Traditions & History
127 stories. Showing page 2 of 5.
A century-old arts venue is hidden within a lecture hall.
The Multicultural Student Center offers a safe haven for students of color.
In the spring of 2020, Badgers took their courses to go as a pandemic sent students away from the campus they love.
A century ago, UW–Madison grads spearheaded the suffrage movement.
Remembering UW–Madison’s first class of WAVES.
The official UW–Madison tour brings a magical campus to life.
Students and community members bond at traditional Shabbat dinners.
A look back at the telephone’s heyday in UW residence halls.
Here's the definitive account of how and when the tradition began.
Over six decades, UW teams won 14 Big Ten championships.
No men allowed: a group of 1960s female students relaxes in the Elizabeth Waters Residence Hall courtyard. The dorm would be the last on campus to remain segregated by gender. UW Archives 2018s00424
By 2005, Elizabeth Waters Residence Hall was the last standing gender-segregated dorm on…
Strength in numbers: a women-led UW faculty group meets in 1975 for the formation of what has become the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies. UW Archives S17032
Before the 1970s, to study the history of the world was largely to learn of men fighting wars.…
The Wisconsin Union has hosted hundreds of weddings during the past 90 years.
UW Archives 2018s00431
In 2017, the Badgers lost just one football game. In 1968, they couldn’t win one.
It’s almost impossible to believe in these days of annual bowl game appearances, but the UW once suffered through 23 straight winless games — 22 losses and…
The creepy history of Science Hall provided inspiration for a UW professor’s gothic novel.
On a campus situated between two lakes, it’s only natural that students take advantage of the water. Just two years after the Hoofer Sailing Club formed in 1939, it already boasted more than 450 registered members. Today, UW–Madison students and community members still enjoy hopping into one of…
It was a gray Friday afternoon, cloudy and unusually chilly for September, with a heavy chance of rain. Most of the sailing classes offered through Wisconsin Hoofers had been canceled for the day — except for Jay Chan’s sailing lesson, which he prepared for eagerly despite the darkening skies.…
The Law School’s diplomas were much larger in 1876 than they have been in recent years. Compared to his “postcard”-sized diploma, Peter Christianson ’71, JD’77 says, they are “small billboards.” Mary Jo Koranda, Head of Circulation, UW Law Library
For years, the diploma for Clarion Youmans…
Each spring, a small group of students vies for the chance to become the most visible member of the UW’s Spirit Squad: Bucky Badger.
Researcher Eloise Gerry blazed a trail for female scientists during her four decades with the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory in Madison. Photo courtesy of USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison
I always knew my children would be smarter than me — I just didn’t expect…
If you had been a female student at the UW in the late 1860s, your first year would have included the not-so-challenging courses listed below. For a brief period in its early days, the University of Wisconsin had a special college known as the Female College. Although the…
Bryce Richter
When frigid temperatures have settled in and sunny skies are rare, what could bring UW students out of their homework-induced hibernation for some frozen fun?
That’s the puzzle that the Wisconsin Hoofers solved when the student group took over the university’s Winter Carnival…
A resource center for African American students has a new home on campus.
For one night a year from 1911 until 1930, the shores of Lake Mendota sparkled with old-world charm.