Historical Room

The Library staff can to look up small bits of information as time allows. Please contact the library with any questions, or click here for a record request.

The Harriet O’Connell Historical Room Holdings

The Harriet O’Connell Historical Room is currently housed in the lower level of the Fox Lake Public Library, 117 W. State Street, in the City of Fox Lake, Wisconsin. Harriet O’Connell lived through the 1970s, and had a long life. She wrote about Fox Lake on the back of used papers she would have created as secretary in her brother’s law office. He was a Dodge County judge.

When O’Connell died, all her bits of news and jottings found their way to the lower level of the Fox Lake Public Library. The room was watched over by the elderly women of the Fox Lake community until the last one died. In 1982, the Library Director was then given the key to the room, at which time sorting and cataloging the items began in the room. The current Library Director oversees the collection under the guidance of the Harriet O’Connell Historical Room Board.

 

 The Harriet O’Connell Historical Room Holdings

The Fox Lake Representative newspaper began publication in 1866 and ended with the last issue in December 2014. Bound volumes of the Fox Lake Representative newspaper are not available for research. However, they can be found on newspapers.com. Free online access is available on the Library’s public computers and Wi-Fi network.

The Harriet O’Connell Historical Room volunteers continue to work on indexing the room’s contents according to the Wisconsin State Historical Society’s system of organizing materials. These include some books, scrapbooks, obituaries, and over-sized documents. More scrapbooks, ledgers, tax records, and photos are yet to be cataloged.

Beginning in the earliest days of Fox Lake, much indexing and cataloging has been done. However, materials related to 1940 and later have not been finished yet.

 

 The Harriet O’Connell Historical Room’s Contents Useful to Researchers

Viewing of the historical room records requires coordination with the library director to monitor usage of resources and satisfaction of patrons.  Access to the room, and the lower level, is not open to the public, but all contents are accessible through this coordination via director assistance with catalog access and available hours with appropriate assistant coverage.

The Fox Lake Public Library can be reached at 920-928-3223, or by e-mailing the Library at foxlakelibrary@monarchlibraries.org. A request can also be submitted to the library with this form.