Milwaukee-Downer College

TIME AND TRADITIONS: 1910s


1910 More light

"Sit lux"-let there be light-becomes the college motto.

1910 A partridge in a pear tree

Professor Emily Brown finds a score of an arrangement of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" by Frederick Austin in a little bookstore in Oxford, England. It is performed at a trustee dinner in December 1910, its debut in the United States.

1912 Before the vote

An Equal Suffrage League is established at Milwaukee-Downer, which, in 1921, gives way to the League of Women Voters. The organization sponsors debates and organizes the campus for political campaigns and mock elections, regularly electing Republican candidates even when the nation goes Democratic.

1914 World War I

Downer students support the war effort by presenting a flag to Troop A of the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry as it sets off for France, supplying baked bread and volunteering to the Red Cross. Professor Amelie Serafon is decorated by the French government for services during the war. She goes on to direct an atelier for relief work.


1914 Colors Day

Milwaukee-Downer's first Color Day is marked by the transfer of a red, green, yellow, or purple banner to the incoming freshman class. These colors provide a means through which class identity is achieved and link Downer women of all generations.


May Day Fete, May 22, 1914


1915 Blue Blazer Girl

Classmates reward a senior for her participation in athletics, including team sports, throughout her M-D career by voting her the "Blue Blazer Girl."

1918 Model O.T.

The Department of Occupational Therapy opens in response to a call from the Surgeon General of the United States for trained reconstruction aides. The first degree course in the country, Downer's O.T. curriculum is used as a model by the American Medical Association in setting the standards for acceptable O.T. departments throughout the nation.



On to the 1920s

Lawrence in the 1910s

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