University League to celebrate centennial in May

The University League will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a dinner and program Friday, May 4, in Great Hall, Memorial Union.

The league, founded as an association of wives of faculty members and women faculty, today establishes and promotes charitable and educational activities and provides annual student scholarships.

The University League began in May 1901 when several women gathered in the back yard of Margaret Allen’s home at 228 Langdon St. Allen was the wife of Professor William F. Allen, of the Department of Ancient and Medieval History. League founders intended to promote social and cultural relations among the faculty women and wives of faculty, and to work closely with the women students of the university.

“The University League has adhered to and enlarged on these two purposes for 100 years,” says Joy Newcomb, archivist and a past president of the league.

“Today, the league is an organization for women who are interested in the university community,” Newcomb says. “Members foster communication and cooperation among members of the faculty, staff and their families, promote and establish charitable and educational activities and provides annual student scholarships.”

Among many accomplishments over the past century the league supported the construction of a women’s building on campus as one of its first projects. An Ice Festival in 1903 on Lake Mendota was planned with the hope that it would be a fun fundraiser. Even at $1 a ticket, expenses ate up a lot of potential profit and the event raised only $25. But the women’s building was completed in 1910 after many other fundraising efforts by the league, plus state financial support. Named Lathrop Hall, it honored the first UW president.

Other efforts included a loan fund established in 1916 for women students having trouble supporting themselves.

During World War II, University League members undertook many projects in support of soldiers and the war effort.

And today, members volunteer as guides in the Elvehjem Museum of Art, offer services to international students, work in the archives, and do data processing and clerical tasks for the libraries. Members also volunteer at University Hospital and Clinics, the UW Arboretum and Allen Centennial Gardens.

Says Newcomb: “We honor our founders as we approach this anniversary and reflect on their farsightedness and believe that their vision and dreams have been our guide all these years as we strive to be of service to students, to the university and to the community through education and friendship.”