The African Studies Collection is new to our archives this year. This collections houses The Harold E. Scheub Collection.

Dr. Harold Scheub is one of the world's leading scholars in African oral traditions and folklore and can be found on the University of Wisconsin Madison campus as the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Humanities in the Department of African Languages and Literature. To record oral traditions he has walked more than 6000 miles through South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho. Dr. Scheub has published more than two dozen books and more than 70 articles.

Within his collection are two sub-collections. South African Voices is a three-volume work of audio files. The image collections contains images from his journey through Africa.

His images are beautiful and interesting. I would encourage you to take a look, you will be happy you did.

The History of Science and Technology Collection contains interesting materials worth highlighting. One in particular is The Book of Beasts. White's The Bestiary: A Book of Beasts was the first and, for a time, the only English translation of a medieval bestiary.

Bestiaries were second only to the Bible in their popularity and wide distribution during the Middle Ages. They were catalogs of animal stories, combining zoological information, myths, and legends. Great attention was given to bizarre, exotic, and monstrous creatures. Much of the content of bestiaries was drawn from much older sources including Aristotle, early English literature, and oral traditions.

White provides an excellent appendix that explains how the creatures of the bestiary influenced the development of allegory and symbolism in art and literature.

The book contains interesting images of beasts with descriptions of their nature and behavior. I would encourage you to take a peek at the book, it's surprising and entertaining.

The Olympics bring out the best athletes in Wisconsin. Sunday night's USA Men's Hockey win over Canada has inspired the UWDC to tweet images of Suter, Rafalski, Heatley and Pavelski. Follow us on Twitter @UwDigiCollec!

Many athletes have pasted through the University of Wisconsin Madison and gone on to become Olympians.

Our University of Wisconsin Archives contains pictures of these athletes from there college days!

Mark Johnson, son of legendary Wisconsin coach Bob Johnson, was the first Badger to win WCHA Rookie of the Year honors (1977), 1978-79 WCHA MVP, two-time All-American, and one of the leaders of the US Olympic gold-medal team in 1980. Johnson became head coach of Wisconsin's women's hockey team in 2002 and is the women's hockey coach at the 2010 Olympics.

Suzy Favor Hamilton of the University of Wisconsin--Madison won the Honda-Broderick Cup Trophy as the 1989-1990 Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. Favor Hamilton was the NCAA indoor mile champion in 1987, 1989 and 1990 (when she was also 3000 meter champion). She was the NCAA outdoor 1500 meter champion in 1987 through 1990 and also 800 meter champion in 1990. Favor Hamilton competed on the US Olympic teams in 1992, 1996, and 2000.

Russ Hellickson was an outstanding wrestler at Wisconsin, and he also a member of the U.S. Olympic freestyle wrestling team in 1976 and 1980, winning a silver medal in 1976. Hellickson also played football for the Badgers.

These are just a few of the Olympians that are pictured in our collections. Check out more images of Carie Graves, Cindy Bremser, Bob Suter and the many other athletes that have been Badgers!

February is nationally known as Black History Month. University of Wisconsin Madison campus organizations have prepared various activities to celebrate. Visit the UW Madison events calendar for more information on the films, art exhibitions, dance performances, and other Black History events planned around campus.

Our State of Wisconsin Collection contains great archive documents of the first African-American settlement in Wisconsin. Papers of Charles Shepard and other residents of the black settlement of Pleasant Ridge(now Beetown), Wisconsin,

including letters, tax receipts, and community history. Shepard (Sheppard) was the head of the first African-American family to settle in what became a pioneer black community about five miles west of Lancaster, Wisconsin.

This collection of documents is a celebration of Black History in Wisconsin. We hope that you will take the time to look at the collection and are able to attend some of the activities on campus.

The UW Digital Collections recently went live with the Badger Bites: University of Wisconsin-Madison Cookbooks. Over the course of University history numerous campus-related organizations produced cookbooks. Containing more than just recipes, these cookbooks provide a look at how food has played a role in campus culture and identity. Whether designed for fundraising or for promotional purposes they capture a snapshot view of campus organizations of yore and the cultural environment surrounding them.

The Associated Women Students produced the cookbook pictured on the left as a new feature of Coeds’ Week in 1955. The book, called Bucky’s Favorite Foods, contains “tried and true” favorites of faculty, staff, and students at the University. Recipes were contributed by campus notables such as Carson Gulley, legendary campus dining hall chef, and Mrs. Alan Ameche, the wife of the UW football legend.

Delta Sigma Epsilon (1914-1956) was one of several sororities to produce a cookbook. Food Fare was produced by the “Friendship House Board” as “a book of recipes assembled to help convert our dream of FRIENDSHIP HOUSE, into a reality.”

These cookbooks are a glimpse into past student organizations on the UW Madison campus. They also might contain recipes you will want to try out, bon appetit!

The University of Wisconsin will celebrate Darwin Day tomorrow, February 13th! A full day event will be held at the Microbial Science building on the UW campus. The event is free and open to the public. Check out the activities planned for Darwin Day 2010!

The UWDC wants to help you get in the Darwin spirit with our Galápagos Collection. The collection of Galápagos materials that includes anatomical specimens, images, and papers at the UW-Madison Zoological Museum (UWZM) is unique and rare. Ten expeditions since 1969 to the Galápagos by UW-Madison scientists and researchers have produced a wealth of invaluable museum specimens: approximately 669 complete and 675 partial skeletons. In addition these expeditions have produced thousands of images and papers that up until now have not been preserved in any format.

The images in the collection are great examples of the animals found on the island and provide great views of the land. The image on the top left shows the Galápagos Tortoises with a great view of the landscape of the island. On the right is an image of the Galápagos Penguin and Marine Iguanas sitting on lava.

Celebrate Darwin's 201st birthday by taking at look at these images.

For all the UW Madison students on campus, it's that time of year again, the Winter Carnival! Hoofers Winter Carnival is a weekend of events centered around fun in the outdoors. This year features an open skating rink on the MemorialUnion Terrace and the sunken Statue of Liberty from 1979. Memorial Union. This year the Winter Carnival will have open ice skating on the terrace, a Broomball tournament, an ice sculpture contest, carriage rides and other fun winter activities. Check out the Hoofers Winter Carnival site for more details.

Here at the UWDCC we have great historic images of this event. The top picture shows a sled race during the Winter Carnival of 1984. On the right is an image on women's broomball hockey which was played on Lake Mendota in the 50s! And the bottom picture is from the 1950s featuring a ski jump competition.

These images and more of our great Winter Carnival pictures can be found at our University of Wisconsin Collection. Check out more of our images and go out to the Hoofers Winter Carnival this weekend for fun winter activities!

This past weekend the Badgers defeated the Wolverines in the Camp Randall Hockey Classic! Because of this win and all the other great winter activities that have been going on around campus we decided to highlight this image as our Zazzle Print of the Month!

The image taken in 1929 features hockey players Donald Meiklejohn (L) and Gilbert Krueger (R) on an ice rink on the current Library Mall at the University of Wisconsin--Madison. The image is part of our University of Wisconsin Archives and is available for purchase at our Zazzle Store.

If you like this print take a look at all the great images at our Zazzle Store! These prints are great for any gift giving holiday!

This weekend the University of Wisconsin will host the Culver's Camp Randall Hockey Classic at Camp Randall Stadium. Also tonight the UW is offering open skating in Camp Randall. In light of this great ice skating weekend we thought we would look through our collection and check out some of our great ice skating pictures.

The State of Wisconsin Collection has great winter ice skating pictures. This was one of my favorites from the Manitowoc Local History Collection. How awesome would it be to skate next to those ships!

Also in the University of Wisconsin Archives we have some great images from past Ice Carnivals. This one is of an ice skating race on the lake! Looks like some pushing and shoving going on, where's the ref!

If you are really interested in hockey, the Madison Athletic Department Collection contains media guides from hockey games back to the 70s!

Check out all of our hockey and ice skating images, we'll be tweeting them all day! And we hope you can watch the game, GO BADGERS!

Luther Burbank was one if North America's foremost American plant breeders. Our collection, Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries, contains documents of his methods and discoveries. The 12–volume monographic series is prepared from his original field notes covering more than 100,000 experiments made during forty years devoted to plant improvement.

He experimented with thousands of plant varieties and developed many new ones, including new varieties of prunes, plums, raspberries, blackberries, apples, peaches, and nectarines. Besides the Burbank potato, he produced new tomato, corn, squash, pea, and asparagus forms; spineless cactus useful in cattle feeding; and many new flowers, especially lilies and the famous Shasta daisy.

Take a look at the collection, you might be surprised by the plants he created.