TIME AND TRADTIONS: 1950s

Regatta on the Milwaukee River, 1959

1950 Traditional toss

Following the nautical custom, the winning Downer crew tosses its coxswain into the Milwaukee River.

1951 Immortal Ichabod

Alumnae visiting the college on its 100th anniversary find that some things never change. Ichabod, a human skeleton, graces the science laboratory - as he has since 1893.

1957 Expanded college

Plans to expand Milwaukee-Downer College into a predominantly residential college of some 500 or more students are announced by President John B. Johnson. The college intends to become "a real competitor of the best eastern girls' colleges." Enrollment at M-D, like other Midwest women's colleges, has declined in recent years.

The Flanders Clock in Merrill Hall becomes a traditional meeting place.	Downer students stage a play about women's sufferage, 1960.

1958 Crusading carolers

A 54-voice choral group of Milwaukee-Downer students joins hundreds of choristers from other Wisconsin colleges, including Lawrence, in a tour of northern Wisconsin towns during the winter break between semesters. These songsters, also referred to as jongleurs, take their cue from medieval troubadours, who, seven centuries ago, drifted from castle to castle, bringing news and song to brighten the long, lonely winter season.