Western Michigan University History Digital Collections
Get to know the history of Western Michigan University through images, recordings, yearbooks and more.
Collections
-
Archives Photograph Collection
Images from WMU’s history including faculty, staff, students and views of the campus from its origin to more recent times.
A selection of the thousands of original photos located at the Zhang Legacy Collections Center.
-
Campus History Story Map
Interactive map that combines text, images and geospatial tools to provide a contemporary and historical tour of the WMU campus from 1903 to present day.
-
Martin Luther King's 1963 WMU Speech
A guide that details Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dec. 18, 1963, speech at WMU, including a recording of the live broadcast which was lost for almost 30 years.
-
Merze Tate Collection
Photo albums and scrapbooks created by renowned scholar, world traveler and distinguished Western Michigan University alumnae Dr. Merze Tate, detailing her studies, teaching and adventures across the globe.
A selection of original materials located at the Zhang Legacy Collections Center.
-
Music Performances Collection
Live recordings and printed programs of concerts and recitals, primarily graduate recitals and concerts by student ensembles, from the WMU School of Music from the 1970s to 2000.
Concert programs are available for public viewing, but recordings are restricted to on-campus use only.
-
Oral Histories Collection
Oral histories by alumni, faculty, staff and friends collected from 1987 to 2003 for the WMU Centennial in 2003.
-
Website Archives
Digital archive containing select WMU websites archived since 2016.
-
Western Activist Archive
Digital archive of the Western Activist, an alternative student newspaper published weekly from 1966 to 1969.
-
Western Herald Archive
Digital archive of almost every Western Herald newspaper published from 1916 to 2009.
-
Yearbooks Collection
Complete cover-to-cover digital versions (PDFs) of WMU yearbooks from 1906 through 1985.
Digital collections
Explore our other digital collections
We've digitized thousands of items and made them available to you online.
