Wallace Trabue Hembrough, Jr., native of Jacksonville, Illinois, attended the University of Illinois as a student in the College of Agriculture from 1940 through 1943. As a freshman, he joined Alpha Gamma Rho, a social-professional agriculture fraternity. He was also a member of Pershing Rifles, a military fraternal organization for college-level students, during his first two years at the University. Continue reading “Wallace Hembrough”
When Joseph Tykosinki-Tykociner arrived at the University of Illinois in 1921, little did the itinerant electrical engineer know that his dream of inventing sound motion pictures would reach fruition less than a year later. Tykociner, like many enterprising inventors of the early 20th century, developed his ideas during an era in which the academic discipline of engineering became firmly established—the creation of which bridged the gap between the roles of the “inventor” and the “scientist.” Indeed, as a discipline, electrical engineering was only a few decades old. Founded in 1891, the Department of Electrical Engineering (now the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering) at the University of Illinois was initially a unit within the Department of Physics. President Andrew S. Draper separated the two departments in 1895, wishing to develop electrical engineering into a formidable department that could respond to increasing demands for individuals trained in the “principles of electricity, as it applied in the design, production, and operation of such electrical equipment as telephone and telegraph apparatus, power plants, and city and industrial systems.”[1] Continue reading “Joseph Tykociner and the “Talking Film””
According to the U.S. Greeting Card Association, approximately 190 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day one of the most popular card-sending holidays in the country. Continue reading “A Valentine’s Day Greeting”
The Louis and Ruth Wright Papers span a mere .5 cubic feet in the Archives, but located within these personal papers are invaluable records of student life in the 1930s. Three amateur silent films give a glimpse of campus during the early Twentieth century.
Until recently, the only way to view these films was to visit the University Archives. Thanks to the Library’s media preservation office, they are now available to anyone with an internet connection.
Food production in the United States in 1943 was approximately 32 percent larger than the annual production from 1935-39, the years preceding World War II. Despite labor shortages, inadequate amounts of new machinery and scarcities of other kinds, both farmers and ordinary citizens put forth effort to produce the food needed to meet the country’s need. Continue reading “Food is a Weapon of War”