Today we are sending a proud congratulations to former Head Coach and current Athletic Director, Barry Alvarez.  Yesterday Barry was inducted into the college football Hall of Fame.  Everyone from Biddy Martin and current Head Coach Brett Bielema to former players and friends and family from Alvarez's home town, Burgettstown, were there to support the Hall of Fame inductee. 


Here at the UWDC we just want to say that we are proud of you, Barry!


The image on the left is from 1990, before Barry changed the football helmets to show the motion W.  If anyone would like to see more images of Barry, visit our UW-Madison Collection. 

Spring on campus seems to be a great time to celebrate. This week, April 17-23, is All Campus Party. The Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) and the Wisconsin Alumni Student Board (WASB) along with student organizations, businesses and national corporations to sponsor All-Campus Party to celebrate the end of the school year, the onset of spring and the enthusiasm of the campus community.

Although we don't have images from past All Campus Party celebrations, we do have images of past campus events.

The image on the left shows a toga party sponsored by the Wisconsin Student Association in 1979. There were approximately 10,000 people in attendance that night.

The image on the right shows the bed race at UW Madison in May of 1971.

Our University of Wisconsin-Madison collection contains great images of all past Madison events such as Homecoming, football games, rush week, and much more. Take a look at the collections and see how the UW used to party!

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!

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!

This month we thought we would share with you The Real Estate Collection. The Real Estate Collection is intended to provide online access to scholarly research, teaching materials and examples of commercial work in real estate done by celebrated University of Wisconsin professor James A. Graaskamp and others.

James Graaskamp taught real estate at the UW-Madison from 1964 to 1988 and was chairman of the Real Estate Department from 1968 until his untimely death in 1988. Graaskamp built the teaching side of the Real Estate program into national prominence.

This digital collection contains over 165 of Landmark Research’s consulting reports completed between the late 1960s to the early 1990s. There are appraisals, market and feasibility studies as well as other types of research and analysis. The collection provides a sampling of the extraordinary work of this truly remarkable man. We are all proud to have played a small role in preserving it and making it available to others with the support of the Counselors of Real Estate and the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association.

Take a look at the appraisals from some prominent Madison locations.

Recently the UW Digital Collections went live with the Journal of Design Manufactures collection. These journals were published in London from 1849 to 1852. They were edited by Henry Cole and Richard Redgrave. Focusing on decorative and applied arts, the journal aimed to improve British industrial design and educate public taste. Actual samples of fabric and wallpaper were included in the issues, and designs analyzed. Attention was also devoted to critiques of contemporary pottery, glass and metals. Other contents include news items, book reviews, and original papers on topics ranging from copyright to the importance of botany study to design. The 1851 Great Exhibition is heavily discussed. Illustrations are scattered throughout. The six compilation volumes presented here constitute the full run (36 monthly issues) of this short-lived journal. Each volume includes six issues with a contents index. Original volumes are held at the UW-Madison, Kohler Art Library.

Check 'em out! Maybe it will give you some design ideas!

Happy Veterans Day! Here in the office we can't have a parade like this one in Kenosha, WI, instead I thought I would highlight some of our war related collections. Maybe you can find an image of a family member in or find some of your war buddies!

The World War II Veterans of Mount Horeb collection just went live last month. The digital collection is an effort to honor the sacrifices and achievements of Mount Horeb veterans and to ensure their place in local history. The collection brings together several types of materials: books, photographs, audio interviews, slides, and personal scrapbooks and memorabilia. The Mount Horeb Public Library began this project by personally interviewing willing WWII veterans. Each of these men and one woman has compelling stories to tell about serving their country during WWII. Many had the opportunity to take pictures of a 1940s war-ravaged Europe, which are also included in the collection.

I would also like to highlight the Wisconsin Goes to War: Our Civil War Experience Collection. This collection is made up of first person narrative accounts of Wisconsin soldiers and citizens. Through their letters, diaries, poems and other records, we learn about the state's contributions to the Union victory that cost the lives of over 12,000 of the state's men.

Another great war related collection is The Home Front: Manitowoc County in World War II. This digital collection of photographic images, oral histories, published sources and documents, artifacts, and other resources helps to document and explain the history of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin during the period from 1939 to 1947—both the more universally shared home front experiences and activities as they played out in this specific county, and those more unique activities which especially defined the area during the War.

The UWDCC hopes that you enjoy the collections that we have highlighted here and all of our interesting war collections. We even have one about the Civil War Band! Check it out!

Oh Halloween in Madison, what a fun and crazy time of the year. To celebrate here in the office we started looking through our collection of past badger yearbooks to see how UW Madison students used to celebrate.

I found this article from 1977 about the state street chaos that still lives on today! Check out those great costumes! I love the ghosts with a small hole for the mouth, just big enough for a straw to fit in! Click on the image for a closer look at these hilarious pictures or to read the article. Maybe it will help you come up with a costume idea for this weekend!

If you liked this picture, check out our twitter and facebook pages! This week we will be posting images from all of our collections that remind us of the Halloween season. Or check out the collections for yourself and see what you can find!