Learn more about the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. Founded in 1959, the WMHS is a self-supported, nonprofit organization devoted to collecting, preserving, archiving, and making materials related to the Great Lakes’ marine history accessible to the public. The Society, with its 150 members, is affiliated with the Milwaukee Public Library.

The group maintains the library’s extensive Great Lakes Marine Collection, one of the most important repositories of Great Lakes marine materials. The collection contains more than 12,000 vessel files, 32,000 vessel index cards, and over 100,000 photographs, graphic images, books, nautical charts, manuscripts, journals, 19th-century newspaper stories, and ship artifacts.

WMHS emphasizes collecting and archiving materials involving commerce and industry of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway, focusing on Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, and the Upper Mississippi River System, as well as the lakes and rivers within Wisconsin. Included are records of shipwrecks, nautical charts, diving discoveries of “lost ships,” lighthouses, shipbuilding, storms, ports, and power and sail-driven vessels, some going back to 1679.

WMHS publishes a quarterly newsletter, Soundings, and offers programming and events for its members. Programming includes guest speakers on all marine activities, including authors and historians, military commanders, divers, folklorists, geologists and environmentalists, and commercial and pleasure vessel operators. The Society also sponsors events involving vessel, shipyard, and lighthouse tours, river and lake excursions, and historical ship seminars.