Special Collections: UW-Milwaukee’s Hidden Gem

In a quiet, small section of Golda Meir Library at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is a hidden research facility tucked away on the fourth floor called the Special Collections; above the sign is an Italian quote: ‘Lascaite ogne speranza voi ch’intrate,’ which translates to, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter.”

Max Yela, the head of the Special Collections, says this is a literary joke, a humorous way of telling the visitor to proceed with caution, for there will be something unexpected on the other side.

“People get confused about what a Special Collections is and think of it as a museum-like environment where things are preserved in order for us to pull them out and present them in some didactic fashion the way museums do,” Yela said, “And we do that too, but only to intrigue people to come and actually handle things.”

Special Collections is not only a research facility, but also a teaching one that features items across a wide genre of subjects such as arts, humanities and social sciences. The intention behind the collections is for students to discover these items and use them for their own research.

Geryn A Roche, who is an art professor at UWM, describes her first time at the collections, which was about a year ago with her 2D Studio Art class.

“I was just blown away that it was tucked away at the top of the library and that I’ve never really heard about it,” Roche said. “It is such a great resource for not only students but to the community.”

Special Collections is also open to the public like the rest of the library, where anyone from the community can go to see items in an area that sparks their interest.

“Our jobs are to identify things that we want to acquire,” Yela said, “acquire them and preserve them in their original forms as artifacts that we can investigate in some way.”

The Special Collections focus is on preserving printed artifacts which also include an item called ‘Artists books.’

“Artists books differ from regular books in that they don’t always have a linear order and tradition structure,” Roche said.

Preservation comes in various forms. The room where the collections are located has special air handlers that make sure there’s lots of moisture in the air.

He emphasizes the importance of a stable environment, which requires making sure that the humidity and temperature don’t fluctuate. Yela has a set of regulations that ensures visitors handle items in a way that helps him preserve.

“We do build our own boxes and enclosures for these materials, so that’s another way of preserving,” Yela said. “It’s called a phase activity. Phase one is building a box to at least support the work before it gets ultimately preserved.”

Human beings have natural oils on their fingers which can be a challenge for preserving print items because they ultimately wear down due to these oils over time. However, Yela usually doesn’t make visitors wear gloves, but rather makes them wash their hands.

He said the barrier that gloves create is problematic because the visitor cannot feel what they’re handling, so there’s a strong potential of items getting damaged because of the sensitivity that is lost with gloves.

Except, there’s another important reason too: the loss of touch. He says the purpose of these artifacts is to be used in some way, and touch, along with all the other senses, is part both the history of the object and the way people experience them.

“I don’t want to put a barrier between the researcher and the object,” Yela said.

“There’s something about not only the visual aspects, but the sense of touch that you’re experiencing when you’re looking at these books,” Roche said.

Layla Blackwell, a student in Roche’s class, described one of the most memorable books she saw when she went to visit the collections. She said there were people outlined on each page.

“Each person had like splashes of color in them; I feel like it represented something, like maybe disease, cause of the way it was laid out,” Blackwell said. “I really liked it because it didn’t really need words for you to kind of tell what it was about which I’m assuming was illness.”

“What was most memorable to me was seeing my student’s reactions, seeing them kind of go back to how it is when you’re reading books as a child and getting really excited about something,” Roche said. “You don’t see that in adults very much.”