Lawrence's sesquicentennial provides an apt and obvious occasion to reissue one of the college's most spirited and engaging publications, Time and Traditions, first published in 1988. Though Charles Breunig has told the Lawrence story in full detail in A Great and Good Work (1995), this piece contains important (and not-so-important) highlights of our 150 years, both at Lawrence and at Milwaukee-Downer. I hope readers will relish these moments of our past.

While Lawrence is noted as one of the hundred or more national selective liberal arts colleges, and thus is grouped with its peers around the country in various college guides and the like, the fact is that Lawrence is, by virtue of its history and traditions, a universe of one. Actually, on might say that Lawrence is a universe of three, since the consolidation in 1964 brought with it the traditions of Milwaukee and Downer colleges (which themselves merged in 1894). Hence, we not only claim to be one of the first colleges established in the United States on a coeducational basis, but we also can include the tradition of women's education in our collective past.

The times and traditions that portray Lawrence's history are worth remembering and celebrating, to be sure, but the mission and purpose of Lawrence's present are also worth promoting. In recalling the past that produced our present, then, I hope this little publication will provoke in its readers an appreciation for those individuals and incidents that have shaped the Lawrence we know and value today.