Greetings from the Center for Campus History and happy Black History Month! Get ready because February’s newsletter is packed: new Center research, events, campus traditions, book recommendations, and plenty more.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Rebecca M. Blank Center For Campus History is an ongoing effort to expand and enrich UW-Madison’s historical narrative by centering the voices, experiences, and struggles of marginalized groups. As always, if you have a story to share, an event you think should be researched, or a person you think has been overlooked, please email us at centerforcampushistory@wisc.edu.
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Meet Adam Donahue, one of the Center’s student researchers!
Adam is a junior studying Political Science, History, and Environmental Studies with a particular interest in the study of social movements and resistance causes. His research for the Center is focused on past histories of social justice organizing, both on and off campus, including anti-war and anti-apartheid activism in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the creation of the Willy Street Park around the same period.
Outside of school and work, Adam likes playing volleyball with friends, finding niche online spaces, and exploring the city by bike to find new places.
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It’s hard to imagine single family homes once lining the streets where university landmarks like the Nick, Union South, and the Kohl Center stand, but before the mid-20th century, UW’s campus basically stopped at University Avenue.
So how was an entire neighborhood wiped clean off the map and replaced with dorms and university buildings? It turns out the story is an exemplar of higher ed expansion in the postwar U.S. and sheds light on university priorities to this day.
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We love digging into campus traditions at the Center, both academically and participatorally (is that actually a word?)
This month CCH Director Kacie Lucchini Butcher was on hand for UW’s annual frigid weather celebration, the Winter Carnival, sharing her love of reading with some young folks.
To belatedly celebrate, here are some UW Archives finds of Winter Carnivals past.
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The iconic Mendota Statue of Liberty wast first erected in 1979 but didn't become a Winter Carnival staple until the mid 1990s. Speaking of ladies on frozen lakes, this 1920 photo shows students Irene Spiker and Ruth Anderson celebrating what was at the time called the Ice Carnival. UW Archives
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Join author David Wolinsky for a lunchtime conversation on his new book, Hivemind Swarmed, an oral history of Gamergate, the notorious online harassment campaign targeting women and minorities in the gaming world.
We’re cohosting the event with our friends at the UW Archives. All students are welcome and refreshments will be provided.
Friday, March 7, 2025 from 12:00-1:15 PM at Memorial Library Rm. 126
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Each month, we like to share one of the many (many… many… ) books that have helped the Center’s research.
Author and activist Eve L. Ewing makes the case that since the country’s birth, the American education system was designed to propagate the idea of white intellectual superiority, to “civilize” Native students and to prepare Black students for menial labor. What’s more, the book argues, these dynamics persist to this day but often fall below the radar in the forms of standardized testing, academic tracking, disciplinary policies, and uneven access to resources.
And don’t miss the chance to Ewing discuss her work in person at the Madison Public Library on March 4.
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We get asked a lot of questions about UW history. Each month we’ll answer one in the newsletter.
This month: I know that (UW President) Charles Van Hise was a big proponent of eugenics in his day. Has the university made any moves to acknowledge this difficult part of our history?
The answer: Funny you should ask! (Okay, so maybe we were holding onto this question for timing.) After years of advocacy from campus stakeholders, including the CCH, the university has installed a marker addressing that aspect of Van Hise’s legacy on the building that bears his name. The plaque, which is in the lobby of Van Hise Hall, reads:
Charles Van Hise was a professor at UW-Madison from 1879 to 1903, after which he served as its president until 1918. As president, Van Hise offered the best-known articulation of the Wisconsin Idea. He was also an advocate of eugenics. Eugenicists seek to justify discrimination against marginalized people whom they deem unfit based on individual and group characteristics and identities. The impact of eugenics can be seen not only in the genocides of the 20th century but also, for example, in discriminatory immigration practices and in involuntary sterilization laws. As UW- Madison strives to serve the people of Wisconsin and the world, the legacy of Van Hise reminds us that we must acknowledge and grapple with all parts of our past and our present to move forward together.
Do you have any burning questions about UW history? Stories or people you think we should look into? Let us know! Email us at centerforcampushistory@wisc.edu.
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Each month Center Director Kacie Lucchini Butcher will share a book, podcast, movie, quote, or something else she thinks has been adding to the CCH. We're calling it "From The Desk of KLB".
This month From the Desk of KLB, On Tyranny by historian Timothy Snyder.
Billed as “twenty lessons from the twentieth century,” the book uses the darkest moments in the recent past, from Nazism to Communism, to teach lessons on resisting modern-day authoritarianism.
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As always, if you have a story to share, an event you think should be researched, or a person you think has been overlooked, please email us at centerforcampushistory@wisc.edu.
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