Greetings from the Center for Campus History and happy Women’s History Month! The March edition of our newsletter celebrates women of the past at UW-Madison and includes fresh Center research, some exciting event news, book recommendations and 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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What more could a new student want: a free book, available at a popular bookstore near campus, that tells you what’s going on around campus, and how to avoid embarrassing fashion and social faux pas, in just 15 minutes?!
Okay, so most students these days aren’t concerned about wearing the wrong shoes to a “coke date” or a “beer party”, and campus bookstores basically don’t exist anymore. But at a time when women at UW-Madison lived under strict rules about dress, behavior, and curfews, female students took it upon themselves to create a publication to help each other navigate life at the university.
Wiscetiquette was written, edited and published entirely by women students from the 1930s to the 1960s, offering a wealth of information — sometimes mundane, sometimes subversive — on academics, traditions and social life that they weren’t getting from the university or anywhere else. You can read about the history and impact of Wiscetiquette in a new article for Siftings, the CCH’s digital publication of writing and research.
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Mark your calendars for this year’s Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival, running from March 20 - April 24!
The 2026 festival theme, Activation, is an exploration of how artists, communities, and cultures come alive through stimulus, context, and intention. Events include student performer showcases, visual art exhibitions, singer-songwriter Madison McFerrin in concert, and much more.
Get more info and a full calendar of events here.
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Each month, we like to share one of the many (many… many… ) books that have helped the Center’s research.
This month, we’re keeping it on theme by recommending Women's Education in the United States, 1780-1840 by historian (and UW alum!) Margaret A. Nash. Long before colleges and universities admitted women, a growing variety of academies, institutes, and seminaries opened higher learning to a small but significant cohort of white middle class students. In her book, Nash brings to life the social, economic, and political forces that shaped these institutions and uncovers the diverse impulses, including the sheer love of learning, that drove women to seek advanced studies.
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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: Who is the most famous female graduate of UW?
The answer: Okay, so obviously there’s no objective answer to this question. Fame is fickle. But we do have a lot of options when it comes to exceptional women Badgers.
How about civil rights icon Vel Phillips, who broke barriers as the first Black woman to graduate UW Law School, the first Black judge on the bench in Wisconsin and first nonwhite person elected Wisconsin Secretary of State? Or Tammy Baldwin, three-term US senator and first woman to represent Wisconsin in Congress? Someone more recent? Current Badger hockey star Laila Edwards was the first Black woman to play for Team US and first to win Olympic gold!
Have a question about UW-Madison history? 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: Kacie is hyping herself up for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Odyssey remake by returning to The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker.
In an inventive and moving reimagining of The Illiad, Barker brings new life to classic epic by telling the story of captured women living in the Greek camp in the final weeks of the Trojan War.
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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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