The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, a unit of the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Communication Arts, working with the Wisconsin Historical Society, is actively engaged in collecting, preserving, and making available to researchers significant materials in film, video, broadcasting, and theater. For over forty years we have acquired and encouraged research in the papers and audio/visual materials of significant producers, directors, writers, actors, and organizations who collectively make up the history of American film, broadcast, and theatrical culture. We are interested in collecting business records, contracts, correspondence, scripts, manuscripts, personal papers, photographs, stills, scenarios, shooting scripts, and publicity materials, as well as films, tapes, and digital recordings; in short, significant primary materials that will enhance our understanding of American media culture. Our website provides extensive information about our collections, which include many of the most significant figures in American media history.
We are particularly interested in the collections that combine film, video or sound material with extensive paper documentation. The WCFTR uniquely combines these elements within single collections—not separating them as many archives do—believing that works of artistic creation remain historically most significant when the background of their production can be studied.
Please contact us by phone, email, or letter if you would like more information about your potential donation to the archives of the WCFTR.