GREAT LAKES MARINE COLLECTION

The information in this database is from the vessel files that are part of the Great Lakes Marine Collection. The Collection, which includes far more than the vessel files, is located in the Frank P. Zeidler Humanities Room at the Central Library of Milwaukee Public Library. The Collection is supported by the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. The Society was founded in 1959 to help support the library in caring for the Herman G. Runge Collection on Great Lakes vessels discussed below. The Society continues to give valuable support to this day, including creating this database. Members assist in a variety of ways including volunteers who help with processing and preserving materials in the collection. The society provides generous financial support for projects including cataloging of the vessel files and acquiring the extensive collection of U.S. Customs Service Great Lakes Vessel Enrollment Records. The society is a membership organization whose annual programs include vessel tours, shipyard tours, cruises, seminars and lectures. Learn more about the society by clicking here.

The vessel files are one of the most heavily used parts of the Great Lakes Marine Collection. They contain data on more than 10,000 vessels that sailed the Great Lakes. The file for each vessel includes a data sheet outlining the vessel's size and history, including names of captains and changes in the name of the vessel. The datasheets can be searched online. Many of the files also include photographs of the vessel. Over thirty current and historic magazines focusing on the Great Lakes are checked on an ongoing basis for updates and articles to be added to the files.

The cornerstone upon which the Great Lakes Vessel Files is built is the Herman G. Runge Collection, acquired by the library in 1959. Runge devoted almost 70 years of his life to collecting and preserving information on all aspects of marine activities on the Great Lakes. He journeyed to all the principal lake ports, visiting with government and shipping officials, captains and crews of lake boats, ship photographers and fellow collectors. At the same time he kept up a heavy correspondence with other compilers, government agencies and shipping lines. When he died on March 16, 1958, he had become indisputably one of the most knowledgeable and colorful collectors on the lakes. Mr. Runge's handwritten cards are still available, but his handwriting needs some effort to decipher. The Runge Collection contained information on thousands of ships that had sailed the Lakes as well as approximately 17,000 photographs of Great Lakes ships. The files are no longer called the Runge Collection because several other collections have augmented them. Additional notable donors include John Nelson, John P. Kane, Harry Bethune Jr., Edwin Wilson, Christopher G. Winscher and Lewis Buttles. Rose Kramer's 20,000 bulk carrier photos arrived in 1986. Significant additions to the documentary materials have come from the Kalmbach Publishing Company, Ralph Friedmann, H.E.Stephenson, Louis Quarles, Edmund Fitzgerald, Harry Thorpe Jr., the Milwaukee Harbor Commission and Courtland Conlee. The files continue to grow.

The Great Lakes Marine Collection also includes marine subject files, magazines, nautical charts, directories, U. S. Federal Documents, vessel enrollments, and books. The marine subject files of more than 1,200 file folders contain data on shipping companies, shipyards, ports, lighthouses, and individual biographical articles.

The Marine collection includes more than thirty magazines that provide current and historical information on the Great Lakes. They cover ports, shipwrecks, shipbuilding, storms, captains and crews. Some date back to the 19th century. The magazines include:

• Anchor News
• Argonauta
• Beacon
• Chadburn Great Lakes Log
• Great Lakes News
• Great Lakes New Letter
• Great Lakes Outlook
• Great Lakes Review
• Great Lakes And Inland Waterways
• Great Lakes Inland Waterways And Seaway Journal
• Great Lakes News
• Inland Seas
• Shipwreck Journal
• Soundings

Maps of the Great Lakes are called charts. Our collection includes both current charts, of interest to sailors and yacht owners and older charts some from the 19th century, that are used by divers and researchers. The Great Lakes Marine Collection includes directories, such as Inland Lloyds, Merchant Vessels of the U.S., Green's Great Lakes and Seaway Directory, and Ship Masters Association Directory. Some are from as far back as the 1800s. These directories provide information on vessels and in some cases on people who served on Great Lakes vessels. The Library's collection of Federal government documents includes reports of the Coast Guard's life saving stations, coastal pilots, wreck reports and other publications of interest to those doing research on the Great Lakes. The library has access to the U.S. Customs Service Great Lakes Vessel Enrollment Records on microfilm from 1815- 1915 through the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society which is producing an Online Enrollment Data Base Index that enables tracking the history of the vessel just by tracing its name. Of course the Library's book collection is also a rich source for Great Lakes research. We have thousands of books on the Great Lakes, including company histories, biographies of captains, accounts of shipwrecks and books on individual ships. The Local History Collection contains county and regional histories for the U.S. states and Canadian provinces around the Lakes. The Marine Collection includes some framed art and a few ship models which are on display.

The Great Lakes Marine Collection is located in the Frank P. Zeidler Humanities Room on the 2nd floor of the Central Library of the Milwaukee Public Library. Materials are for use only in that room, but most of the material may be photocopied. The librarians there will assist you in using the collection. Patrons using the vessel and marine subject files will be asked to fill out a short application form before using these special materials.