University Archives News

The Women's Fourth of July

Independence Day in Evanston in 1871 was marked by parades, bands, fireworks, a baseball game, and many speeches. Not an unusual way to celebrate the 4th—except that these activities were organized by local women and served as a fundraising event for the nascent Evanston College for Ladies—with the highlight of the day being the laying of the cornerstone for the new building (now the Music Administration Building).

The day-long series of events was masterminded by the Women's Educational Aid Association and trustees of the Evanston College for Ladies, led by its President, Frances E. Willard.

June Newsletter: WNUR Recordings

This month, we share a digitized portion of our holdings from Northwestern's radio station. Featured are a civil rights rally in 1965, a question-and-answer session following a student takeover of the Bursar's Office in 1968, and the 1964 dedication ceremony of the Lakefill. We also honor Northwestern's first female graduate and wonder about spider webs.

Click here to read June's newsletter

Video: Donating to the Archives

As everyone cleans out their offices and homes this summer, we encourage students and faculty to think about donating their papers to the Archives. To answer the questions that often arise when donating materials to the Archives, University Archivist Kevin Leonard and Assistant Archivist Allen Steicker sat down to talk about the process in this short video.

Click here to watch video

Graduation humor, 60 years ago

The 1949 Commencement issue of the Purple Parrot, NU's student life magazine, featured the grand Deering Library Reading Room (now the Art Library) as the site of a graduating student's last panicky moments before the big day.

Congratulations, NU Graduates of 2009!

May Newsletter: Springtime Traditions at NU

Our May newsletter has flowered! Features include such seasonal traditions as May week, the Circus, Dillo Day, and more. And for those thinking about spring cleaning, there's a link to our brand new video on donating materials to the Archives.

Click here to read the Archives' May newsletter.

Object Lesson: Under the Northwestern Big Top

In addition to the extensive manuscript and publication collections housed in the University Archives, there are also a number of artifacts relating to Northwestern's mission and history. In order to highlight some of these fascinating and unique holdings, we now introduce a monthly feature called "Object Lesson." Each month we will select an artifact, take some photos, and share a bit of its story--not the whole story, perhaps, but enough of an overview to point interested individuals to more detailed information in the Archives and beyond.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Step right up! It's only a dime! See Death-Defying Leaps, Scintillating Shimmies, and Outrageous Outbursts! The feint-of-heart be warned: this program contains shocking excitement!"

The smell of Fairy Floss (cotton candy) and roasting peanuts wafts up into the bleachers. In the center ring a man in a top hat and tails bellows for attention as a troupe of trapeze artists march through the sawdust towards their apparatus. "With absolutely no regard for his own, personal safety, watch as our lead performer literally takes the lives of his partners into his hands!"

Artifacts and objects are the doorway into history, and this time we begin with a hefty metal elephant encased in bubble-wrap and tissue paper. We are on the hunt for another chapter in the history of Northwestern. We next find a silver medallion attached to the animal's tail which reads, "1932 Circus," along with the Northwestern "N," which leads to a few other circus holdings in our collection: a small knit figure and a purple and white clown doll. But, wait, a Northwestern Circus? Indeed. Starting over 100 years ago, our campus was the home to the greatest show on earth. Thousands of spectators would come to witness daring physical feats, risqué vaudevillian humor, and gasp-inducing sideshow oddities.

April Newsletter: Leopold & Loeb

The Archives' newsletter is out just in time for the end of the month. April's features include our Leopold and Loeb documents, the McGaw diorama previously seen on this blog, and information on donating to the Archives.

Click here to read April's newsletter.