348 stories. Showing page 4 of 12.
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.…
Helen C. White Hall opened in 1971 with “135,000 books, a view, and a chance to be alone,” the alumni magazine stated at the time. The three-story section used for undergraduate studying and the book collection is known today as College Library, which stays open 24 hours on…
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…
Throughout the academic year, campus celebrated the 150th anniversary of women receiving UW degrees.
In 1869 — 150 years ago — the first class of women graduated from UW–Madison. In this special issue, you’ll read about some of the amazing women who have passed through campus since. On, alumnae!
Women have served as UW chancellor for 14 of the last 31 years — and counting.
Soon after basketball was invented, women at the UW picked up the sport — even before the men. Intramural teams quickly grew in popularity and competed for an unusual (and bleating) trophy.
Mary Hinkson ’46, MS’47 was born to dance, but as a black woman at the UW, she found Madison far from welcoming. Rather than give up, she became one of the nation’s leading performers.
An uncertain future for a divisive campus sculpture.
A young girl — Jo Wilder — solves mysteries of the state.
Florence Bascom shows off a tool of her trade: a Brunton compass. During her work with the U.S. Geological Survey, she placed benchmarks like the one pictured below, which denoted a site’s exact elevation. Florence Bascom Papers, Smith College
There’s an apocryphal story about what set…
An adventurous summer road trip turned the UW’s first female engineering grad, Emily Hahn ’26, into one of America’s most storied travel writers.
Hamilton Pier became the first woman in the country to be granted a judicial appointment. Courtesy of Fond Du Lac County Historical Society
Kate Hamilton Pier LLB1887 was a successful real estate saleswoman in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, when she decided to get a law degree.…
Hamerstrom, one of the UW’s pioneering ecologists, exhibits the tail feathers of a broad-winged hawk in Plainfield, Wisconsin, in 1965. UW Archives Neg. 18146
Frances (Fran — pronounced “Fron”) Hamerstrom MS’40 was a pioneering wildlife ecologist. She and her husband, Frederick, came to the UW to study…
Larzette Hale-Wilson, pictured with accountant Milton Wilson, became the first African American woman in the country to earn a PhD in accounting. Courtesy of Theresa A. Hammond
Larzette Hale-Wilson MPh’43, PhD’55 was the first female African American CPA to earn a PhD in accounting. Orphaned…
Following a stint as a veterinarian, Larsen found her true passion: drug development for animals. Courtesy of UW School of Pharmacy
First a doctor to animals, Diane Larsen ’80, DVM’90, PhD’99 now develops medicines for them. She heads drug development for the animal division of the global…
As a nun, Keller defied traditional expectations in becoming the first woman to earn a PhD in computer science. Courtesy of Clarke University
In 1965, Sister Mary Kenneth Keller PhD’65 became the nation’s first woman to earn a PhD in computer science. She came close…
When popular graduate student Jenny Morrill MA1905 left campus for the summer, librarians found evidence of “a most awful crime” that she blamed on her morphine addiction.
Bryce Richter
After 70 secretive years, a gargoyle has been reunited with its twin. One of the sandstone statues, which sat atop the old Law School, was thought to have been destroyed during the building’s 1963 demolition. But the children of Paul Been ’49 LLB’53 grew…
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…
Mike Leckrone is as synonymous with the Badger spirit as Bucky. This year he’s saying his good-byes after 50 years with the UW Marching Band.
It’s been two decades since the first human embryonic stem cell lines were derived at UW–Madison. What effect has the discovery had on scientific research and human health?
Dutch elm disease claims Elmer, a campus tree more than a century old that stood outside the Hector F. DeLuca Biochemistry Building.
Stargazers take in a nighttime view using the observatory’s vintage telescope. Washburn hosts regular public observing sessions and posts its schedule on Twitter. Built in 1881, the observatory was a gift to the UW from former Wisconsin Governor Cadwallader Washburn, who directed that the 15.6-inch telescope lens be…
The creepy history of Science Hall provided inspiration for a UW professor’s gothic novel.
Bryce Richter
Between 1919 and 1926, two UW student organizations took the name Ku Klux Klan, and a report delving into that era of campus history “does not make for comfortable reading, nor should it,” says Chancellor Rebecca Blank.
In the wake of a white nationalist…
For nine decades, Memorial Union has been a favorite spot on campus for fun and games. See how it's changed and how it remains the same.
