Boyle Hall is one of the oldest buildings on the St. Norbert College campus. Dedicated on Aug. 19, 1917, it housed 13 classrooms, a bookstore, cloakroom, six dormitories, living quarters for supervisors, and a large two-story study hall and convocation center on the high-ceilinged third floor.

De Pere’s Past Traced Through Digitized Historical Society Records

Just across the Fox River from campus, the De Pere Historical Society has amassed one of Wisconsins’s largest digital archives. And now, using funds from a $50,000 Lynn Fey Technology Grant, a team of historical society staff and volunteers are indexing those archives for better public access.

Among the treasure trove of photographs, news articles and tax records lies a patchwork view of the history of St. Norbert College itself.

A generational undertaking
De Pere traces its formation to 1836 and its first newspaper published in the late 1860s. It’s not ancient, but it certainly proves daunting for the 12 volunteers tasked with indexing and organizing five-plus generations of photos, stories and records.

The project launched in September 2022 to digitize and make searchable hundreds of thousands of newspapers, more than 60,000 photos and tax records back to the formative years of the city of De Pere.

“In the last year, volunteers only, we’re at just under 1,997 hours,” says McKim Boyd, the historical society’s board president.

The goal is to have items searchable on a database with a multitude of tags for each, beyond date of location. For example, items related to education or sports or a famous event would be tagged as such. Amanda Reif, De Pere Historical Society director and curator, says that this new format will drastically reduce research time.

“Accessibility is huge,” says Reif. People are able to zoom in on things, but we can still protect the actual images, photos and documents. It gives people in our community the ability to do some really effective research.”

The previous software was installed in 2001, so storage space was limited and required staff to pick and choose which documents were scanned and uploaded. The new database has the capability to hold more than a million scans, at much higher resolutions.

An interesting discovery during the work has been the forgotten movement of buildings around the city, says Boyd. The building currently at 609 George St., across the river from campus, has a cornerstone with the date of only its current foundation. It was moved from a previous location on Broadway just prior to the city’s great fire. It’s now believed to be one of the oldest buildings, though it does have a new facade.

St. Norbert’s place in De Pere’s history
Founded in 1898 by the Rev. Bernard Pennings, St. Norbert College — celebrating 125 years in 2023-24 — is a significant part of De Pere’s history. As such, the De Pere Historical Society project includes SNC yearbooks, as well as others from former and current schools. Many of the SNC yearbooks, of which there are several, can also be accessed through the college’s Digital Commons.

Other SNC-flavored bits to be held on the database are in reference to the Dan Kidney & Sons boat factory on campus, which was later used as the college’s first gymnasium.

A long road ahead
With an expected completion date in 2028, it’s a slow and steady pace. But as a passion project for the volunteers, the work is a chance to explore De Pere’s memories and secrets.

Reif says she envisions the new format for sharing the archives will spark an even deeper engagement with the history of De Pere from new generations. She also is optimistic that it will lead to new items being brought forward and new — or old, rather — discoveries.

The historical society is also working on a capital campaign to secure climate-controlled storage for its physical collection (including two Kidney boats), and to renovate its historic White Pillars home. Due to space constraints, the archives are currently held in six separate locations.

Guests are asked to book appointments before visiting the museum.

Feb. 20, 2024