Lawrence Archives

We are excited to announce that a new set of 16mm films from the LU Archives has recently been digitized and made available on YouTube, thanks to a gift from Mary Jo Powell ’75. The nine films added to the digitized collection span from 1927 to 1973 and include amateur footage as well as professional productions. Some of our favorites include:

• Milwaukee-Downer College scenes, circa 1928-1930
• Homecoming scenes, circa 1939
• Lawrence College Concert Choir, circa 1958
• Lawrence University catalog supplement film, 1973

Each film is a unique and very meaningful record of a time and place in Lawrence and Milwaukee-Downer’s history. We are grateful to Archives Filmworks for completing the digitization and preservation of the original films and to Mary Jo Powell ’75 for her generous support of this project!

‘Tis the season for presidential campaigning. In the past 100-plus years, Lawrence has received visits from many candidates and campaigners of different party affiliations:

October 26, 1911: William Howard Taft, sitting president (not campaigning), spoke on the steps of Main Hall
March 21, 1944: Wendell Willkie, Republican candidate for president, spoke in the Chapel
November 13, 1959: Richard Nixon, Vice President, (not campaigning), spoke in the Chapel
March 11, 1960: John F. Kennedy, Democrat candidate for president, spoke in Riverview Lounge
March 15, 1968: Eugene McCarthy, Democrat candidate for president, spoke in the Chapel
February 23, 1972: Henry Jackson, Democrat candidate for president, spoke in Stansbury Theater
March 29, 1972: George Wallace, Democrat candidate for president, spoke in the Chapel
March 19, 1980: John Anderson, Independent candidate for president, spoke in the Chapel
September 17, 1984: John Anderson (campaigning for Walter Mondale, Democrat candidate for president), spoke in Riverview Lounge
October 24, 1984: Joan Mondale (campaigning for Walter, Democrat candidate for president), spoke in Riverview Lounge
March 29, 1988: George H.W. Bush, Republican candidate for president, spoke in the Chapel
October 15, 2004: John Kerry, Democrat candidate for president, spoke in front of Alexander Gym
March 30, 2012: Mitt Romney, Republican candidate for president, spoke in Stansbury Theater
September 28, 2012: Michelle Obama, First Lady (campaigning for Barack, Democrat candidate for president) spoke in Alexander Gym

To our knowledge, today’s visit from Bill Clinton will be the first visit by a former president to Lawrence in our history.

In honor of African American History Month last year, we shared information about early African American students who attended Lawrence. This year, we want to share some materials that document the experiences of African American students at Lawrence during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Like many similar small liberal arts colleges, Lawrence began actively recruiting and enrolling African American students in the mid 1960s, well into the years of the Civil Rights movement. But Lawrence did not do well with supporting these students once they were here. These problems spurred two protests by the Association of African Americans student organization: one in February, 1969 and another in April, 1972. Shortly after the 1972 protest, President Thomas Smith assembled an “Afro-American relations compendium” and mailed copies to all Lawrence trustees. The compendium includes a letter from President Smith explaining “[his] perspective of what led to the confrontation” and a number of attachments documenting events beginning with the February 1969 AAA protest. It includes memoranda, reports, and statements from the AAA, presidents Tarr and Smith, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Black Student Affairs. (Tucked into the compendium but not included in this digitized version are copies of The Lawrentian dated 1972-04-18 and 1972-04-21.)

In the academic year following the 1972 protest, Lawrence had its highest enrollment to date of African American students – 80 students were enrolled in 1972-1973. Apparently around this time, the Admissions Office enlisted the help of African American students in creating a brochure for prospective students, entitled “Lawrence University Black Students.” The brochure highlights the Association of African Americans, admissions, academics, campus life, and sports. The authors are candid in their introduction: “Lawrence is a challenge, still another one in the chain of challenges black people have to face and overcome. Realizing the great need of the black community for young black college graduates who not only understand the dilemmas of black society but of white as well, we urge you to accept this challenge of Lawrence University.”

To see either of these documents in person or learn more about African American history at Lawrence, visit the Archives.

Two new displays by Archives student assistants are on view in the front entrance to the Library: “Rephotography” by Emma Lipkin ’19, and “‘Occupy Lawrence’ (1972): Black Students and White Allies Take a Stand Against Institutional Racism” by colby lewis ’17. Using different means and to different ends, both displays explore a theme of Lawrence “then and now” – how much has changed at Lawrence and how much has stayed the same over time?

“Rephotography” examines our physical space through photographs, both archival and newly captured. Emma re-photographed areas of campus with photographs from the Archives in the foreground. Buildings featured include Ormsby, Colman, and the Chapel.

“‘Occupy Lawrence’ (1972)” features Lawrentian articles and other records documenting a protest led by the Association of Afro-Americans in 1972. Students experiencing injustice and discrimination demanded change from Lawrence’s administration. The display raises the question: “How far have we come?”

In the past year, the Archives provided research assistance for a pair of exciting projects focused on African American history at Lawrence and in the wider Fox Valley community: the History Museum’s “Stone of Hope” traveling exhibit, and Forgotten History, a film by Zach Ben-Amots ’16. If you missed either one, be sure to check them out.

Since this research began, we’ve learned a great deal of new information about early African American students at Lawrence. In the early-mid 20th century, a strong culture of racial exclusion and discrimination developed in the Appleton area. Virtually no African Americans lived in Appleton or attended Lawrence during this time. We now know, however, that before this time, there were a number of African American families living in Appleton and students attending Lawrence. In honor of Black History Month, we want to share the names and stories of some of those students:

– Robert Pendleton – attended the preparatory school, 1857-1859. Family lived in Neenah. Robert ran into controversy when he cast a vote for African American suffrage in a state referendum in 1857.

– Lucretia Newman – attended as a freshman, 1872-1873.

– Mary Amelia Cleggett – attended preparatory school, 1871-1872; college, 1872-1876; and graduated in 1876.

– Sarah Emma Cleggett – attended in the academic department, 1874-75, and preparatory school, 1875-1876.

– Ada Kate Clegett – attended preparatory school, 1877-79.

– Claude Monroe Paris – attended as a freshman and sophomore, 1902-1904. Father was J. M. Paris, a barber and alderman in Waupaca. Claude was voted Class President in his freshman year and played on the basketball, track and field, and football teams. If you look closely, you can see him in this image, which you might recognize from Strange Commons in Main Hall.

– Sworth Newman – graduated in 1911.

– Frederica Brown – graduated in 1917. After Lawrence, she became a teacher and dean at Wiley University for women in Marshall, TX, and then founded the Phyllis Wheatley branch of the Y.W.C.A. in Indianapolis in 1923.

Special thanks to Antoinette Powell for her extensive research on the Cleggett/Hollensworth/Newman families in Appleton. For more information on these students and others, check out the display on the first floor of the library or visit the Archives.