Madison Metropolitan School District Scrapbooks-Dane County Historical Society

Dane County Historical Society
Otto Schroeder Records Center
3101 Lake Farm Road
Madison, WI 53711
608-224-3605
dchs@danecountyhistory.org
http://www.danecountyhistory.org

Located in the Lussier Family Heritage Center, the Otto Schroeder Records Center is home to the Dane County Historical Society library and archives collection. It includes historical documentation of the people, places, businesses, and organizations with ties to Dane County, including: books, periodicals, maps, photographs, diaries, scrapbooks, organizational records and other publications.

Madison Metropolitan School District Scrapbooks

Madison built three new schools in 1939! The history and immense growth of the Madison Metropolitan School District throughout much of the 20th century is documented in a large collection of scrapbooks that were maintained by the district. The new schools built in that single year were Washington School at 545 W. Dayton Street, Marquette School at 510 S. Thornton Avenue and Lapham School at 1045 E. Dayton Street. All three school buildings are still standing and are still in use by the school district.

The larger Madison Metropolitan School District Records collection held by the Otto Schroeder Records Center of the Dane County Historical Society consists of minutes, annual reports, curriculum studies and other assorted records and publications from 1928 through the 1960s.
Included as a part of this total collection are eighteen scrapbooks of news clippings covering events from 1871 to 1972 and five scrapbooks of photographs. Most of the scrapbooks contain clippings about the district from the “Wisconsin State Journal” and “Capital Times” newspapers. One scrapbook was created by a class at the Longfellow School for Crippled Children.

The scrapbooks containing the photographs are organized with each photo numbered and identified as to the school depicted. The Madison school buildings documented in the photo scrapbooks include Washington, Lapham, Marquette, Emerson, Franklin, Longfellow and West.
The photographs appear to be copies of items used in the annual report booklets and for other public uses such as newspaper articles and publications. Some of the photos carry “crop marks” indicating they were cropped for use in other materials. The photographs are not dated, and the children in the photographs are not identified, but as a whole they document every aspect of school life from every grade level during the 1940s: classroom activities, gym class, art class, home economics class, theater presentations, library activities, sporting events, etc. Some of the photos depict activities and services at the Longfellow School for Crippled Children.

Entry compiled by Tara Genske.

Images courtesy of Mary Hark.