TIME AND TRADITIONS: 1930s

1930s Christmas capers

Milwaukee-Downer's cherished Christmas celebrations gain national exposure late in the decade when "The Christian Science Monitor" devotes a full page to the college's festivities. Noting that students, faculty, and alumnae take part, the newspaper Miss Emily Brown's "Holy Day" festival which includes the Elizabethan Revels, a Dickens play, and a sacred play telling the story of Christmas.

1938 The Teakwood Room

Chapman Memorial Library, bequeathed to the college by Alice Chapman, is dedicated. It includes an exquisite teakwood room from India, which had been in the Chapman home. The room includes hand-carved wall panels, arches, pillars, tables, and chairs, and had to be fumigated before it was shipped to the U.S. because of a plague that had broken out in India. It now can be found in Lawrence's Jason Downer Commons.

Chapman Memorial Library was graced with The Teakwood Room (left) as well as The Oak Room (right).

On to the 1940s