Books
Several books on the history of women at the University of Wisconsin have been digitized by the UW-Libraries and collected in a History of Women at the University of Wisconsin Collection, which is itself a sub-collection of a University of Wisconsin Collection. The History of Women books include:- University Women : a Series of Essays / editors, Marian J. Swoboda,
Audrey J. Roberts. Madison, WI : Office of Women, c1980-1993:
Contents: V.1. They Came to Learn, They Came to Teach, They Came to Stay--v.2. Wisconsin Women, Graduate School, and the Professions--v.3. Women Emerge in the Seventies--v.4 Women on Campus in the Eighties: Old Struggles, New Victories.
V. 1 has chapters on individual women, including Margaret D'Doubler and Helen C. White. V.2 has chapters on departments or schools (e.g., Art Department, Law School), women on the academic staff, women and student government, a socio-economic profile of faculty women at UW-Madison, and traditional and non-traditional choices of of disciplines by women; individual women are mentioned in context. V. 3 has chapters on various organizations (e.g., Association of Faculty Women), issues (e.g., child care, role of President's wife), and some personal reflections, including "Continuing Education: A Personal View," by Kathryn Clarenbach. V. 4 has chapters on Women's Studies Outreach in Extension, the Office of the Women's Studies Librarian, etc., issues (e.g. women with disabilities; salary equity), and tributes to some individuals, including "Ruth Bleier: Feminist Scientist." Some essays in each of the volumes apply to UW System as a whole or to other campuses within the System. - Transforming Women's Education : the History of Women's Studies in the University of Wisconsin System. Madison, WI : Office of University Publications
for the University of Wisconsin System, Women's Studies Consortium, 1999.
Includes a chapter on the founding and history of the Women's Studies Program at UW-Madison. - The Women of a State University, an Illustration of the Working of Coeducation in the Middle West, by Helen R. Olin. New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s sons, 1909. Digitized in "Women Working, 1800-1930," Harvard University Libraries.
Based on the University of Wisconsin.
Articles
The Wisconsin Alumni Magazine (1899-1936), called Wisconsin Alumnus, 1936-1990, and On Wisconsin, 1991-present) is a good source of articles about professors, departments, etc. It has been digitized through 1990 by the UW Libraries as part of a "University of Wisconsin Collection." Search the issues by keyword by selecting "Wisconsin Alumni Magazine" from the drop-down menu on the search page. It is also possible to browse by issue by selecting "browse" from the Wisconsin Alumni Magazine page. Here are some examples of articles in the alumni magazine (click on an article from the table of content for the issue in which it appeared):- "Women in the University of Wisconsin," by Emma O. Lundberg, v. 9, no. 7 (1908): 263-269, gives some statistics on women/men enrolled in the College of Letters and Science (where women outnumbered men 154 to 105 in 1907)
- "The Women of State University," by William J. Anderson. Wisconsin Alumni Magazine 11, 2 (Nov. 1909): 53-55. (Anderson reviews a book by that title, which was based on the University of Wisconsin, by Helen R. Olin.)
- "Marriage of College Women," by Helen R. Olin. Wisconsin Alumni Magazine 11, 2 (Nov. 1909): 56-57. (A letter to the editor)
- "Wisconsin Women," by Jeanne D. Lamoreaux, v. 45, no. 8 (1944): 4-7
- "WSGA Marks 50th Anniversary" in ""The University As We See It" column, v. 49, no. 5 (Feb., 1948): 20-21 (on the Women's Self-Government Association) [For a fuller look at women in student government, see "Women and Student Government," by Buff Wright, in Wisconsin Women, Graduate School and the Professions, V. II of University Women: A Series of Essays (Madison: University of Wisconsin System, 1980): 109-119.]
- "New Hours for Coeds: An Example of the Change in Student Affairs," v. 65, no. 5 (1964): 12-13
- "Mother is Back in College," by Jean Clausen, v. 66, no. 10 (1965): 8-11.
- "They Drive By Night," by Mary Decker Kilgore, v. 82, no. 4 (1981): 5-6 (on Women's Transit Authority)
- "The Women's Studies Program," by Barbara J. Wolff, v. 83, no. 2 (1982): 18-19
- "Nelly McKay's Mission," by Jeff Iseminger, v. 91, no. 1 (1989): 13-14
- The column "Wisconsin Women" appeared in many issues throughout the 1950s, mostly written by Grace Chatterton. On the search page, select title search from the first drop-down menu and put in "Wisconsin Women;" select Wisconsin Alumni Magazine from the second drop-down menu, click on "search."
- Issues of On Wisconsin since 1999 are on the UW Alumni site. Check Madcat to find print issues of On Wisconsin from 1991-8 and print versions of the alumni publication under its earlier names. Examples of recent articles on women in On Wisconsin: "Uneven Lies," by John Allen in the Summer 2003 issue is on Title IX and women athletes, golfers in particular. "Badger Beauties," by Candice Gaukel Andrews in the Fall, 2003, issue describes the beauty contest held on campus from 1931-1969.
The Wisconsin (Badger) Yearbooks are also digitized from 1885-1977. From 1922-1933 there were separate sections in the Badger entitled "Wisconsin Women" covering women's organizations on campus. To retrieve those sections, search for the title "Wisconsin Women" within the specific title Wisconsin Badger.
There are likely to be articles on more recently established groups (e.g. WISELI) in the Daily Cardinal, Badger Herald, Wisconsin Week, and Madison newspapers: The Capital Times and Wisconsin State Journal. Try their websites for current and archived articles. For somewhat older articles try Lexis-Nexis database. There is also a limited (mostly obituaries) index back to 1960 to the Wisconsin State Journal (available in microfilm) and other state publications available through the South Central Wisconsin Library System. Within Linkcat, click on "newspapers."
On the Wisconsin Week website, click on "archives" (menu on left), which goes back to Fall 1998. For earlier (print) issues, see Madcat.
The Wisconsin Academy Review, (online 1954-2000), and the Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, 1870/72-present (online 1878-2001) are parts of the "State of Wisconsin Collection" digitized by the University of Wisconsin Libraries. They occasionally have articles about women professors and their work. Select these periodicals from the search page and do keyword searches for people, etc. Check Madcat for locations of the print volumes.
Women's Sports history is celebrated in the history section of the Athletics Department website. Click on "30th Anniversary of Women's Sports," the anniversary video, and links to individual women's sports, by sport. See also "Women's Athletics at Madison and Title IX," by Kit Saunders, in Women Emerge in the Seventies (volume III of University Women), edited by Marian J. Swoboda and Audrey J. Roberts (Madison: UW System, 1980): 81-92; and for discussion of various protests about unequal facilities for women athletes, see pp. 71-72 of Transforming Women's Education: The History of Women's Studies in the University of Wisconsin System (Madison: UW System, 1999) and the footnotes to that discussion.
The Wisconsin Magazine of History, published by the Wisconsin Historical Society, occasionally publishes articles relevant to the history of the University, such as "The University in 1874-1887," by Florence Bascom, WMH 8, no. 3 (March 1925): 300-308, which discusses the status of women on campus during those years.
Online Projects/Exhibits
Sample photographs from women's athletics on campus can be viewed in the digital University of Wisconsin Collection. Click on "Search the Catalog," then type "women" in the subject headings box.Bread Upon the Waters slide show on women philanthropists in the history of the University of Wisconsin was created by Betty Ferris of UW Libraries Communications in 2001 for the University of Wisconsin Foundation's 6th Biennial Forum on Women and Philanthropy. Further information about the project is also available.
From Home Economics to Human Ecology: a One-Hundred Year History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison includes numerous biographies of faculty (mostly women) who taught in the School of Home Economics, along with photographs and information on student experiences in the School.
Helen Constance White website describes the English professor who is honored on campus by having a building named for her.
The Wisconsin Historical Society has mounted numerous digital collections. Some have relevance for the history of women at the University, including selected photographs of women at the University in the Society's Wisconsin Historical Images Collection. The photographs highlight classes, organizations, sororities, sports, and other student activities. There may be something about an individual woman in the Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles collection, which originated as scrapbooks of clippings from Wisconsin newspapers from approximately 1860-1940. Many of the clippings are obituaries, such as that for Anna Moody Flack (1830-1909), identified as the first woman teacher at the University.
Since new material is being added all the time, be sure to try The University of Wisconsin Collection , its sub-collection on The History of Women at the University of Wisconsin and the State of Wisconsin Collection.
Bibliography
Wisconsin Women's History bibliography, maintained by the UW System Women's Studies Librarian, includes citations to material on several University faculty women, including Kathryn Clarenbach, Elizabeth Fennema, Zona Gale, Gerda Lerner, Dorothy Reed Mendenhall, and Helen C. White, as well as several people who attended the university as students.Archives
The University Archives is located on the 4th floor of Steenbock Library. It has biographical clippings' files, oral history interviews (some with transcripts), and personal papers of some faculty and staff women.A list of biographical files is online. The amount of material in the biographical files varies widely, from a single piece of paper to a folder full.
The oral histories are all catalogued in Madcat. Check Madcat for the person you are interested in, or use the Guide to Oral History Interviews, which includes an alphabetical list of interviewees and procedures for using the tapes.
Some of the records for personal papers are also in Madcat.The Wisconsin Historical Society Library-Archives also has material on some UW-affiliated people, particularly when their activities went beyond the University into local, state, or national affairs. The Archives has its own catalog, Arcat. See also the Society's digital collections.