UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #383
ELA, JANET SMITH

ELA, Janet Smith (1910-1996)
Undergraduate Student
At UW: 1926-1930

Interviewed: 1990	
Interviewer: Barry Teicher
Length: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Background; Reasons for coming to UW; Father first full-time UW librarian; Lathrop Hall; Women's Self-Government Association; YWCA; Memorial Union Building Committee; Union policy of non-admission for women; Porter Butts; James Watrous; John Dollard; Iron Cross Society; William Ellery Leonard; Neil Dodge; Sonny Pyre; Paul Fulcher; Speakeasies; Skyrockets; Glenn Frank; George Sellery; Louise Nardin; Susan B. Davis; Zoe Bayliss; Experimental College; Daily Cardinal; Women, blacks and Jews.

First Interview Session (1990): 
Tape 1/Side 1
Time	Keywords

00:00:00	Interviewer’s introduction.

00:00:58	Janet Smith Ela entered the UW in the fall of 1926, graduated June, 1930.  She was Madison born.

00:01:25	First job selling books at the UW Book Store, then called the Co-op.  

00:02:02	Went to UW because most affordable for her family, also members of her family were alumni.

00:02:44	Her interests were in English and art but she studied English because Madison did not have a good art program.

00:03:15	Her father worked in the library as an undergraduate.  The library was then located in Music Hall, then known as Library Hall.  He graduated in 1890 and became the first full time librarian.  Retired in 1936.

00:04:18	Facilities available for women for socializing activities: dormitories, sororities.

00:05:35	Lathrop Hall, which included a gymnasium and swimming pool, was for women.

00:06:28	The Women's Self-Government Association was located in Lathrop Hall.  Its purpose was to serve as a forum for freshmen and sophomores to encourage them to go on to leadership positions associated with the University. 

00:08:23	YWCA stationed in Lathrop.  

00:09:14	Building of Memorial Union.  Committee in early 1920s.  Fund drive when JSE was a freshman to raise money for the Union. 
 
00:10:11	Union opened beginning of her junior year, fall of 1928.  Then, the only place for female students to go unescorted was a little parlor next to the women's washroom on the second floor, which was decorated with Louis XVI furniture.

00:11:15	A Union membership fee was included in the regular semester fee.  JSE was a few dollars short of completing her life membership fee when she graduated.  

00:11:57	JSE married Walter Ela in January of 1938.  He was a member of the Union.  

00:12:22	JSE was asked to be an alumni member of the Student Council in the fall of 1953.  She accepted though she knew she really was not a member because she had not paid-in-full her life membership fee.  She then had to pay a larger sum for a non-student membership.

00:13:19	More on reactions to Memorial Union and its exclusion of women. Around the first half of 1938 women were allowed in the Union.

00:15:15	How JSE raised funds?  Worked on members of pledge class in the sorority. Women could go to more places in Memorial Union if escorted.

00:16:54	Association with Porter Butts.

00:18:28	Association with James Watrous.

00:19:24	Charles Dollard. John Dollard active in early years of Union planning.

00:19:56	Association with President Birge.

00:21:22	Iron Cross Society, senior Honor Society for men.  Women's equivalent called Mortarboard.  Phi Beta Kappa based on scholarship and participation in activities.  

00:22:22	JSE was surprised to hear that the Union was designed after English colleges Oxford and Cambridge.

00:22:57	Question about strikes during Union construction. Activities housed in Union. Highlights of Union: Great Hall and its ceiling.  Disappointments: Lounge unattractive, fake Renaissance style of building, pompous stairway.

00:26:43	Women’s room not popular whatsoever. 

00:27:31	Union terrace, not developed much in the first stages of the Union.  Hoofers.

00:29:04	Knew of William Ellery Leonard as an eccentric.  He had the best national reputation. 

00:30:33	Neil Dodge.

00:31:09	Dean Roe taught General Survey to sophomore class and the romantic movement.  Strong admirer of Wordsworth

00:31:58	Had Sonny Pyre in versification; Paul Fulcher in composition class.

00:32:51	Professor Taylor was head of freshman program where a student could test out of the second part of his course.

00:33:44	JSE thought she received a satisfactory English education at the UW.  In other departments she enjoyed Professor E.B. McGilvary of philosophy.

00:35:20	Professor Carl Stevenson of history was the best lecturer.

00:35:35	Skyrockets often given Kiekhofer in economics. Question about initiation ceremonies for women freshmen. 

00:38:01	Speakeasies during prohibition.

00:39:22	Delta Gamma was JSE's sorority house on Langdon and Carroll. Housemothers made girls obey curfew and other rules.

00:40:29	Sororities were not as socially conscious as they are now. 

00:42:49	Membership as Junior Phi Bet. 

00:45:00	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:45:03	Glenn Frank was not in tune with faculty needs.  He was also a poor speaker who was never punctual.

00:47:41	Frank was a career man, always hopping from job to job; looking for personal growth rather than dedicating himself to the good of the University.

00:48:52	Dean Sellery was brilliant, sharp-witted, and a voice of the scholars, whereas Frank was the voice of the managerial persons.

00:49:57	Association with Dean of Women Louise Nardin.  

00:54:08	Susan B. Davis and Zoe Bayliss were assistant deans of freshman women.

00:55:14	Experimental College had ratio of five students to one professor.  The students were very serious, with many coming from out east and several from Wisconsin.  Generally they kept to themselves, not mingling with the rest of campus.

00:58:40	Reputation of Daily Cardinal.

00:59:13	The only discrimination JSE remembers were those dealing with the Union restrictions.  

01:00:41	Very few blacks and foreigners.

01:01:27	Presence of anti-Semitism.

01:04:17	Her father. 1901 State Historical Society was built and the library moved there.

01:05:52	JSE discusses community involvement and memberships.

01:07:11	She wrote a history of the library for the library board.  .

01:10:10	Question about performances in Memorial Union. First art galleries in Union

01:12:08	Effects of depression on UW and faculty.

01:13:40	Women not allowed to join Experimental College, which opened in 1928.

01:15:24	Membership in Alumni Union Council 1953-57.

01:18:01	Membership in Memorial Union Building Association. Early 1970s student unrest.  The chief purpose of a committee appointed by the Trustee was to hear financial reports; this group also tried to find ways to deflect this anger on campus.

01:20:07	End of interview.

END