  • Unique publications- like the Phoenix bible
  • Maps, Atlases and Plat books
  • Posters, paintings and architectural drawings and records
  • Anything you can file

Items Not Accepted

  • Clothing, uniforms and wedding dresses
  • Guns and ammunition
  • Machinery and tools
  • Old, general curriculum school books and old children’s books
  • Anything you can dust- these things go to the Sheboygan County Historical Museum (920) 458-1103.

Collections Policy

Everything the Research Center takes into the collection must have something to do with Sheboygan County, the people who live in it, or the area immediately surrounding it.

Materials will not be accepted or otherwise acquired for the collections unless the following conditions are met. The materials are relevant to and consistent with the purposes and activities of the Historical Research Center.

The Historical Research Center can provide for the storage, protection and preservation of the materials under conditions that insure their availability for research purposes and are in keeping with professionally accepted standards. It is intended that the materials shall have permanency in the collections as long as they retain their identity and their authenticity and as long as they remain useful for the purposes of the Historical Research Center. Title to all materials acquired for the collections should be obtained free and clear without restrictions as to use or future disposition.