Forty years after the School of Music and the Office of Public Information recorded a Christmas program for a television-viewing audience, it is again available to the general public just in time for the holiday season!
Campus Folksong Club
In the spring of 1961, a Folksong Club emerged at the University of Illinois, organized by Dick Kanar and Vic Lukas. Students who attended the first annual University of Chicago Folk Festival, they walked away determined to found a club on campus to study, exchange, and enjoy traditional folk music.1
Lorado Taft’s Unusual Requests
from RS 26/20/16, Box 25, “Photographs of the Midway Studios”, University of Illinois Archives
Sculptor and U of I alumnus Lorado Taft had made quite a name for himself in American art circles by the late 1920s. His sculptures and statues, designed in his Chicago studio, had been installed in Chicago, Denver, Washington D.C., and other places around the country.
However, as many of the rich and famous with a listed mailing address probably do, Taft received requests of all different varieties. Some requests were more commonplace: autographs; personal appearances; quotations, recipes, or anecdotes for publication. Some requests were…less commonplace. Continue reading “Lorado Taft’s Unusual Requests”
Everybody Danced
Dances on campus were the source of pleasure for a large number of students who attended the University from before World War I through the 1960s. Dances were presented by various classes, Greeks, non-Greeks, Ag students, and the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A.
Formal and informal dances offered students the opportunity to dance the two-step, waltz, tango, jitterbug, and other popular dances during their free time. Continue reading “Everybody Danced”
Life and Death Of the Elephant: the Secret History Of the First University Building
When Urbana was chosen as the site of the Illinois Industrial University (now the University of Illinois) in 1867, one of the advantages it had over other potential locations was the Urbana and Champaign Institute, a brand-new, five-story, empty school building that was ready for the University’s immediate use. This building became the University of Illinois in 1867, and was the only campus building until the Mechanical Building and Drill Hall was erected in 1872.
But how did Champaign County happen to have an empty school to donate to the University in the first place? The answer involves God, money, war, and politics. Continue reading “Life and Death Of the Elephant: the Secret History Of the First University Building”