UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #259
ELVEHJEM, CONSTANCE W.

ELVEHJEM, Constance W. (1905-1999)
Undergraduate Student; Wife of Conrad Elvehjem (Professor of Biochemistry; President)
At UW: 1923-1927

First Interview
Interviewed: 1983		
Series: Life Sciences
Interviewer: Laura Smail
Indexed (time code) by: Dolores Fries
Length: 4 hours, 4 minutes
Transcript: 82 pages

Background; Meeting husband Conrad Elvehjem as student; Personalities in Biochemistry Department; Research on niacin; Life with Elvehjem; Problems he encountered during presidency; Social responsibilities; Year at Cambridge; Dining clubs; Term on Board of Visitors.

Second Interview
Interviewed: c. 1961		
Interviewer: Harriet Bunn
Length: 27 minutes

Experiences as the wife of a university president; Entertaining at the "castle."

FIRST INTERVIEW (1983)

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:01	Class of 1927.

00:00:14	Interviewer introduces Mrs. Elvehjem.

00:00:38	The Elvehjems were married in June 1926.

00:00:53	Conrad (Connie) Elvehjem named Bob Madden as one of the writers in a professional report that Connie had published.  In his book, Madden wrote that he wasn't given enough credit via his placement in the author list.

00:03:09	Discussion of Tom Spies and the Nobel Prize. Connie was surprised that he never received the Borden Award.

00:05:10	Connie was made a member of the American Philosophical Society which met at Independence Hall. For meals they ate in the "Benjamin Franklin" style of fried oysters and pyramid shaped ice cream.  Connie was the first UW professor made a member of it, CE believes.  Since then, Kenneth Raper, Farrington Daniels, Perry Wilson have become members of the American Philosophical Society.

00:06:50	(Technical difficulties during the interview.) 

00:07:47	They put off having children until Connie finished his Ph.D. CE wrote a column for her home newspaper. She did volunteer work for her church and the Red Cross, where she handled publicity until it became such a big job that Ethel Parker was hired for it. CE typed Connie's thesis which was initially difficult because she didn't understand the importance of decimal points.

00:09:05	Connie spoke only Norwegian until he was six years old.  He had "twists" in his English which she edited on his longhand thesis copy.  Then she would then type the first draft for the secretary to type from.

00:11:05	CE helped Connie study for his French exam for his doctorate; he knew Norwegian and German but not Latin. CE helped her husband with all his work, even washed his hair. She loved to read the newspaper; she was a former newspaperwoman.

00:12:59	Connie would go back to the lab at night; she would go with him and read or clean the lab during the early years of their marriage. CE learned a lot about chemistry. Their children remember how he liked to talk uninterrupted; everyone had a turn to talk at the dinner table.

00:14:35	Connie would tell her about the daily work at the lab, results of experiments. The biochemistry was in the attic, and air conditioned (the first place on campus) so the lab animals could live there.  Once rats climbed up the building and mated with the lab rats. One time when monkeys escaped, Connie and their son went over to catch them with butterfly nets.

00:17:06	CE was very much a part of Connie's work; she attended scientific meetings with him.

00:17:36	Relationships within the Biochemistry department were not smooth.  Connie handled tough problems as chairman of the department. The medical school in Madison: "something else".

00:18:13	Connie and E.B. Hart did journal work together. In Van Potter's opinion, Hart was riding on Connie's coattails. Hart made good choices in hiring (Steenbock, Peterson, Lake, Elvehjem), but he lacked a higher degree. Hart saw Connie's potential and helped him earn a Rockefeller grant to study at Cambridge. Hart allowed Connie to buy a Barcroft Apparatus in Cambridge. CE and Connie went to Niagara Falls with the Barcroft Apparatus before returning to Madison. CE has a photograph of Connie with the Barcroft Apparatus.

00:22:06	CE shows interviewer a picture from when Connie was made UW president.  The family had the Asian flu when the regents and photographers came to their house for the announcement. CE talks about two letters, one from Mrs. Frank and the other from Mrs. Dykstra.

00:23:40	When CE was a new bride, Harry Moore's wife (he was in the Horticulture department) took her to her first horticulture faculty's wives meeting, "Daughters of Demeter".  CE's husband had no aspirations for administration.  CE worked with the alumnae association where she held office and was on the board of directors.  She was on the University Board of Visitors which she was president of when UW became part of the system.  Fred Harrington, LeRoy Luberg, and CE kept the Board of Visitors together after UW joined the statewide system.

00:26:30	The Board of Visitors looked into the Federal and Foundation Funding for scientific research for the UW.  Bob Bock liked the report the Board of Visitors gave him.  CE resigned her appointment when Irving Shain became UW chancellor.  CE believes her service for the Board of Visitors was valuable.

00:28:55	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:28:58	The University League held an annual dinner-dance in Memorial Union Great Hall.  During the Depression when Fern Fowler was the University League's social chairman, there was a rash of robberies at the Union.  Fowler, CE, Professor Otis' wife, and some other women were locked in Great Hall while decorating for dinner.  Fowler's pocketbook came up missing, so the women (at CE's urging) and the two student workers took a lie detector test.  Agatha Fowlkes had to think before saying her children's names!  Matthews in the Chemistry department made the lie detector test.  The culprit was never found.

00:33:38	The University League was very important to CE.  Dorothy Knaplund.  The Elvehjems belonged to two dance clubs; they always danced at the annual dinner-dance.

00:34:43	CE balked about the graduate school deanship.  E.B. Fred asked her if she and Connie were still living together! The position was supposed to be temporary.  Fred pressured Connie to accept the deanship.  Professor Homer Harriet, Spanish department, and psychologist Brogden came in to help Connie.  

00:36:51	CE hadn't realized how much the graduate school dean had to do with funding for the whole UW research program.  The graduate school dean is the "best job on campus."  Bob Bock also took the graduate school deanship.

00:37:51	John Willard was graduate school dean after Connie.  The faculty didn't get along with him.  Willard then asked for the Vilas Professorship.

00:39:52	Support for the social sciences.  WARF was set up by scientists (e.g. Fred).  Connie chose Fred Harrington as his vice-president to help with the humanities.

00:42:01	Connie was witty, "a joy to live with"; life at the president's house. 

00:45:54	CE has notes from a speech Connie gave to their church's student group.  Paul Chadbourne, John Bascom, Thomas Chamberlin, Don Weaver all had attended the same church as the Elvehjems.

00:47:28	Close relationship between Fred and Connie.  Connie knew Fred's weaknesses and strengths. Fred moved his office to Bascom Hall basement when he joined the Foundation.  Fred went through Connie's office to get to his own. Connie once found Fred sitting behind his desk which made him angry.

00:50:38	Fred Harrington told CE after Connie's death that Fred had hindered Connie.  CE doesn't think Connie felt he stood in Fred’s shadow.

00:52:42	Many of CE's college professors were now her associates (examples).  Helen C. White helped write the Faculty Resolution.

00:54:23	Parties; students roomed with the Elvehjems during the Depression; dance clubs.

00:56:49	End of side.

End of Mp3 File. 

Tape 2/Side 1

00:00:01	CE received a letter from Mary Frank; CE invited Frank to visit the president's house, but she declined.  CE complimented Mary Frank on the tablecloths from Brussels that CE and Mrs. Fred both used in the president's house.

00:01:56	CE talked to Louis Ahrien (?)about the Oriental rugs Mrs. Frank had bought for the president's house. Mary Frank had an abrasive personality.  

00:04:22	CE told an anecdote about how she and Sara Longenecker walked homed together from a University Leage tea one day when it began to snow. They caught a ride with some boys on their sleds down to Breese Terrace. 

00:06:25	The Elvehjems entertained many graduate students.  After the war, European scientists began visiting UW and stayed at their home.  Connie depended on CE’s help in entertaining foreign visitors; she could communicate better.

00:08:31	After Connie died, she realized how meshed their lives were.

00:08:51	CE was once state president of PEO, a philanthropic educational organization which owns a college.  Dorothy Knaplund calls it an old ladies sorority.        

00:09:59	Connie discussed decisions with CE except for some medical school matters. At cocktail parties, people would buttonhole Connie and CE about the medical school status.  After it was all over, Connie gave her a mink coat as "hush money".

00:11:13	CE has a suitcase full of newspaper clippings about the medical school start-up although she does know somewhat more than was in the newspapers.  Tony Curreri came to their house to talk to Connie about the medical school deanship.  He had resigned from an important committee which the medical school dean could not be on.  CE didn't know exactly what was said, but she heard Tony sobbing.

00:13:43	Connie was in the middle of the situation.  He was E.B. Fred's confidante in hiring John Bowers. There were rumors that Bowers was fired from his job in Utah.  The Elvehjems spent time with the Bowers prior to Bowers accepting the position.  

00:15:40	The Bowers began to "cultivate" the Elvehjems, which they had never experienced before.

00:18:07	When John Bowers offered his resignation, one regent voted against accepting it which, because the regents wanted a unanimous vote, caused his resignation not to be accepted.  The Bowers invited the Elvehjems to their home frequently and to the Madison Club for expensive dinners.

00:19:34	Imogen Bowers told wonderful stories.  At a medical school dinner at the East Side Business Men's Association, Imogen Bowers shifted the place cards so she wouldn't have to sit by Connie.  Evidently, John told her stories making Connie the "bad guy".  This was the "beginning of the end".  Connie was hurt that John wasn't telling the truth.

00:21:36	Karver Puestow wanted Bowers out.  He was breathing down Connie's neck.  Puestow hated Harrington and refused to attend Harrington's retirement dinner. CE was on good terms with the Harringtons although things were a bit touchy when she was moving out and they were moving in.

00:22:30	Connie depended on the agriculture school people, the graduate student office, and the administrative committee.  H. Edwin Young was dean of letters and sciences.  Connie didn't open up to anyone about the medical school issue.  Phil Cohen, who Connie could rely on, took Bowers' place.

00:24:55	On the day he was asked to become president, Connie had high blood pressure which he was taking medicine for.  When Connie's blood pressure became lower, the doctor stopped the medication.  Harrington thought Connie tired easily once he started the medication.  CE and Connie were up north the weekend he died.  He had told her he wanted another four years as president.

00:26:54	The UW presidency paid $23,000 a year - less than Connie made as a professor and member of many boards.  He was asked to be a board member for Purina, Northwestern Mutual, and Wisconsin Life but he refused because of conflict of interest as UW president.  Purina was furious when he had to resign from their board; they had wanted him to be their vice-president.  Danforth Scholarships.

00:28:31	CE thinks the nicest award Connie received was the award from the Federation of Biological Scientists for the "Outstanding Man in Nutrition and Public Service". 

00:29:00	John Bowers was an enigma.

00:29:49	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 2

00:29:52	Grace, the Elvehjems' housekeeper, ran their lives.  She was a devout Republican.  Nelson was governor then, so the Elvehjems didn't talk politics around Grace.

00:31:32	On the day Connie went to Washington, D.C. (where he had lunch with President Kennedy), Bowers called to find out where Connie was.  Then Melvin Laird called from D.C. asking where Connie was.  CE couldn't find the itinerary Connie had given her but she didn't want to admit that.  Tony Curreri had received a large grant for cancer research that Laird wanted to tell Connie about before Bowers.

00:35:30	LeRoy Luberg was married to Melvin Laird's sister-in-law.

00:35:48	CE talks about a student she had met for coffee in the Union but he couldn't get in because he was wearing shorts.  He thought he could get by because he was with CE.

00:37:49	CE helped get Red Cross to campus with Jenny Stumpf as president.

00:38:50	CE worked with many types of students and with student religious groups. [Second session of Interview begins here.]

00:39:36	The Red Cross blood bank came to UW in the 1940's.  CE was publicity director for the Red Cross.  Students were very interested in the blood bank because many had sisters and brothers in the war.

00:41:23	Anecdote about a student. Connie relied on CE's "keen sense of people"; John Bowers.

00:43:31	CE and Connie were both shy when they were young.  CE became more outgoing and Connie was more self-assured.

00:43:57	CE officiated at the banquet for the 50th Anniversary of the Civics Club after Connie died.  She stopped at the cemetery on the way to gather courage.

00:45:13	CE was a Red Cross student advisor and worked with an ecumenical group on a state-wide committee after Connie died.

00:46:17	CE enjoyed Religious Emphasis week as a student; it was well attended by students until a complete apathy to religion came over students.

00:48:25	CE stopped walking on State Street during the protests. When she was in school State Street was the big focus of students.  CE thinks it's great that students now have State Street to themselves mostly.

00:49:30	Connie felt that they should attend faculty funerals.  When he was president he would visit all faculty members in the hospital.  The faculty were on a first-name basis with the Elvehjems and the students were like members of their family. 

00:50:28	CE's son's fraternity held their Christmas party at the president's house the year Wisconsin went to the Rose Bowl.  Bob (son) had an apartment at the back of the house; lived at president's house for four years; freshmen and senior receptions.

00:52:50	The freshmen reception was held at the president's house one year.  Twenty-five hundred people attended; she tells a funny story about the powder room.

00:54:23	Margot Harriott (wife of Professor Harriott, Spanish Department) managed receptions for Mrs. Fred with the help of Ann Minahan, head of Union student and social affairs.  They worked with CE on the receptions.

00:55:44	Summer prom was cancelled when Connie died.  Students held a bean supper to raise money for a portrait to be done of Connie.  The portrait now hangs in the Memorial Union.

00:57:18	During the 1960's, CE felt uncomfortable in the Memorial Union.

00:58:46	Christmas parties at Memorial Union; Connie's fraternity.

00:59:17	CE worked with international students long before Connie became Graduate School dean.  They were honorary members of the International Club.  The Elvehjems sponsored an Indian student; also had a Norwegian student live with them.  In all, thirteen students lived with the Elvehjems.  The relationships with faculty and students was the best aspect of the job.

01:00:28	End of side.

End of Mp3 File. 

Tape 3/Side 1

00:00:01	CE very aware of problems with Karl Link.

00:00:43	CE came to Madison as a freshman.  The only people she knew were a high school teacher (Walter Leukel) and his wife who came to UW the same year.  Walter was in the biochemistry department with Karl Link and Connie.

00:02:10	Link a "very everyday person"; was bright but didn't show his eccentricities.  When the Elvehjems were in Europe, they heard about Link's escapades.

00:02:48	Link wanted Vitamin K put in aspirin but Harry Steenbock refused.  At a seminar there was quite a heated discussion about it, with Link grabbing Harry by the collar; incident with Mark Stahmann.

00:04:14	Connie, Perry Wilson, Ed Gordon, and another man were trying to get the Rockefeller people interested in donating money for the Enzyme Institute.  CE gave a dinner party to celebrate the founding of the institute.  Karl Link, who wasn't part of the plans, sat on the Chemistry Building steps in red satin shorts as Connie brought the Rockefeller people into the building.

00:06:16	Connie was toastmaster at Professor Hart's farewell dinner.  During his eulogy for Professor Hart, Karl took a jab at Connie.

00:07:08	Link wrote nasty ("too personal") letters to people; CE never saw any of these letters.  Link had two lengthy stays at a TB sanitorium during which Connie kept him on the budget.  

00:07:44	Link created an incident over his daily TB tests (he tested negative).  

00:08:32	Karl Link's family.  Link didn't come to Connie's funeral.

00:09:05	Link couldn't stand Harry Steenbock, hated Stahmann.  Anne Terrio, Connie's secretary, told CE about a horrible letter Link sent Connie which she intercepted; this happened just before Connie's death.

00:09:53	Link's and Connie's research didn't overlap.  Link felt his work wasn't recognized by E.B. Fred or Ira Baldwin.  Link was very convincing and believable.

00:10:59	CE typed Connie's papers before they went to Anne Terrio, his secretary.

00:12:00	Link was an enigma to CE; he didn't like any of the administration.  When Connie became UW president, CE didn't worry about how he would handle it because he had survived Steenbock and Link.

00:12:52	Another prima donna in the department: Frank Strong (problems in his personal life); Dorothy Hussemann.

00:14:20	Once Connie made a decision, he abided by it unless shown a better way.  He didn't brood over problems.

00:15:00	Everyone in the lab was grateful when Link began working at home.  Link was colorful like William Ellery Leonard; students liked Link.

00:15:34	Carl Russell Fish was colorful; Kiekhofer was wonderful, colorful.

00:16:04	Steenbock and Brittingham correspondence about WARF. Connie loved to argue, lots of sparring but not nasty arguing.  Connie loved stories.

00:18:33	WARF.  When the Elvehjems were first married they lived in a apartment.  CE heard a newsboy calling "Extra, extra".  Since she was a journalist, it was very exciting for her.  The extra edition was about Connie's work with iron and copper but Professor Hart got the headlines.  At about that time (around 1926), WARF was founded.  The patent money really helped the Elvehjems meet their budget during the depression.

00:22:05	WARF was Harry Steenbock's idea; exciting.  Evelyn Steenbock was a biochemist in the department.  At one point, Karl Link asked that Steenbock not be allowed at WARF meetings.

00:23:25	It was thought for a long time that Steenbock would marry Dr. Mitchell at the Kellogg Foundation.

00:24:32	CE was always involved in volunteer work, held office, and enjoyed her board work.  She was in the League of Nursing at UW.

00:26:58	CE spoke at the state League of Nursing meeting in Milwaukee on "What the Consumer Expects From the Nurse".

00:27:22	CE never earned a salary; after Connie's death, she cared for her elderly father.

00:28:06	LeRoy Luberg advised her not to work at UW because it would look like the university created a job for her.  She hadn't graduated from college but had lots of volunteer experience.

00:28:47	CE was interim director for the Red Cross for two months.

00:30:30	Between family, volunteer work and planning social activities connected to Connie's work, CE feels as if she had a full time job.

00:31:04	End of side.

Tape 3/Side 2

00:31:23	CE's volunteer work has been very important to her.  She sits on the Methodist Hospital Foundation with people from banks and financial institutions.  The foundations inherited a good deal of money from Harry Sage (The Capitol Times); Lee Enterprises.

00:33:42	CE feels that she has contributed through her public service work.  Now she is chairperson of the nominating committee for the Methodist Hospital Foundation.  CE has always been surprised by her appointments to committees.

00:34:35	CE worries about the future of the United Way and other volunteer organizations.  The time will come, CE thinks, when hospitals will pay their trustees.

00:36:25	CE worries about volunteer causes not having enough people involved.  Same problem with University League because women are now working full time.  The brown bag lunch series is a good idea; changing world.

00:38:43	Grace Chatterton was visiting universities while promoting the idea of a "Woman's Day" on campus for female alumnae.  Grace Chatterton had lunch with CE, Mrs. Johns of the Board of Visitors, Ora Jones of Jefferson, Louise Troxell, Martha Peterson, Connie, LeRoy Luberg, and John Berge, in addition to some other out-of-town people.  When Grace was here, she also spoke with President Fred and with Berge.

00:40:33	"Women`s Day on Campus" was intended to sell to the state the "blue ribbon professors".

00:41:16	E.B. Fred's idea of a women's fellowship grew out of the "Women's Day on Campus".  The first "Women's Day" was in 1959 or 1960 during Connie's presidency, but the idea was planted by Fred and Berge earlier.

00:42:55	The alumnae loved coming back to campus.

00:43:18	Carol Morris (her brother was Wayne Morris) was active in student government and women's work; she started a "Women's Day on Campus" at school where she worked.

00:43:51	As the "Women's Day" grew, the name was changed to "A Day on Campus" to accommodate the men who visited.  State Historical Society bylaws.

00:44:58	Arts people interested in the "Women's Day on Campus"; tours of the campus.

00:45:52	The Elvehjem Museum.  Long before Connie became president, he went with Herb Kohler, Jim Watrous, and others to raise money for an art center; at that point, art works were kept in the basement of Bascom Hall.

00:46:43	Connie enjoyed art, especially sculpture.

00:48:23	President and Mrs. Fred held a luncheon for the Brittinghams at the Union; Connie was good friends with Tom Brittingham.  At the luncheon the Brittinghams gave a million dollars for an art center at UW.

00:49:10	After Connie's death, Malcolm White and Bob Rennebohm, among others, proposed the idea of naming the art center after Connie.

00:50:31	CE suspicious that naming the art center after Connie was a publicity gimmick but she was very moved at the opening ceremony; turning point.

00:51:31	She went to the art center the day after the opening by herself; excited by student interest and use.

00:52:53	CE's daughter-in-law's aunt, Fay McBeath, "gave" a room to the art center; Milwaukee Journal, Fay McBeath.

00:53:17	An elaborate opening ceremony for the art center was held.  Because CE was up north prior to the ceremony, the only long dress she had to wear was an old, unflattering dress which is now in all the photographs (alumnae magazine cover and newspapers).  Her daughter and daughter-in-law wore street-length dresses instead of the customary long, evening dress.

00:55:05	Fay McBeath gave money to the humanities.  At the time, there was a great need in Madison for an art center; currently, there is a multitude of galleries in Madison.

00:55:46	During the Depression, the faculty took voluntary pay cuts for ten years.

00:56:32	The year in England "totaled" CE and Connie financially; they lived on a grant.

00:57:00	CE doesn't remember people complaining much.  During the Depression the Elvehjems started taking in students.  One of their students lost his meal coupons for the One Minute Restaurant (corner of Park and University where Rennebohms was) and didn't tell them.  He lived on breakfast only for six weeks; there were lots of students and faculty like him on campus.

00:58:43	The Elvehjems thought that the Depression salary cuts would be reimbursed but they never were.  Their high school age son was surprised to learn that Connie was living on $4,200 a year (including raises).

00:59:25	When they lived in Nakoma, they frequently had tramps at their back door.

00:59:50	There were no feelings of hardship because everyone was in the same situation.  The Elvehjems were lucky because Connie had a job with the university.  When Connie became president, he told CE that he would keep his professorship in biochemistry because of tenure in case he was kicked out of the presidency.

01:00:39	Difficult times.  CE thinks as a result her children's generation received too much (free education, no jobs during college) from their parents.  CE's grandchildren are holding jobs during college.  One of her granddaughter's received a student loan for her last year of school.

01:01:35	End of side.

End of Mp3 File. 

Tape 4/Side 1

00:00:03	Elvehjem's stay in England.  Discusses magazine called "Brighter Biochemistry", published in 1930, that the Cambridge department published yearly.  This effort now seen as a historic experiment.

00:01:23	Professor David Keilin was just beginning his work on enzymes.  Connie found that copper was a catalyst for a reaction they were studying.  Connie and CE made an illustration for the magazine on this research.

00:03:45	The magazine showed the versatility of the researchers.  Professor Hopkins was at Cambridge when the Elvehjems were and won the Nobel Prize during their stay.  He was the "father" of vitamins.  He wrote poems for the magazine.

00:04:13	Professor Haldane, once arrested for political disturbance in England, was married to a Russian woman.  His wife was a dancer and journalist.  He experimented with putting himself in a chamber with only certain things to breathe.  The Elvehjems spent a good deal of time with them.

00:05:38	Several people at Cambridge became well known.  Connie worked with Professor Sharma who was from India.  Professor Sharma worked on anemia, iron, and copper.  He visited the Elvehjems many times in Madison.

00:06:15	Iron and copper work; Elvehjems in Cambridge 1929-30; patent issued in 1931 or 1932.

00:07:03	Professor Glenn King, good friends with the Elvehjems, was synthesizing Vitamin C.  Professor King came to the memorial service after Connie died.

00:07:50	Professor Keilin an outstanding scientist.  The Elvehjems spent time with the Keilins.  Connie respected Professor Keilin, whose daughter was a well-known biochemist also.

00:08:29	CE has lost touch with many people in the scientific community since Connie died.

00:08:58	Professor Hopkins wrote an article, "Rouge and Youngness", for CE.  None of the women at Cambridge wore lipstick or rouge.  His wife was a very modern woman who was responsible for developing the rationing program during the war.

00:10:30	The Hopkins lived in a house on an old Saxon road. 

00:11:00	There were so many new experiences for the Elvehjems at Cambridge.  In the beginning, Connie might have felt handicapped at Cambridge.  Connie would pick the gate locks to get into the biochemistry building when he went to work at 7 a.m. because the English didn't go to work until after 9 a.m.

00:12:36	Connie had a herringbone suit tailored in England.  Because the pants came up under his arms, he had to wear suspenders to hold them in place.  The people in the lab called him "Droopy Drawers". 

00:13:31	Connie went to the English dinner celebrating Professor Hopkins' Nobel Prize.  

00:15:14	The Elvehjems met a wonderful group of people at Cambridge whom they kept in touch with. 

00:16:07	The Elvehjems were included socially; CE thinks they were thought of as freaks from Wisconsin (because of Wisconsin's proximity to Chicago and its gangs).  The parties were very gay; more so than they were used to in Madison, perhaps because of Prohibition.

00:17:22	They lived in an apartment in a Mrs. Goring's house.  She composed music, wrote; it was very exciting to live in her house.  Her husband had been a doctor in India and one of her sons, Marius Goring, became an actor.  The Elvehjems went to productions Mrs. Goring had a hand in.  Her son starred in several stage productions (best known in America for "Red Shoes").  He also was in "The Scarlet Pimpernel".  Mrs. Goring's other son was named Donald and attended Kings College in London.  The Elvehjems visited him at college.

00:18:50	Mrs. Goring entertained George Bernard Shaw, Isadora Duncan.  CE made the chips and pudding sauce when Shaw came to dinner.

00:19:42	Fred Stare, Connie's first Ph.D. student, went to England the year after the Elvehjems did.  He and his wife lived with Mrs. Goring.

00:20:34	The Haldanes were the most colorful people at the lab; Miss Wakeman, a biochemist, had a pet rat that followed her everywhere in the lab.  The lab people held lots of parties.  

00:21:25	Everyone thought it would be the last time they would see the Elvehjems when they left Cambridge.  During the war, most of the Cambridge people lectured in the U.S. and visited the Elvehjems, even Professor Haldane, who had said he had no interest in visiting America.

00:21:52	The Elvehjems loved the life and work at Cambridge so much they wondered if they would enjoy Madison upon their return.  Once they saw Madison again, they were glad to be home.

00:22:33	Harry Steenbock was hard to get along with but Connie respected him very much.  Harry once yelled at Connie for reading the newspaper before doing his work.  As a student, Connie was a bit afraid of him (along with many other students).

00:24:11	Professor Hart respected Steenbock.  There were arguments, especially between Link and Steenbock.  Link's aggressiveness caused the arguments, especially over putting Vitamin K in aspirin.  In one argument between Link and Steenbock there was bodily contact.

00:26:06	In addition to Steenbock's work, Connie and Jim Waddell also did the work that got the patent for Harry.    

00:28:06	Hart divided the money from the patent in Steenbock's name between them.

00:28:34	End of side.

Tape 4/Side 2

00:28:45	Connie and Waddell did most of the lab work that Steenbock got the patent for.

00:29:12	CE would go with Connie to the lab at night.

00:29:28	Connie ran the lab with strict hours, like Steenbock.  Connie was very thorough about checking on the equipment in each lab and making sure it worked properly.

00:30:19	One man in Connie's department had a drinking problem.  It was a major concern of Connie's that this man was on the job.  Connie was very self-disciplined.

00:31:07	Connie was close to his graduate students, but he was always "Dr. Elvehjem" to them until after they had graduated.  One of Connie's former graduate students told CE it was difficult to call Connie "Connie".

00:31:49	Professor Hart was called "the old man" with great affection.

00:32:22	Connie's graduate students.  Connie had arguments with Wilfred Brogden about the acceptance of borderline graduate students.

00:34:19	Van Potter, Hank Lardy, Harry Weisman, Fred Stare were favorite graduate students of Connie's.

00:35:50	The Elvehjems had Connie's graduate students over to visit at their house, where many babysat for them.  They held a once a year party for the students working with Connie.  Axelrod and Van Potter were from the Dakotas.

00:36:30	Some former students of Connie's were his pallbearers (Van Potter, Hank Lardy, Bob Bock).

00:37:16	CE went to the memorial service of Marvin Johnson, whom she thought one of the brightest of men.  Johnson had no desire to be an administrator; he worked with penicillin.  W. H. Peterson.

00:39:06	Professor Hart's greatness was his choosing of people for his department (including Steenbock).  As Hart grew older, Connie assumed the chairman's duties.  Margaret Larson, Hart's daughter, was a lab technician.  She worked for Connie and also worked for Van Potter and Jack Williams.  Her husband is Russell Larson in plant pathology.  

00:40:36	Because he could explain clearly what he wanted done and was not afraid of delegating responsibility, Connie was a good administrator.

00:41:38	Connie wanted his graduate students to present their own papers.

00:42:18	CE can think of only one graduate student who might have been unhappy with Connie.

00:44:06	When they were younger, the Elvehjems didn't belong to the University Club.  Instead, they belonged to two dance clubs and Connie belonged to a Norwegian club.  They only joined the University Club when Connie was placed on a committee to study why more University people didn't belong to the club.

00:44:46	Because the University Club wasn't convenient to Biochemistry people, Connie, Hank Ahlgren, and Bill Longenecker went home for lunch.  Connie's committee luncheons met at the University Club.  Their children went to University Club Christmas parties.  CE was active in planning luncheons at the club.

00:45:57	Connie belonged to the Town and Gown dining club well before he was an administrator (CE gives some names of club members).  It was a nice group of friends who met for a full course dinner.

00:46:59	Connie wanted her to get "service plates".  She found some beautiful Dresden china at Sherrods, an antique and second hand store/warehouse that was on University Avenue where Gorham Street intersects.

00:49:55	Connie belonged to the Norwegian Heritage Club and other clubs which CE names; Madison Literary Club.

00:50:29	Connie liked mysteries; he read news magazines.  Connie was put into a special English class when he came to UW which was a blow to his pride.  He won all the prizes when he was in school.  Connie spoke only Norwegian until he was six years old; as an adult, he refused to speak much Norwegian.  Some English pronunciation remained difficult for him; French was difficult for him and he never took Latin.

00:52:06	During the war Connie helped on his brother's farm.  He would take the children to plant tobacco and pick strawberries.  They would visit the farm about once a week.

00:53:14	On their first vacation together, CE and Connie went to his brother's farm so that the brother and his wife could go on a trip.

00:54:04	The dismissal of Glenn Frank was very hard for CE.  She admired his use of words but it also made him very difficult to understand.  He was the editor of Century magazine when he came here; his firing was political (Dykstra didn't have much training either when he was hired).  It seems that when a non-academic person is hired for administration things don't go well.

00:55:47	The image of the university is always better when a scholar is heading it up. Van Potter supported the Frank Lloyd Wright building; he was very vocal.  He went to the same church as the Elvehjems.

00:57:18	End of side.

End of Mp3 File.

Tape 5/Side 1

00:00:12	Van was quite liberal in his thinking.  Except in the suitcase episode, Connie and Van never had words over anything. Connie was not pro-McCarthy and he didn't think the issue of McCarthyism was something to take to a scientific meeting.

00:00:52	Connie told their daughter that he didn't want her to wear jeans on campus so she never did.  To him, jeans were work clothes for the farm.  He didn't like it when Karl Link wore shorts to the lab.

00:02:33	Rockefeller came to campus because of the Enzyme Institute.  CE thinks David Green was a strange person; she didn't know much about him.  The Enzyme Institute was the first in the world, very exciting.

00:03:52	At the time of the interview, CE had just been to her sixtieth high school reunion and had celebrated her seventy-eighth birthday.

00:04:39	CE thinks the laboratory is the same.  Her son Bob works there; the people in the lab are very close.

00:05:02	The Biochemistry meetings are coming up.  CE would like to attend but she is involved with a music festival in northern Wisconsin at the same time.

00:05:45	A professorship has been established in Connie's name.  WARF gives an annual national honor in Connie's name to someone outstanding in history or public service in biochemistry or nutrition.  Fred Stare, Glenn King and some other of Connie's former students have won the honor.

00:07:41	End of interview.

End of Mp3 File. 

SECOND INTERVIEW (c. 1961)

Tape 6/Side 1
	
00:01:05	Constance Elvehjem relates an anecdote about a postman who came to her door to complain about an expensive dishwasher that had been installed in Chadbourne Hall; he believed female students ought to wash their own dishes.  Although CE knew nothing of this dishwasher, she succeeded in justifying the university's purchase of it and the postman left satisfied.

00:03:14	The interviewer hypothesizes that the university wanted an internal candidate to succeed E.B. Fred as president because someone familiar with the university would understand the university's democratic tradition.  Mrs. Glenn Frank had difficulty adjusting to the university because she came from the Deep South and "belonged to the white glove era."  CE expresses regret that people who come to tea still wear white gloves.

00:04:28	CE recalls attending a function hosted by Mary Frank while Glenn Frank was university president.  She was amazed to find a butler at the foot of the stairs because she had never before seen a butler.  As she was leaving she saw that it had begun to snow, and since her shoes were not meant for snow, she rode down the hill to University Avenue on a bobsled with some students.

00:06:34	CE describes Mary Frank as misunderstood.  Although she was thought to be extravagant, CE later recognized the wisdom of the purchases she made for the president's house.

00:08:03	The interviewer remembers that Lillian Dykstra sat down on the steps and wept after she realized what a large house she had to manage.  CE also cried one day after she had been struggling to manage the "castle," as the university president's house was called.

00:09:35	The interviewer describes Lillian Dykstra's method for remembering her guests' names.  CE uses a guest book to help her remember names.

00:11:15	CE's position requires a great deal of diplomacy, as her husband trusts her with sensitive information.  She does not feel that she lives "in a goldfish bowl" and states that people usually respect her privacy.

00:12:45	CE calculates that more than nine thousand guests have visited the castle for functions in the less-than-three years the Elvehjems have lived there.  This figure does not include receptions held on campus, such as the senior reception.  Many of the teas the Elvehjems have hosted have included live harp music.

00:15:40	People often leave their possessions behind at the castle.  On one occasion a student attending a party stole money from other students.  CE was very disconcerted by the incident.

00:17:53	Since the Elvehjems' son Robert has left home to join the army, CE's father has come to live with them.  She explains the important role he plays in the household.

00:19:37	CE discusses other help the Elvehjems have, including the university driver, Billy.  She finds it difficult to manage her employees because few of them work on the weekend, when CE's hosting duties are heaviest.  The lack of domestic help troubles CE, and she wishes that more young women could be encouraged to enter into domestic service.  The mean age of her staff of four is sixty-one.

00:23:02	The Elvehjems have entertained the Board of Regents on several occasions.

00:23:50	CE regrets that she cannot spend more time with students--it is frightening to have the responsibility of mothering nineteen thousand students.  She does not believe she manages to reach the students most in need of her.  She tried to work out a plan to entertain all the students in small groups, but this would have involved giving up every Sunday evening during the year.  "This is one of our worries, and the place where I hope we can serve better: trying to keep this feeling of family and student relationship on the campus, with faculty and students."

00:26:05	End of side.  End of tape.

END