UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #183
LOGAN, FREDERICK M.

LOGAN, Frederick M.  (1909-1990)
Professor of Art and Art Education
At UW: 1946-1974

Interviewed: 1979	
Series: School of Education
Interviewer: Mark Van Pelt
Length: 5 hours

Childhood and education; Milwaukee State Teachers College; Early teaching experiences; Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors; Art Institute; WPA art projects; Wisconsin Artists Federation; Problems of WWII; Art Department; ILS and Elementary Education program; Influence of DPI; Art faculty; Hiring; Evaluation; Salaries and merit pay; Selection of students; Chairmanship; Professional vs. academic training; Anti-Semitism; Curriculum; Teaching load; Experiences in England; Art institutes; Intern program; Ten-year study; M.F.A. program; Ph.D. vs. M.F.A.; Art education research; Integrated arts course; Interdisciplinary cooperation; Deans and chairmen; Wisconsin Improvement Program; Administration's dominance in late 1960s.

First Interview Session (January 18, 1979): Tapes 1-2 

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:01	Introduction.

00:00:14  	Early childhood in Racine; the college campus.

00:02:56  	Frank Lloyd Wright house.

00:04:28   	Father a mechanical engineer; early interest in art.

00:05:29   	Layton Gallery in Milwaukee.

00:06:42   	Milwaukee school experiences; early ability to do perspective.

00:07:55   	Wauwatosa High School experience; first formal art course; the imaginary art room.Washington High School; Rebecca Chase was Logan's teacher, very influential on students; Alfred Sessler also at Washington High School; the teaching methodology of the period.

00:20:02 	Gustav Muller at Milwaukee State Teachers College; Logan's activities at the 	college.

00:25:04	Elsa Olbricht-kindergarten teacher, Carl Sandburg friend, worked at Hull House, Chicago Art Institute.

00:27:06	Art school at Milwaukee gave teacher training as a subterfuge.

00:28:27	Logan begins teaching at Washington High School under Rebecca Chase.  Logan conflict with principal of Washington High School; dominance of principals in Milwaukee.

00:34:32	Logan transfer to Steuben Junior High School.

00:37:48 	Composition of school; ethnic tensions.

00:39:42	Active in Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors; prestigious organization; connection of Art Institute, Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors, and the superintendent of art of Milwaukee schools.

00:43:49	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2	

00:43:50 	WPA art projects; Santos Zingale, Clarice Logan.

00:46:39 	Wisconsin Artists Federation created to preserve WPA efforts.

00:47:25 	Sessler and Zingale were WPA people later into university teaching.

00:48:19 	Howard Thomas (head of Milwaukee State's art department), involves Logan with a summer conservation camp in northern Wisconsin; Thomas invites Logan to teach at Milwaukee State.

00:50:31 	President Baker brings Logan in permanently; Logan's relationship to President Baker.

00:54:52 	Baker elevates Logan to chairman of department of art in 1941.

00:58:15	 Problems of war.

00:59:43 	Sessler urged to take college degree by Logan; Sessler then came to Madison to teach.

01:00:42 	Varnum, chairman of Madison's art department, dies in 1946; Sessler urges Logan to apply for the job.

01:02:16	J. Martin Klotsche made President of Milwaukee State; Logan meets Della Wilson, Helen Annen; confusion of situation; Zingale.

01:05:00 	Logan meets with John Guy Fowlkes; Fowlkes’ character.

01:07:26 	The condition and situation of the UW art department at Logan's arrival.

01:10:39 	Creation of elementary education program; Robert Pooley.

01:11:59 	Elementary methods and student teacher professors were guiding lights of committee.

01:12:30	The administrative set-up of education department; Milt Pella; Helen Annen; Robert Pooley; ties to College of Letters and Science.

01:16:38 	Virgil Herrick brought in to establish elementary education program.  Philosophy of establishing UW elementary education program.

01:18:44 	ILS and elementary education program coordination.

01:20:43	Why elementary education program came to be so different from secondary education training; Ruth Allcott; 5-year program suggested by Logan and others.

01:27:25 	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 1

00:00:00 	DPI influence on elementary education program; relations of School of Education 	and DPI.

00:02:42 	Hopes for the program; the nature of the student sought after.

00:03:50 	The elementary education math curriculum.

00:06:08 	Major reasons for beginning UW elementary education program.

00:09:24	Arvil Barr, Matt Willing, Clarence Ragsdale, Gladys Borchers-relation to elementary education; position of Wisconsin High School.

00:13:04	Phil Falk and John Guy Fowlkes replaced by a "different breed of cat," change in administrative style; Helen White; Rudolph Langer; Lowell Noland; R. Ragnar Rollefson.

00:17:08 	Influence of Fowlkes on elementary education creation; his idea of the university.

00:21:11 	Building acceptance of elementary education as part of the curriculum; some areas of decision and doubt.

00:24:43	The proliferation of methods courses and their nature; the dilemma of content and method.

00:30:45 	The early growth of the elementary education curriculum; human relations requirements; too stiff a structuring of program in the last few years; humanizing influence of liberal arts and reading; impact of television on elementary education curriculum.

00:36:34	End of interview session.

Second Interview Session (January 25, 1979): Tapes 2-4

00:36:40	Early art faculty; Helen Annen, Della Wilson, Ruth Allcott, Roland Stebbins, Varnum, Arthur Vierthaler, Sessler, Robert Grilley, Gibson Byrd, George Adams Dietrich, William McCloy.

00:41:50	Selection of faculty in 1940s; Fowlkes; Della Wilson's tenure as art chairman; Charles Anderson; Dean Meeker; American College Bureau used as a clearing house; Oscar Haugen.

00:44:40	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 2

00:44:41	Continuation of side 1.

00:51:17 	Reaction of administration to hiring of under-credentialized faculty.

00:56:06 	Discrimination against art and phy ed by School of Education.

00:58:01	Fowlkes; evaluation procedures.

01:02:09 	Contrast of Fowlkes, Stiles, and McCarty administrations in relation to art department.

01:04:07	Influence of administration on salary and merit pay in art department; Fowlkes. Clarence Ragsdale case.

01:08:14 	Changes in methods and criteria of faculty evaluation; especially since 1960; John Wilde; James Watrous; Phil Hamilton. Number of major students. 

01:16:22 	The selection of students; changes in selection criteria over time.

01:20:50 	Graduate students; changes in selection criteria over time.

01:24:40	Contrast in selection criteria. Role of chairman between 1940s and recent years; Wilson, Stebbins, Annen opposed to "young turks" (1949-1951); loss of continuity of chairmanship.

01:29:27 	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 3 /Side 1

00:00:01 	Tasks of chairman; Logan urged to be permanent chairman in early 1960s by some faculty (Grilley, Wilde, Byrd); problem of discontinuity.

00:04:32 	Registration as example of discontinuity problem; effect on students; Sessler; the "Dean of Women," worked well with students; chairman responsible for discontinuity problems.

00:09:09 	Flexibility of M.F.A. in regard to required art history had developed; studio work now the overriding concern; pure professional training now emphasized over academic training.

00:11:24 	Influence of UW Department of Art on faculties of other State University art departments.

00:13:45 	Explanation of three year break in Logan's tenure as department chairman in early 1950s; political conflict within department; anti-Semitism problem; Annen.

00:18:38	Male-female balance in department; Annen and Wilson never approved of female appointments; Kreilick only long-term female faculty person in department after Annen and Wilson.

00:22:43 	Curriculum revision in late 1940s; Varnum; sequencing tightened; introduction of art history into the major; Oscar Haugen.

00:28:50 	Teaching load problems in early years of department; Harvey Littleton; Colescott; revision of load in late 1940s maintained except for short interruption in 1970s.

00:31:48 	Wilde nationally known for painting.

00:32:26 	Aaron Bohrod; Dean Christianson of School of Agriculture; Dean Pound.

00:33:49 	Logan's experience in Birmingham, England; Logan invited to teach at Birmingham in 1965; faculty exchanges and their results.

00:42:11 	The Art Institute; brought in outside experts in art and art education for summer work; Ben Shawn, Victor DeMico; Thomas Monroe, Charlie Eans held Union Terrace audiences.

00:44:49	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 3/Side 2

00:44:50	Albers. Buckminster Fuller's nonstop sessions; students enjoyed the institutes greatly.

00:50:43 	How art institutes began; the problem of the visitor system which preceded the institutes; summer session student given less guidance than before; less continuity than before.

00:56:28 	The internship program; Fowlkes; Ford Foundation support difficult to administer; interns could be easily exploited; students attracted to art teaching often lost to graduate work in art; impact of internship on block teaching program and students.

01:06:01	Effect of intern program on keeping students.

01:09:29 	Administrative burden of intern program; problem of coordinating with cooperative teachers.

01:15:03 	The Ten Year Study (1956); faculty, salary problems; credentials needed for promotion and good salary.

01:25:37 	Development of M.F.A. program; Helen White, Grilley, Wolf, Brogden and Logan among the M.F.A. committee members.

01:28:06	End of side.

Tape 4/Side 1

00:00:04 	Ph.D. vs. M.F.A. as college teaching credentials for studio art; nature of graduate art education study; Naseth, Nepperud.

00:08:18 	Current changes in nature of art education research; Arvil Barr early sponsor for art education Ph.D.

00:11:36 	Integrated Arts Course; Virgil Herrick in favor; Jonathan Curvin, Louise Kloepper, Robert Petzold, Logan put it together; the problem of interdisciplinary cooperation; Alexander Meiklejohn.

00:19:20 	Dean Lindley Stiles selection committee; selection process; Arvil Barr chairman; reasons for Fowlkes stepping down; Barr's skill as chairman.

00:29:02 	Impact of Dean Stiles; worked hard on salary inequities; James Stoltenberg; Stiles relation to Wisconsin Improvement Program.

00:33:51	Selection of Dean Donald McCarty; Glen Eye chairman; art department concern with McCarty's military background; necessary dominance of administration during late 1960s over faculty as result of student turmoil.

00:44:22 	End of side.  End of tape.  End of interview session.

END