This day, she does not think about the metal carrier her milkman once used for deliveries, the wooden poles she used to prop up a clothes line, photographs of her husband at work at his press, pieces of metal he bent into useful shapes at the massive machine, the steady rhythm achieved operating the church's old mimeograph machine by hand, her own recollections of washdays, or any of innumerable materials of a more recent time that has passed into history. The record of the recent past has yet to find its way to her cataloging table at the local historical society. As the twentieth century nears its end, the Wisconsin Council for Local History hopes to encourage all county, local and specialized historical societies to examine their efforts to collect and preserve the record of the recent past. A quart of milk once delivered to the home in a glass bottle now comes in a plastic jug picked up at a convenience store. The church bulletin formerly produced on a mimeograph machine now emerges from a laser printer.
Robots replace human hands along an assembly line.
If preserved now, a record of the changing methods and patterns of everyday work and life during the last fifty years will comprise an important legacy for the future. This theme promotes the collecting of artifacts, photographs and oral histories documenting everyday jobs, activities and events as they have changed in recent decades. In support of this initiative, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin devoted its 1999 Local History Workshop series to the topics of artifacts, photographs and oral history. A wide range of possibilities for participation exists. A local historical society could invite members to submit brief recollections about a typical day at work in the past for inclusion in the society's newsletter.