University Archives News
February 2008Archives
February 20, 2008
Northwestern's Lifesavers
Did you know that from 1877 to 1917, Northwestern students staffed a campus Lifesaving Station that saved more than 400 people from drowning in Lake Michigan? The story begins one morning in 1860, when a group of Northwestern students woke to discover passengers clinging to the wreckage of the Lady Elgin, which had collided with another ship during a storm the night before...
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February 16, 2008
The Rock
A beloved icon among Northwestern students, The Rock has weathered many changes in its multi-faceted, multi-colored existence, and still remains as solid as...well, as a Rock. Now, for the first time, an in-depth two-minute-and-nineteen-second rockumentary separates fact from fantasy in the legend of The Rock.
February 15, 2008
Leigh Bienen on Homicide: Murder Clues in NU Archives
A Senior Lecturer at the Northwestern University School of Law, Leigh Bienen is also an expert on the subject of homicide. Her book Crimes of the Century (co-authored with Gilbert Geis) examines five famous 20th century murder cases including the Lindbergh kidnapping, the O.J. Simpson case, and the
shocking murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. The book was partially researched in Northwestern’s University Archives, which houses the original ransom note the murderers sent Bobby Franks’s parents, as well as other primary sources. In an interview with the Library, Professor Bienen explained why this case is considered one of the “crimes of the century.”
Hear the full audio interview in mp3 format:
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Leigh Bienen is also the creator of the Chicago Historical Homicide Website, a searchable database of murder cases in Chicago from 1870-1930.
February 14, 2008
The Story of the Wildcats
Do you know how Northwestern’s Wildcats got the name—or how Willie came to be our mascot? For a quick and entertaining history lesson, take a look at this YouTube clip or the MP4 download file at the bottom of this page.
Or a version to download, playable on iPods:
The NU Wildcats (mp4) [right click to download]
