A series of postcards and bulletins spread out on a table.
Since 1885, the University of Wisconsin–Madison has opened its doors each summer to students eager to continue their learning, explore new opportunities and experience summertime in Madison.
What began as a small experiment in education has grown into a vibrant tradition that serves thousands of learners each year. This photo essay looks back over 140 years of UW–Madison summer session history — celebrating the people, programs and moments that have made summer learning a lasting part of the Wisconsin experience.
“Summer Term has always reflected the Wisconsin Idea in action — expanding access, meeting learners where they are and evolving to meet the needs of each new generation. Today, we continue that legacy by offering innovative, flexible opportunities that help students stay on track, get ahead or simply explore something new.”
Jeff Russell
Vice provost for lifelong learning and dean of the Division of Continuing Studies.
Where it all began
Summer sessions predate the Memorial Union Terrace. Students in this photo from 1900 row boats in front of the future site of one of the university’s most iconic summer locales. Photo: Public domain.
Women from this 1906 photo were part of the Library School Summer Session. Photo: Public domain.
Summer’s always had room for fun. These women and young girls in costumes participated in a summer school pageant in 1916. Notice the diving tower in the background. Photo: Public domain.
It all started with the Stager Summer College of Languages. Leo Andreas Stager brought this summer program to campus for “professional teachers” who he thought would be “delighted with our new and easy way to impart grammar and will find out that we have a way of making the study of it a delight and not a task.” Not sure if this actually made grammar delightful, but the six-week session was one of the earliest true summer schools offered by a U.S. public institution.
Next came the Summer School for Teachers in 1887, when 45 educators paid $10 each to attend a four-week session. From there, summer options started expanding. In 1910, sessions included graduate and undergraduate work in engineering, law and agriculture as well as in letters and science. Summer attendance was 1,537 students in 1911.
Adapting to student needs – and the world
English professor Helen C. White (far right) poses outside Memorial Library with her creative writing class from the summer of 1954. Pictured with White are Robert Brome, Marian Kennedy, Vincent Nchami, Walter Domaghho and Curtis Gwynne. Photo: UW Archives.
In 1917, summer sessions responded to wartime needs. Campus had Red Cross training for civilian workers as well as courses in wireless telegraphy, first aid, methods of social service, Boy Scout theory and practice, and administration of military stores. Faculty offered noncredit informational war lectures. In 1919, summer included post-war programming, including a 20-part noncredit lecture series on war and reconstruction. There was also special work for disabled veterans.
Summer sessions were often a place for innovating and experimentation. In summer 1924, the university introduced new programs for women: the Florence Simms Industrial Scholarships and the Summer School for Women in Industry, which became the School for Workers. In 1966, the Institute for Environmental Studies was presaged by a special student-faculty summer seminar on environmental issues.
Summer was also a time for opening up campus to nontraditional students. These high school students were a part of the 1935 Summer Music Clinic, which started in 1929. Photo: UW Archives.We didn’t always have MyUW. These students were actually filling out paperwork for the summer session in 1937. Photo: UW Archives.In response to student requests, administration provided tent accommodations starting in 1913 for families with parents who were most often graduate students studying in the summer. The university provided drinking water, sanitary facilities and a pier while residents supplied camping gear. Cost was less than one-half of what it would have been to live in town, and it provided a unique summer experience. Pictured here: two students sitting on the porch of one of the Tent Colony homes. Photo: UW Archives.In 1941, these children were apparently learning something about the chicken in this basket at a preschool summer lab, an early learning program for community children and a teaching and research lab for students, faculty and staff. Photo: UW Archives.Even the most notable Badgers attended summer sessions. Born in Wisconsin to a Chippewa Algonquin father and an Oneida Iroquois mother, Geraldine Decoteau Harvey became the first known Native American student to graduate from the UW when she earned a master’s degree in education in 1950. Harvey is seen here at a summer session in 1950. Photo: UW Archives: Photomedia Negative Collection, Box 249, 1857-M.Here’s a serene summer scene of the UW band performing on the Terrace during the summer session on June 14, 1951. Photo: UW Archives, 2017s00749.Professor Alfred Sessler (center) and Professor Robert Grilley of the Art Education Department with works for the 2nd Annual Summer Session Art Exhibition at the Memorial Union, July 17-August 17, 1951. Photo: UW Archives.Six young men and women in suits and dresses sit around a table in the Rathskeller, drinking sodas and eating burgers before or after the summer prom, ca 1955. Photo: UW Archives.For generations, students, faculty, staff and community members have enjoyed summertime at the Terrace, like these people captured in a July 15, 1965, photograph. Photo: UW Archives, 2017s00933.A man examines produce at a farmers’ market on the State Street Mall, ca 1970–1980. He’s in compliance with university policy; in 1960, the administration lifted the ban on wearing shorts on campus. Photo: UW Archives, S16009.The Terrace was a place of academic pursuits, too, evidenced by these students studying at a picnic table on the Terrace ca. 1970-1985. Photo: UW Archives, 2017s00971. This group of students is probably mixing studies with some fun on the Terrace in the 1980s. Photo: UW Archives, 2017s00256. The work didn’t stop during the summer for the UW Marching Band. Here they’re doing calisthenics at their practice field on Walnut Street, ca 1982. Photo: UW Archives, S06367.In July 1983, Cassandra Johnson was one of 36 students participating in UW–Madison’s summer engineering program for high school students. Here she weighs a specimen on a laboratory scale during a chemistry session. Photo: UW Archives, S08250.Summer sessions stretched across the state and around the world. Trout Lake Station is a year-round field station operated by the Center for Limnology that has been supporting environmental and limnological research, training and outreach in the Northwoods of Wisconsin since 1925. Check out this lively 1992 Trout Lake crew. Photo: UW Archives.What in the world, you might be wondering, is the large white box in this photo? It’s a computer! Seen here with this “ancient” machine are students working in an engineering computer lab during the 1993 summer session. Photo: UW Archives.In other outdated tech news, an engineering student points to hydraulic pressure switches on laboratory equipment during the 1993 summer session. Photo: UW Archives.
#MyBadgerSummer
Technology and styles may have changed over the years, but since 1885, summer sessions have consistently been a dynamic part of UW–Madison. To add your own #MyBadgerSummer memories to this long-held tradition, visit the Summer Term site and design your summer to include courses in person or online.
Sources:
Education in Summer:100 Years at UW–Madison, 1985. Produced by the former Division of Summer Sessions and Inter-College Programs. Publication coordinator: Susan Disch.
