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Ward Music Archives

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Archiving Irish America: Music, Culture, and Dance Conference

Archiving Irish America Conference

April 11-13, 2024: 
Archiving Irish America: Music, Dance & Culture will bring together those who engage with archival materials in their research or creative practice... Read more...

Irish Music on 78rpm Discs

Irish Music on 78rpm Discs

Browse and listen to Irish (and other Celtic) music recorded on 78rpm disc from across our collections! Read More...

Makem and Clancy 1977 Videos Exhibit

Makem and Clancy 1977 Videos

Premiering March 31st! Watch all episodes of Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy's 1977 TV show. Read more...

The Erin and Irish Recording Company 78rpm Mystery

The Erin and Irish Recording Company 78rpm Mystery

Nearly identical 78rpm label designs points to a possible connection between a New Jersey based recording and Bill Stapleton's Irish Recording Company. Read more...

Digital Collections

Explore the Ward Irish Music Archives' award-winning digital collections. From cylinder recordings of Irish musicians in Chicago dating to 1904 to the latest videos from last year's Milwaukee Irish Fest, you'll be able to experience Irish music in various genres throughout its history.

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The Dunn Family Collection

This online digital collection includes 32 rare cylinder recordings of uilleann pipers and fiddlers collected by Francis O'Neill in the early 20th century.
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Irish Sheet Music Archives Digital Collection

The Irish Sheet Music Archives

This online digital collection includes gives music lovers the opportunity to explore thousands of pieces of Irish sheet music created between 1750 and the present.
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Irish Fest Scrapbook Digital Collection

Milwaukee Irish Fest Scrapbook

This online digital collection looks at the history of Milwaukee Irish Fest through photos, videos, and audio over more than 35 years.
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Exhibits

Fulfilling its role as a year-round educational arm of CelticMKE, the Ward Irish Music Archives has developed several physical and online exhibits that explore a number of Irish music topics. These exhibits are featured at festivals and events across the United States each season. Here is a sampling. Show All to view more.

Irish Music 16mm Soundie Films

New: Irish Music 16mm Soundie Films

Watch short music videos featuring popular Irish songs produced between 1940 and 1946!
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Irish Music on Cylinder Recordings

New: Irish Music on Cylinder Recordings

Listen to digitized cylinder recordings of Irish music and musicians from the early 1900s!
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The Isle of Saints: Ireland and Early Christianity Exhibit

The Isle of Saints: Ireland and Early Christianity

This exhibit explores the early Irish saints and the monastic system for which they are so well known.
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Irish American Hall of History Exhibit

Irish American Hall of History

Celebrating the history of Irish and Irish Americans in American Entertainment
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About the Ward Irish Music Archives

Ward Irish Music ArchivesThe Ward Irish Music Archives (WIMA) collects, promotes, preserves, and disseminates Irish and Irish-American musics in all their forms.  WIMA makes these cultural resources available to researchers, artists, and the general public now and into the future for the purposes of teaching, scholarship, and practice.

Established in 1992, WIMA houses one of the largest public collections of Irish music in America. The pieces in the Archives, as well as events, traveling exhibits, CD projects and our online digital collections ensure this important part of Irish American history is preserved and accessible to collectors, enthusiasts, students and lovers of music in any form. Learn more about Archives events, services and how to schedule a visit to WIMA at the CelticMKE Center in Milwaukee.

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