The Upper Peninsula Collection consists of material culture artifacts relating to the ethnic, religious and social diversity of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. These include a wide array of artifacts such as household pieces, clothing, arts and crafts, symbolic items, recreational equipment and just about anything that is related to the history of the Upper Peninsula’s people.
The Northern Michigan University Collection consists of three-dimensional artifacts from the history of NMU. These include items related to educational, administrative and athletic activities, and student life on campus.
Individual Collections consist of various three-dimensional artifacts related to the lives of important historical figures from the Upper Peninsula’s past. Currently the Beaumier Upper Peninsula Heritage Center has collections reflecting the lives and work of the following people:
- Sam Cohodas – Upper Peninsula merchant and philanthropist
- John D. Voelker – Writer, lawyer, judge and author (pen name Robert Traver); wrote Anatomy of a Murder
- Glenn T. Seaborg – Nobel Prize winning physicist and chemist
- Dominic J. Jacobetti – Michigan Representative and labor organizer
- Nita Engle – Upper Peninsula watercolor artist