Bascom Hill Society Flipbook | University of Wisconsin Foundation

Thank you for your generous support of and ongoing commitment to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. With gratitude, we hope you enjoy this nostalgic journey through the

evolution of our campus since opening its doors back in 1849.

Bascom Hill Society Mission Statement

A commitment to excellence, support, and fellowship

Through the Bascom Hill Society, the University of Wisconsin Foundation honors major donors at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. The mission of the society is to provide a framework for those alumni and friends whose generous support contributes to the university ’ s standing as one of the most respected teaching and research institutions in the world. Donors welcomed into this distinguished group join in recognizing Wisconsin ’ s widespread influence and value its ability to address the critical needs of society.

Now known as Bascom Hill, College Hill (1851–79) was chosen to be the most suitable location in Madison to establish the University of Wisconsin.

John Bascom was “among the prophets who from time to time have appeared to rejuvenate man and to arouse in him the invincible determination to live as to advance the human race toward the goal never attained and never attainable, of illimitable power, complete understanding, and spiritual perfection.”

Charles Van Hise University of Wisconsin President 1904–18

© Copyright University of Wisconsin Foundation, 2020

“ University ” or “ Main ” Hall was completed in 1860 as the third building of the University of Wisconsin. It created an architectural link between North and South Halls and a focal point at the end of State Street opposite the state capitol. It did not become Bascom Hall until June 1920. Ironically, it was not constructed under the watch of the university's sixth president, John Bascom, who served in the post from 1874 – 87. Nonetheless, UW President Edward Birge renamed the university's stately yet welcoming structure Bascom Hall. John Bascom was a popular and respected teacher. A student of mathematics, theology, physicology, English literature, aesthetics, political economy, and agriculture, he believed that people of learning had a responsibility and obligation to lift the community to the highest possible ethical standards. Seniors were required to take his course on using their education to improve society.

During Bascom's presidency, a library, assembly hall, chapel, and the still-standing and still-functioning Science Hall joined North Hall, South Hall, and Main Hall to surround the hill's inviting lawn and help shape the campus.

Today, as the campus expands well beyond its original borders, Bascom Hill continues to serve as a gathering place and landmark. It is only appropriate, then, to have Bascom Hall serve as the inspiration and identification for the Bascom Hill Society, which proudly represents the mainstay of private support for the university.

Main Hall before a fire destroyed the dome and the building was renamed Bascom Hall 1860s

Graduates 1880s

Wheat field, Washburn Observatory, and Main Hall as seen from the current site of Agricultural Hall 1880s

Students on College Hill 1880s

Lower Campus, Science Hall, and houses along Langdon Street. This photograph was taken before the Wisconsin Historical Society was built in 1900.

“ The University of Wisconsin will be permanently great in the degree in which it understands the conditions of the prosperity and peace of the people, and helps to provide them; in the degree in which it enters into the revelation of truth, the law of righteousness and the love of man ... ”

John Bascom University of Wisconsin President 1874–87

Crew team and boathouse on Lake Mendota 1893

Washburn Observatory and West Campus 1894

First known photo of a University of Wisconsin band 1896

Horses, bicycles, and streetcar on tree-lined State Street as seen from Park Street. The capitol is in the distance. May 1896

Basketball players 1897

Football players 1898

Chadbourne Hall was built in 1870 as the Normal School, then known as the Female College. After the adoption of coeducation in 1874, the building became the women’s dormitory known as Ladies Hall. In 1901, the building was renamed in honor of the first University of Wisconsin president, Paul Chadbourne (1867–70). The building was demolished in 1957.

Leila Bascom 1902, daughter of UW professor and administrator John Bascom, in her dorm room 1899

Main Hall 1899

Students and horses pose for a photo in front of the Horse Barn. Originally known as the Farm Barn, it is the oldest wooden structure on campus. Class of 1901

The College of Engineering/Law School snow battle 1900s

Campus 1900s

The view from the capitol 1900s

The original Camp Randall Stadium at Randall Avenue and University Avenue (the current site of the College of Engineering campus). Monroe-Dudgeon and University Heights neighborhoods can be seen in the background. 1901

The first class in Swiss cheese making at the Wisconsin Dairy School 1907

Abe Lincoln statue unveiling ceremony 1908

Bacteriology lab in the School of Home Economics 1910

Camp Randall Stadium at West Dayton Street and Randall Avenue 1910

A student reads in his dorm room. His walls are decorated with old-fashioned pinups and Wisconsin memorabilia. 1912

Graduates with Abe 1913

Daily Cardinal s taff 1914

Muir Knoll ski jump 1914

Muir Knoll ski jump 1914

Class photo 1915

May Fete 1915

In 1900, a decision was made to build a large vat, an above-ground cistern, below the dome of Main Hall rather than build a costly water tower. University officials had to ensure that enough water would be available on campus to fight a major fire. Made out of sheet iron, it was about 20 feet in diameter and 15 feet high, with a capacity of 40,000 gallons. On October 10, 1916, one of the most spectacular fires in Madison history started in the dome, with flames and smoke visible for miles. The dome was lost , but there was little damage to the rest of the building. The wood structure of the dome burned fast , but as the timbers and beams broke off, many of them fell into the large tank of water. Eventually the tank broke open and water spilled throughout the building preventing the fire from spreading.

This was the second dome on Main Hall. It was not replaced.

The cistern remains in Bascom Hall's attic along with the timbers that were charred but not ruined by the blaze.

1917

A bird’s-eye view of campus by H. D. Nichols, published by W. T. Littig & Co., New York. Littig was known for panoramic views of college campuses. Nichols's signature with the date “ 1917 ” appears in the lower right corner. The Main Hall dome is visible in the illustration — though it burned October 10, 1916. It appears that this map was based on a 1907 version that shows only buildings such as Birge Hall (1912) and Wisconsin High School (1914) have been added. This would account for the presence of the lost dome.

King Hall, Hiram Smith Hall, Agricultural Hall, and Main Hall 1910s

History class in Main Hall 1916

Ice Carnival on Lake Mendota 1916

Soldiers on the steps of Agricultural Hall 1917

The College of Medicine class 1917

Electrical Engineering class 1917

Commencement ceremony on Bascom Hill 1917

Senior Swingout at Chadbourne Hall 1918

Women's mechanics class 1918

Lake Mendota ice rink 1919

Class Rush on Library Mall 1919

Several dozen students carrying billy clubs pose for a group photo during the initiation ritual of Class Rush. 1919

Diving competition on Lake Mendota. The boathouse can be seen at far right.

1919

Sheep grazing on the College of Agriculture campus 1919

Chadbourne Hall residents in costume May 7, 1920

Chadbourne Hall 1920s

A crowd of people in the Red Gym watch the Wisconsin versus Michigan football game by Gridograph. The device depicted the progress of the game using lights on a large grid. November 18, 1922

The Class Rush 1923

Three students dance by Lake Mendota. 1920s

The University of Wisconsin campus and surrounding neighborhood 1920s

The new Camp Randall Stadium 1920s

School of Veterinary Medicine short course January 30, 1923

Earle M. Terry, professor of physics and founder of WHA, working in the lab. November 11, 1924

A proposal for future campus development from Arthur Peabody Architects 1926

The Field House under construction 1929

Camp Randall and the Field House 1930s

Winter sports on Observatory Hill 1930

Hockey team 1932

Radio operators 1935

Records office 1930s

Winter sports 1936

Women’s gym class at the Armory and Gymnasium (Red Gym) 1936

Home economics class 1939

Engineering students’ Homecoming parade float 1939

Homecoming bonfire 1940

UW Marching Band at Camp Randall and the downtown Madison skyline 1940

The Terrace 1940s

The Terrace lawn and lakeshore 1940s

Bowling in PE class 1940s

Rathskeller lunch counter 1940s

Bascom Hill 1940s

Fauerbach beer delivery to Memorial Union 1941

Football Saturday at Camp Randall 1940s

Medical Sciences campus and the Department of Home Economics 1940s

To accommodate the UW’s growing student body, the university moved 26 temporary buildings to campus. The structures were surplus from Fort McCoy and other military bases, where they were used during World War II. 1940s

Muir Knoll ski jump 1940s

Navy ROTC students attend Naval Code School in the Field House during World War II. 1942

Women in code class during World War II 1942

Two military trainees say goodbye to female friends in front of a wall on which is painted the message: “ Cheer up, gals! We'll be back! Your V-12 grads. ” 1940s

ROTC student cadets and friends at the Rathskeller 1940s

Homecoming pep rally November 8, 1946

Homecoming bonfire November 8, 1946

Campus aerial 1946

State Street 1940s

Fifteen Quonset huts, most of them on Library Mall, housed classrooms and labs to meet the enrollment demand of veterans returning from World War II.

Temporary housing after World War II 1948

Hoofers clubhouse 1947

Students outside the front entrance of Lathrop Hall 1940s

Bus stop outside Memorial Union 1948

Lake Mendota shoreline near Memorial Union and the Union Theater 1949

Bill Sagal ’51, the first human Bucky Badger mascot, at a University of Wisconsin football game. Bucky was first introduced at a pep rally on Friday, November 11, 1949, before the next day’s Homecoming game against Iowa (Wisconsin 35, Iowa 13). Bucky was officially named Buckingham U. Badger, a name suggested by Bill Sachse ’50, chair of the Pep Committee. Carolyn (Connie) Conrad, a UW art student, designed the original chicken wire and papier-mâché head. Sagal, then head cheerleader, wore his regular cheerleader trousers and sweater and added boxing gloves. 1949

One of Homecoming’s biggest spectacles doesn’t involve the marching band or the football team. It’s hundreds of third-year law students with canes charging down the field toward Camp Randall Stadium’s south end zone before kickoff. Some of the future attorneys sprint like running backs going for a touchdown. Others stroll or strut, swinging their canes, to savor the moment and avoid the crush. When they arrive in the shadow of the Field House, students toss their canes over the goalpost. It’s a decades- long tradition that holds that catching their canes means they’ll win their first cases after graduation. 1949

Memorial Union Terrace vendor 1949

English class lecture in Music Hall 1949

Lakeshore path 1950

Law School building 1950s

Edgar “ Pop ” Gordon leading a Wisconsin Spirit of Song concert being aired over WHA radio 1950s

Memorial Union Terrace 1950s

Memorial Union Terrace and Lakeshore 1950s

Dancing on the Terrace 1950s

Studying in the library at the Service Memorial Institute of the Medical School 1950s

Roasting marshmallows at the Rathskeller 1950s

Memorial Union Terrace 1950s

Concert on the Union Theater steps 1950s

Memorial Union barber shop 1950s

Dorm life 1950s

Looking through the card catalog 1950s

Student life 1953

Football Saturday 1950s

Bucky Badger and the band 1950s

Park Street 1955

State Street 1955

Staff of the Octopus or “The Octy” — a campus humor publication 1955

Rathskeller lunch counter 1950s

Dancing on the Terrace 1956

Early women cheerleaders 1956

According to the 1957 Badger yearbook, the first women cheerleaders appeared on Dad’s Day, October 20, 1956 (Wisconsin 6, Purdue 6). A letter from former cheerleaders, however, states that officially sanctioned women cheerleaders first appeared on campus in the fall of 1952 (four women had done a routine at Homecoming 1951, but they were not official cheerleaders). Coed cheerleaders were abolished in the spring of 1954 and then reintroduced in 1956.

College of Engineering professor Allan Scidmore MS’53, PhD’58 and professor Charles Davidson MPH’43, PhD’53 examine the Wisconsin Integrally Synchronized Computer. December 23, 1957

Registration staff and students crowd the registrar’s office in Bascom Hall. 1960

John F. Kennedy speaking at the Field House October 23, 1960

The Terrace 1960

Students fill a lecture hall for an Advanced Shakespeare class. 1960

Shoot House residents 1961

Bucky Badger, a camel, and the Shriners 1960s

UW Marching Band Tournament of Roses Parade 1963

Studying in the stacks 1960s

Single dorm room 1960s

Crowded lecture in Bascom Hall 1961

John F. Kennedy memorial gathering on Bascom Hill November 1963

Electrical engineering computer 1963

Turbo Pneumatic Control Center 1964

Game Day in the press box at Camp Randall October 29, 1966

Pedestrian bridge spanning Park Street between Science Hall and the Memorial Union 1966

Mike Leckrone, director of the UW Marching Band and director of bands at the University of Wisconsin, leads the Bucky Wagon into Game Day at Camp Randall. 1970

A crowded Library Mall 1970s

Students in a dorm room 1970s

Watching TV in a residence hall 1970s

Chadbourne Hall double dorm room 1970s

Chadbourne Hall triple dorm room 1970s

Class registration in the Red Gym 1972

Students protest to reopen and expand the campus cultural centers 1973

Student protests 1970s

Single dorm room 1970s

The Terrace 1970s

Registration line at the Stock Pavilion 1977

Spirit squad on the Bucky Wagon 1978

University Hospital and Clinics under construction 1973 – 79

University Hospital and Clinics 1979

The Statue of Liberty on Lake Mendota was built in February 1979 by the Pail and Shovel Party, which had gained control of the Wisconsin Student Association by the spring of 1978.

The Pail and Shovel party holds a “funeral” for the Statue of Liberty on Lake Mendota. To the right of the monument, by the wreath, are Pail and Shovel vice president Jim Mallon ’79 (left) and president Leon Varjian x’83 (right). The original statue was torched by an unknown arsonist 10 days after it had been constructed. A new, fireproof statue was erected in February of 1980. That statue was rescued from a barn near Barneveld in the mid 1990s, and with the help of a generous donor, Hoofers restored it. On February 14, 2009, it was reassembled in honor of the 30-year anniversary of its first appearance. An inflatable replica was created in 2019 and returns to the ice of Lake Mendota each year during Hoofers’ Winter Carnival. February 1979

On the first day of classes, Madison students awoke to find that more than 1,000 pink flamingos covered the University's Bascom Hill, courtesy of the Pail and Shovel party. September 4, 1979

Toga party 1979

Commencement at Camp Randall Stadium 1970s

Mike Leckrone 1981

Pumpkin picking on Bascom Hill 1982

A UW cheerleader and Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch x’45 dance to the “Beer Barrel Polka.” 1982

UW Marching Band calisthenics on the practice field 1982

Memorial Union cafeteria 1982

Sled race on Lake Mendota during Hoofer’s Winter Carnival 1984

Wisconsin Student Association copresident, Brian Fielkow ’86, poses with actor Rodney Dangerfield during filming of Back to School . September 1985

The Terrace 1987

Bucky Badger Homecoming float 1987

Allen Centennial Garden 1989

Lake Mendota sunset 1991

Wisconsin School of Business computer lab 1993

Barry Alvarez and team members run onto the field at the Rose Bowl. Wisconsin defeated UCLA 21 – 16. 1994

Library Mall, food carts, and State Street 1995

Park Street overpass in winter 1990s

Kites on Ice 1990s

Broom ball on Lake Mendota 1990s

Sledding on Observatory Hill 1990s

Kohl Center 1998

First basketball game at the Kohl Center 1998

Memorial Union Terrace 1990s

Football Saturday on the Campus Drive footbridge 1998

Fifth Quarter in the student section at Camp Randall 2003