The core Collections contain unique resources for the study of maritime history on the upper Great Lakes. Additional emphases of the Collections also extend, because of the international nature of trade, to the lower Great Lakes and beyond. These sources are intended to support UW-Superior faculty and student research, as well as the needs of the Lake Superior Marine Visitors Center, and the broader communities of the Twin Ports and Maritime historians and hobbyists.
Archival records are normally unpublished.
Formal documents range from government, corporate and business records, personal papers such as diaries and correspondence, professional papers, operational records such as ships logs, dredge logs, or shipyard time sheets, research manuscripts, oral histories, and official copies of legal documents, such as ship registrations. Less formal are the items known as ephemera, which typically include newspaper articles, brochures, broadsheets, advertisements, and similar matter. Archival records may exist in eye-readable or electronically recorded formats. In addition, various published research materials are commonly held to support study and research within the archival collections. The process of selection, acquisition and organization of archival materials is a cooperative venture between the Archivist, the Maritime Collections Advisory Board, and various subject specialists.