The Noer/ Milorganite® Image Collection website within MSU’s Main Library is now available thanks to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and the Turfgrass Information Center.
This collection, sometimes known as the "Noer slides," currently features almost 13,000 35-mm slide images shot by O. J. Noer, and later, Charlie Wilson, Jim Latham and others. The digital archive is searchable, may be browsed by year or location and can be accessed at noermmsd.lib.msu.edu.
These images were taken between the 1920s through the 1980s, and feature an extraordinary scope of content, including experimental plots, golf courses and athletic fields across North America, equipment, personalities, maintenance practices, disease and pest control, and fertilization issues and test plots.
All undamaged slides with available data from the original hand-typed ledgers have now been scanned and loaded into the digital archive. This under-construction website is publicly-accessible, and materials may be reused for non-commercial educational and research purposes, with appropriate attribution as specified in the website’s terms and conditions of use.
Support for this initial launch has been provided by the O.J. Noer Research Foundation, the Wisconsin Golf Course Superintendents Association, the Michigan Turfgrass Foundation, the MSU Libraries, and other groups and individuals.