The Nelis R. Kampenga University Archives and Area Research
Center has received the 2026 Governor’s Archives Award for Archival Innovation
from the Wisconsin Historical Society for Stevens Point Through the Years,
a groundbreaking digital project that makes nearly 60,000 historical census
records accessible in an entirely new way.
Brad Casselberry receives award
The award recognizes the Archives' years of work to preserve, transcribe, research, and transform historical census records into an interactive resource that allows anyone to explore the people and neighborhoods that shaped Stevens Point.
At the center of that effort is University Archivist Brad Casselberry, who initiated the project and guided its development.
An Idea Takes Shape
The roots of Stevens Point Through the Years goes back to census research conducted by Dr. Toshiyuki Sano of Nara Women’s
University in Japan. In 2018, Sano donated Portage County census data from his
research to the University Archives.
Casselberry saw the potential to take that historical information further.
In 2019, he began exploring the possibility of connecting historical census records with mapping technology, creating a resource that would allow people not simply to read census entries, but to see where Stevens Point residents actually lived and how the community developed over time.
That idea launched a project that would continue for more than five years.
Casselberry began the extensive work of transcribing handwritten federal census records, including the 1930 and 1940 censuses. Archives student interns subsequently helped transcribe records from 1900, 1910 and 1920 and conducted the detailed historical research necessary to interpret and verify the information.
Ultimately, nearly 60,000 individual census records were processed.
New Research Tool
The work involved far more than entering names into a
database.
Historical census entries contain names, addresses, family relationships, birthplaces, languages, occupations and other information that can provide an very detailed picture of a community, but handwritten records can be difficult to decipher, and historical addresses do not always correspond neatly with today's streets.
This was particularly challenging in Stevens Point, where street names changed over time and every address in the city was renumbered in 1965.
Casselberry and the Archives team used additional historical sources, including city directories, to resolve discrepancies and verify information. This painstaking archival work created the foundation that made it possible to connect census entries to locations on a modern map.
The result is the interactive resource featuring federal census data from 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 and 1940.
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| Award ceremony |
For Casselberry, the project represents what archives can do when historical records are made accessible in new ways.
Instead of scrolling through microfilm or searching line after line of census data, patrons can explore Stevens Point geographically. They can search for individual residents, investigate an address, look at occupations and places of birth, and trace immigration and settlement patterns across decades.
These records reveal how Stevens Point grew and changed, and the people behind that history.
Patrons can also see where immigrant communities settled, explore concentrations of particular occupations and observe relationships between neighborhoods and cultural or religious institutions. Genealogists can locate where ancestors lived and worked, while students and researchers can use the data to investigate broader questions about immigration, demographics, economic development and community change.
In this way, records originally created more than a century ago become a living resource for understanding Stevens Point today.
Archives Innovation
The Governor’s Award honors outstanding work with Wisconsin historical records and recognizes
efforts that preserve or increase access to original historical documents.
Stevens Point Through the Years does both.
It preserves information contained in fragile and sometimes difficult-to-use historical records while opening those records to audiences far beyond the physical Archives. It has also provided UWSP students with hands-on experience working with primary sources, historical research, data transcription and digital humanities.
The project was made possible with contributions from Archives student interns and through collaboration with the UWSP GIS Center, which provided the GIS expertise needed to translate the archival data into an interactive mapping environment.
Congratulations to Brad Casselberry and the UWSP Archives on this well-deserved statewide recognition for their vision, years of work, and commitment to making the history of Stevens Point more accessible to everyone.
Explore Stevens Point Through the Years:
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/624ab275f0c2454b9ef57caea0b45510