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Campus History

Eloise Gerry

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…

Campus History

6 Classes

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…

Campus History

7 Unusual Gifts

Jeff Miller

To thank the university that launched you into the real world, sometimes writing a check doesn’t feel like enough.

That was certainly the case for Tom Koehler MS’96, who gave his 40-acre yak farm to UW–Madison in 2012. The aptly named “Green Bay Yakkers”…

Campus History

4 UW Pranks

Photo Illustration By N. B. Rinehart; Istock Huad262; Jeff Miller; Bryce Richter

UW–Madison can lay claim to something no other college can: an entire era of campus pranks.

Neil Steinberg, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and something of an expert on college pranks, devoted a…

Campus History

How to Save a Life

After hitting bottom, Dean Olsen ’82 used his love for maps and support from UW–Madison to create a tool for preserving the memories of others and build a new life for himself.

Campus History

Women Make Waves

UW Archives [UWYearBk1920.p0371]

The war yielded some positive outcomes for female students. Many gained leadership positions on campus that had previously been closed to them, including editorship of the Badger yearbook. Twelve agriculture students established the first Women’s Agriculture Society in the United States, and…

Campus History

Food as Ammo

From meatless Tuesdays to research aimed at improving agricultural production, food was deemed a key weapon against the Germans.

Campus History

Small Sacrifices

UW Archives S16748

The greatest impact on the home front was the rationing program. To save coal, Lathrop Hall was closed in the winter of the 1917–18 academic year, and physical education activities were reduced to outdoor winter sports, including skiing on Bascom Hill.…

Campus History

Photo Gallery

The First World War changed the course of history and — for a time — the UW’s mission. To help with the war effort, the campus shifted much of its focus to educating and training future soldiers. “When the war was declared … there was not an instant’s hesitation in…

Campus History

All Hands on Deck

Scientists weren’t the only faculty members to assist the government — historians, geologists, and others pitched in, too.

Campus History

The Great War at Home

When the U.S. entered the First World War, the UW joined the fight by training soldiers, conducting poison-gas research, and sending students to work on Wisconsin farms.

Campus History

Campus Reacts to WWII

A capacity crowd of students, faculty, and community members gathered inside the Field House on December 12, 1941. UW Archives S07306.

No exclamation point was needed, but the editors of the December 9, 1941, Daily Cardinal used one anyway: “We Are at War!” The…

Campus History

Diversity’s Complex History

Jeff Miller

When some schools barred the door, UW–Madison welcomed black students from around the country who then went on to successful careers in journalism, law, medicine, and a host of other fields.

“When I told my dad I was going to Wisconsin, he…

Campus History

A Taste of Freedom

From urban gardening to Southern black farmers who organized against oppression, UW assistant professor Monica White’s research reveals a missing chapter in the civil rights narrative.

Campus History

Grain of Truth

A UW wood scientist became the star witness in a trial that captivated the nation, garnering comparisons to Sherlock Holmes for his role in solving the Lindbergh-baby kidnapping case.

Campus History

Then and Now

After 25 years of covering UW–Madison, a university photographer revisits the people and places he’s captured to show how they’ve changed.