UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #716
FREILING, LORETTA

FREILING, Loretta (1929- )
Executive Secretary, Institute for Research in the Humanities
At UW: 1959-

Interviewed: 2005	
Interviewer: Robert Lange
Length: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Early years and education; Hiring by UW-Madison; Marshall Clagett; Institute for Research in the Humanities--founding, funding, and directors;  Fellowships; Library.

First Interview Session (July 27, 2005): Tape 1

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:56	Loretta Freiling was born in Fennimore, Wisconsin.  Her father had emigrated to the US from Prague; she had an "old-world" upbringing.

00:01:38	LF followed her older sister to Madison to study business.

00:01:52	Her first jobs were with the Motor Vehicle Department and as a court reporter in the late 1940s.

00:02:26	After having children, LF wanted to return to part-time work and worked as a secretary for Marshall Clagett in the History of Science department at UW-Madison.

00:03:17	She talks about her secretarial job.

00:04:51	LF describes how Clagett founded the Institute for Research in the Humanities.

00:06:38	Clagett modeled the Institute after the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University.

00:07:13	LF discusses Clagett's research interests.

00:08:08	Madeleine Doran, professor of English, assisted Clagett in drawing up the proposal for the Institute.  LF describes Doran's subsequent support for the Institute.

00:09:15	UW President E.B. Fred and Mark Ingraham, dean of the College of Letters & Science, both approved the proposal.

00:11:00	LF describes Marshall Clagett's directorship of the Institute.  Clagett was instrumental in obtaining funds for the Herbert Johnson Professorship and post-doctoral fellowship.

00:12:20	The Institute was housed in Washburn Observatory.

00:13:07	LF's responsibilities in the early years of the Institute consisted mainly of typing manuscripts for resident scholars.

00:14:43	She describes the selection committee that recruited scholars to come to the Institute.

00:16:54	LF particularly enjoyed reading Germaine Bre's manuscripts on twentieth-century French literature.  She mentions studying French and Greek in order to work more effectively for Bre and Friedrich Solmsen.

00:18:00	Clagett left UW in 1965 to take a research position at Princeton University. 

00:19:51	LF describes how director Kenneth Setton and Johnson Professor Basil Laourdas assembled a symposium for the anniversary of the Truman Doctrine.  The scholars at the symposium gave LF a trip to Greece the following year for a symposium on ancient Macedonia.

00:21:30	LF was secretary treasurer for the Madison branch of the Archaeological Institute of America.

00:22:49	She describes Kenneth Setton's directorship of the Institute.  She returns to a discussion of the symposium on the Truman Doctrine and the media attention it garnered.

00:28:17	E. David Cronon became director of the Institute in 1969.  He used money from the Burdick-Vary Trust to run annual symposia at the Institute.

00:31:18	LF discusses a review of the Institute conducted in 1986.

00:32:40	Director David C. Lindberg established the seminar series at the Institute.  LF talks about publicity for these seminars, which are open to the entire university.

00:36:49	Paul Boyer succeeded Lindberg as director of the Institute in 1993.  During Boyer's directorship, the Institute obtained support from the Humanistic Fund.  LF describes how subsequent directors Sally Banes and David Sorkin have employed these funds.

00:38:33	Sorkin, the current director, founded sabbatical fellowships.

00:39:55	Senior fellows at the Institute are responsible for reviewing applications, recommending scholars, attending events, and conducting their own research.

00:40:30	There are four UW System fellows at the Institute each year.

00:43:22	LF evaluates the accomplishments of the Institute and thinks that it has surpassed its original goals.

00:46:36	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:47:53	Loretta Freiling discusses the review of the Institute for Research in the Humanities in 1986.  Some people criticized permanent memberships and lengthy tenures for directors.  Edwin Black, William Courtenay, Fannie LeMoine, Donald Crawford, David Lindberg, and Joseph Wiesenfarth served on the review committee.  

00:50:22	LF agreed with most of the committee's recommendations but dissented from the view that the Institute needed a better facility.

00:52:20	She talks about David Woodward and his foundation of a cartography fellowship.

00:53:35	LF describes Friedrich Solmsen, who was a professor of classics and a permanent member of the Institute.

00:57:48	Solmsen's estate endowed $4,000,000 for the Institute to fund Solmsen Postdoctoral Fellowships for non-UW scholars to research European history from the classical period to the Renaissance.  LF describes the selection of Solmsen fellows and their responsibilities.  

01:01:13	Other universities have established their own programs based on UW's Institute.

01:03:38	The College of Letters & Science has been supportive of the Institute and continues to fund the Institute's professorships.  The Graduate School funded postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute.

01:04:56	Interest in the Institute remains popular among faculty in humanities departments on campus.

01:05:22	The Institute is no longer used as a recruiting tool for incoming professors.

01:06:56	LF talks about international scholars who have come to the Institute.

01:09:27	She discusses recent attempts to restore Washburn Observatory.

01:11:19	LF lists the incoming fellows for the 2005-06 academic year and their research interests.  She also describes the application process.

01:15:25	She lists the sabbatical fellows, Solmsen fellows, and UW System fellows for 2005-06.

01:17:23	LF talks about interaction among the various fellows at the Institute.

01:19:50	She discusses the William Coleman Dissertation Fellowship, the Madeleine Doran Fellowship, and the incoming Honorary Fellow.

01:23:26	LF describes her enjoyment of her position at the Institute.  The 1986 review committee highlighted her role in the Institute.

Second Interview Session (July 28, 2005):  Tape 1/Side 2, continued

01:25:43	Loretta Freiling describes the establishment and collections of the library at the Institute for Research in the Humanities.

01:28:38	LF recalls a story about Germaine Bre's mother during World War II.  She proceeds to talk about Madeleine Doran and Marshall Clagett.

01:32:04	She describes the Dana-Allen Dissertation Fellowships.

01:32:47	End of side.  End of tape.  End of interview.

END