Oberwise Slides
In March, 2003, John Angelos and Marilyn Johnson offered the Lyle Oberwise slide collection to the Milwaukee County Historical Society. This collection of over 43,000 color slides afforded the staff and researchers the chance to view Milwaukee in a new way – in vivid color. Up to that point in 2003, we could only look at old Milwaukee through black and white photography, and only guess at the color of buildings, planes, homes, and vehicles.
Lyle M. Oberwise was born in Illinois, and came to Milwaukee to go to Marquette University for an engineering degree. After graduation in 1931, he served for a few years in the Civilian Conservation 
Corps and later worked for a Milwaukee packaging company. It was during this time that Lyle started what was to be his life’s project of documenting Milwaukee through the use of photographic film. Then World War II came and he was drafted into the Army and served as a combat photographer in the China-Burma-India area of operations. It is during this time that his use of color Kodak film became his preferred choice in his photography. Upon his return to Milwaukee, Lyle spent his spare time taking pictures of a Milwaukee that no longer exists. It is because of his efforts to document the changes that Milwaukee went through from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s that people are able to enjoy and revisit a Milwaukee that most have never seen.
This valuable collection of images was sorted and re-sorted over a period of two years by volunteers and staff into categories that can be searched today by researchers and the general public. Some of the categories include neon signs, commercial buildings, parks, parades, and transportation. Within these, further subcategories exist which make it easier to search for the desired image. If you come in to view them and happen to find something that you must have, these images can be reproduced.
