Library News

From Jonathan Bloy
Libarian, Head of Digital Initiatives

To honor Women's History Month, we've added some new interviews to our Women of Edgewood College oral history collection:

• Kathleen Kelm
  Computer Science faculty from 1998 to 2024. Video interview from December of 2024.
• Sister Priscilla Wood
  Education faculty teaching Winterim and Summer sessions over 18 years. Video interview from December of 2024.
• Sister Mary Nona McGreal
  President of Edgewood College from 1950 to 1967. Audio interview from April of 2011.
• Sister Cecilia Carey
  President of Edgewood College from 1967 to 1977. Audio interview from May of 2011.

Special thanks to the Edgewood College Office of Institutional Advancement, for sharing the above audio interviews with us!

From Jonathan Bloy, Librarian - Head of Digital Initiatives

The 2024 edition of Lost/Found, the student creative arts journal, is now available online. You can browse the 2024 edition, as well as previous student arts publications in our Edgewood College Creative Arts Journals collection.

The Edgewood College Creative Arts Journals collection features digitized copies of the various literary and creative arts magazines published at Edgewood College.  These magazines contain fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written by Edgewood College students, as well as student-created photographs, digital art, paintings, and other artistic work.  The collection includes the following journals:

• 2020 - 2024 (Lost/Found)
• 2007 - 2019 (Edgewood Review)
• 1990 - 2006 (The Cerebral Café)
• 1984 - 1986 (Portraits, Odyssey, Left of Center)
• 1962 - 1969 (Signature)
• 1932 - 1943 (The Conifer, Vignettes)

From Jonathan Bloy, Librarian - Head of Digital Initiatives

This year's edition of LOST/FOUND, Edgewood College's creative arts magazine, is now available online in the library's digital collections.

You'll find the 2023 issue of LOST/FOUND in our Edgewood College Creative Arts Journals collection.  That collection features digitized copies of the various literary and creative arts magazines published at Edgewood College.  These magazines contain fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written by Edgewood College students, as well as student-created photographs, digital art, paintings, and other artistic works.  It includes the following journals:

• 2020 - 2023: Lost/Found
• 2007 - 2019: Edgewood Review
• 1990 - 2006: The Cerebral Café
• 1984 - 1986: Portraits, Odyssey, Left of Center
• 1962 - 1969: Signature
• 1932 - 1943: The Conifer, Vignettes

from Andrew Holbrook, Graduate Assistant

Not all souvenirs come on keychains or in the shape of a three-inch-tall Statue of Liberty. We recently digitized two interesting souvenirs from the Edgewood College Archives that highlight notable people and places in our history.

“Souvenir of Edgewood Villa” is a small booklet from around 1910, commemorating Wisconsin governor Cadwallader Washburn’s donation of his Edgewood Villa estate to the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa in 1881. The governor’s former house became home to Saint Regina Academy, a school run by the sisters that had previously been located in downtown Madison. Sadly, the villa burned in 1893, but two years later, a new building arose and the school reopened as Sacred Heart Academy – which eventually evolved into the Edgewood High School and Edgewood Campus School we know today.

The booklet includes hand lettering on the cover and beautiful photographs and engravings inside. There’s also a quotation from Washburn: “I hope that you may find the place as pleasant and attractive to you and your school as I have ever found it.”

Fast-forward more than a century to the dedication of the Henry J. Predolin Humanities Center on September 29, 2000. Our second souvenir is a program from the Predolin dedication that was autographed by distinguished guest and Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, who delivered readings in contemporary poetry during the ceremony.

Walcott was a poet and playwright from Saint Lucia. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. The award committee said his works displayed "great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment."

Learn more about Derek Walcott by checking out a book or online resource, and read more about Edgewood history in our digital collections.

From Jonathan Bloy, Librarian - Head of Digital Initiatives

Did you know... before the library building was built, the library used to be in Regina Hall?  There were library spaces on two floors there. 

The first two photos are from the early 1980s.  Do you recognize these spaces, and know what they are now?

Below, library director Sister Jerome Heyman and a student worker, 1972.

See more photos and read about the history of the college in our Edgewood History digital collection.

Related news post: Edgewood Library History.

Home page of the Edgewood College website from August 15, 2000

From Jonathan Bloy, Librarian - Head of Digital Initiatives

Since 2020 we've been archiving copies of official Edgewood College websites through a partnership with Archive.org.  We also have an archive back-file of the main Edgewood College website which dates back to 1997. Our archive includes:

• Edgewood College main website
• Edgewood College Eagles - official site for Edgewood College athletics
• On The Edge News - the voice of Edgewood College students
• Edgewood College's YouTube channel

Edgewood College in the News

In addition to official Edgewood College web publications, we also have an archive of news articles about Edgewood College that appeared in local news websites.  This archive has articles dating back to 2010, from publications like the Wisconsin State Journal, The Capital Times, Madison 365, The Isthmus, and others.

Our website archive is also searchable.  For example, here are articles that were published when the new arts center, The Stream, opened in 2012.

You will find links to these archived websites on our Special Collections page (under Digital Collections > Edgewood College Website Archives).

from Elynor Gregorich, Graduate Assistant

The Torch yearbook was published between 1944 and 1972. Until recently, the archives had at least one copy of almost every yearbook- we happened to be missing 1954. By chance, a copy of our only missing yearbook was found in the memorabilia collection held by the Edgewood College Alumni Office, and through their generosity, our collection is now complete! The 1954 Torch has joined its fellows in our physical archives and been fully digitized- with a searchable transcript- for our Digital Collections.

But the 1954 Torch is not the only hidden gem presented to the archives by the Alumni Office. If you browse the yearbooks in our Digital Collections by year, you will notice that there are no entries for 1945, 1957, or 1970. What about those missing yearbooks? It turns out that they aren't missing, they just never existed. For one reason or another, no yearbook was created for those three years- or so we thought.

Mary Alice Clark Moore '57 stepped in to create her own version when insufficient funds prevented her class of seniors that from enjoying a traditional Torch. The Senior Memories 1957 photo album she made focuses on the Class of '57- their portraits, proms, studies, and social lives at Edgewood College. Unlike some volumes of The Torch, for which close to a dozen copies are safely preserved in the archives, this DIY yearbook is totally one-of-a-kind. Without people to preserve them, without the Alumni Office and the alumni themselves, unique objects and the memories they sustain might be lost. Special thanks are due to Rita Schmelzer Dufner '57 who identified Mary Alice as the creator of the album and to Alumni Relations Director Abby Bjerke who helped the album find its way to the archives.

Now, you can browse the pages of the Senior Memories 1957 album in our Yearbooks Digital Collection along with the rest of the yearbooks in our collection- including those published after The Torch ceased publication: the 1974-75 Edgewood College Journal, and three volumes of The Edge, 1990-1992. Looking for someone specific? Each yearbook has a searchable transcript! Just remember to include nicknames (Sue for Susan, Bill for William) and maiden names in your search, if known.

From Jonathan Bloy, Librarian - Head of Digital Initiatives

The latest edition of LOST/FOUND, Edgewood College's creative arts magazine, is now available online in the library's digital collections.

You'll find the 2022 issue of LOST/FOUND in our Edgewood College Creative Arts Journals collection.  That collection features digitized copies of the various literary and creative arts magazines published at Edgewood College.  These magazines contain fiction,non-fiction, and poetry written by Edgewood College students, as well as student-created photographs, digital art, paintings, and other artistic works.  It includes the following journals:

• 2020 - 2022 (Lost/Found)
• 2007 - 2019 (Edgewood Review)
• 1990 - 2006 (The Cerebral Café)
• 1984 - 1986 (Portraits, Odyssey, Left of Center)
• 1962 - 1969 (Signature)
• 1932 - 1943 (The Conifer, Vignettes)

From Jonathan Bloy, Librarian - Head of Digital Initiatives

The 2020 and 2021 editions of LOST/FOUND (the latest student creative arts magazines) are now available online in the library's digital collections.

You can browse Lost/Found 2020 and Lost/Found 2021, as well as previous student arts publications in our Edgewood College Creative Arts Journals collection.

The Edgewood College Creative Arts Journals collection features digitized copies of the various literary and creative arts magazines published at Edgewood College.  These magazines contain fiction,non-fiction, and poetry written by Edgewood College students, as well as student-created photographs, digital art, paintings, and other artistic work.  The collection includes the following journals:

• 2020 - 2021 (Lost/Found)
• 2007 - 2019 (Edgewood Review)
• 1990 - 2006 (The Cerebral Café)
• 1984 - 1986 (Portraits, Odyssey, Left of Center)
• 1962 - 1969 (Signature)
• 1932 - 1943 (The Conifer, Vignettes)

Announcing...

The Edgewood Scholars' Collection

Our latest digital collection holds copies of dissertations, theses, and other projects submitted to Edgewood College by graduate students in partial fulfillment of their degree requirements. The first batch of these are theses written by graduate students in Education and Child Life, who earned their masters degrees in the summer of 2020.

In addition to Education and Child Life, look for future projects from Nursing, and other Edgewood College graduate students.

Access the Edgewood Scholars' Collection at the following link:

https://digitalcollections.edgewood.edu/digital/collection/p16315coll4

You'll also find a link to the Edgewood Scholars' Collection on our library's Special Collections page.