WISCONSIN MAGAZINE o/HISTORY m 5*——' " OB IT Published Quarterly by the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN June 1949 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE of HISTORY CLIFFORD L. LORD, Editor LILLIAN KRUEGER, Managing Editor C 0 NT E NTS Chats with the Editor Clifford Lord 385 The Original Typewriter Enter- prise, 1867-1873 Richard N. Current 391 Wisconsin's Flowering Wilderness Lillian Krueger 408 Rufus King and the Wisconsin Constitution Perry C. Hill 416 Historic Sites in Our State Park Program Raymond S. Sivesind 436 Zebulon Montgomery Pike's Mississippi Voyage, 1805-1806 W. E. Hollon 445 DOCUMENTS: Silas J. Seymour Letters (III) 456 COMMUNICATION R. N. Hamilton, SJ. 472 BOOK NOTES 474 THE SOCIETY AND THE STATE 498 The WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published quarterly by the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN, 816 State Street, Madison, 6. Distributed to members as part of their dues (Annual Membership, $3.00; Life, $50). Yearly subscription, $3.00; single number, 75 cents. Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Madison, Wis- consin, under the act of August 24, 1912. Copyright 1949 by the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN. Paid for by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. THE COVER ATOP " THE HILL," among century-old elms and within nodding dis- tance of Lake Mendota, stands BASCOM HALL, its stone walls pitted and patinated. Bascom, once known as " Main " and later as " University Hall," is one of the oldest buildings on the University of Wisconsin Campus. The rambling structure faces down the elm-vistaed " Hill" and milelong State Street, at the end of which is situated the magnificent State Capitol and Madison's busy Square. Bascom's existence was en- dangered in 1916 when its dome was completely destroyed by fire. It continues to house the offices of the President, of some of the faculty, and a group of classrooms. In recognition of the University's centennial year, venerable Bascom Hall is pictured on the cover. " Chats with the Editor" contains information relating to the Centennial. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE of HISTORY ^S^ Volume 32 June 1949 Number 4 Chats with the Editor A S THIS ISSUE goes to press, the observance of the one hundredth i-k birthday of our State University comes to its official close. JL JL Opened February 5, 1849, in the old Female Academy of Madison, with twenty-odd students preparing for collegiate studies, . the institution has fulfilled the most sanguine dreams UntversttyrT . , i • i 1 ^ . or its rounders and has taken its place among the Centennial . , , ,. ... r , . , , . T nations leading institutions or higher learning. It stands today, in the words of its centennial slogan, " Rooted in the past, serving the present, forming the future." The year has been a memorable one for the University com- munity and for its friends all over the State. The National Edu- cational Conference on "Higher Education in America," attended by leading educators from all over the nation, appropriately opened a year of rich and varied features. The Curti and Carstensen Cen- tennial history of the University has made a notable contribution to our understanding of the evolution of higher education in this country. A number of learned societies, including anatomists, agronomists, physicists, chemical engineers, mathematicians, geo- graphers, historians, ornithologists, business educators, political scientists, and the National Society of Phi Beta Kappa, have met or are still to meet at Madison in honor of the University's Cen- tennial. Fourteen symposia have been held and two more are scheduled, devoted to such subjects as the burning of pulverized coal and the generation and utilization of high pressure steam, the frontiers of housing, steroid hormones, combustion flame and 385 386 CHATS WITH THE EDITOR [June explosion phenomena, the humanities in American society, signifi- cant history, labor-management relations, science and civilization, co-curricular activities on the college campus, American regionalism, the inter-relation of law and the American economy, labor rela- tions and social security, organic chemistry, the conservation of Wisconsin's natural resources, education, and plant growth sub- stances. Special art exhibits included a survey of art techniques, the State centennial exhibition of contemporary Wisconsin art, decorative art in Wisconsin, the annual student art show, the annual rural art show, the work of the new artist-in-residence, Aaron Bohrod, and the University's own art collection, climaxed by the great show of old masterpieces from the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art. Concerts by the New York Philharmonic with Leopold Stokowski conducting, Fritz Kreisler, Florence Quartararo, Todd Duncan, Gregor Piatigorsky, Vladimir Horowitz, and Burl Ives have brought an unusually rich offering to the campus in the field of music. The theater program has been featured by the world-premier performance of " I Know My Love " starring the Lunts, Margaret Webster's productions of "Hamlet" and "Mac- beth," and "Man and Superman" with Maurice Evans. The Founders Day Banquet and the Centennial Dinner were outstand- ing events, and special exhibits, including those on the history of the University prepared by the Society, have enriched the campus year. , : • j ,. j •• A centennial is always a good time for the taking of stock, and there is ample cause indeed, despite ever-present budget difficulties and building problems, for the people of Wisconsin and the leaders of the University to take satisfaction at the progress of the University in its first century. The character and richness of the centennial observance has made the centennial year 1948-49 par- ticularly memorable in the University's history, and should be a source of genuine gratification to Professor William H. Kiekhofer whose successful labors as chairman of the Centennial Committee have climaxed his years of devoted service to the University of his native State. 1949] CHATS WITH THE EDITOR 387 THE SOCIETY will meet this fall on the Lawrence College Campus at Appleton, September 9-11. Two dormitories will be turned over to the Society for living quarters. College dining facilities will serve the meals. Meetings will be in the . Conservatory of Music and the famous and beauti- ful memorial chapel. With a campus which fronts on the main street of modern Appleton and backs on the historic Fox River, Lawrence College, which like the Society is older than the State, offers most attractive facilities for our meeting. An exceptionally strong program is being arranged, and everything points to a notable meeting. Tennis courts and the college pool will be available for the more athletically minded. Walks about the lovely campus on both sides of the river will attract others. Vacations will be over. The September dates hold the probability of avoiding the extreme heat which marked our Manitowoc meet- ing two years ago. Be sure to mark the dates now: September 9—11. ONE OF THE important provisions effecting historical work in the State enacted so far by the 1949 Legislature permits the estab- lishment of local or regional depositories for the preservation of count Jy and local records. It expands the legal powers Local , . t t , . , . HI p i of county and local historical societies to enable them to accept custody of such records. It authorizes school, village, town, municipality, city, and county officers to offer, and the State through this Society to accept for preservation title to such non-current records as in the Society's judgment are of permanent historical value and are no longer needed for adminis- trative purposes. It is then mandatory upon this Society, wherever possible, to place such records in the custody of a proper local depository. This depository may be the local historical society, the county historian, a public library, public museum, "or similar agency or institution in the area of origin." Title is placed in the Society simply to insure continuity of responsibility for records of permanent historical value against the demise of a local his- torical society, the abolition of the office of a county historian, 388 CHATS WITH THE EDITOR [June or the closing of some library or museum in whose hands such records had been placed. It was made clear by the Society from the outset that the whole intent was to keep the records available and safe in the area to which they were of most interest. We wish to see those records of permanent interest preserved. We wish to see them preserved locally. We wanted legislation to permit the establishment of a records preservation system on the county and local level to match that which we established two years ago on the State level. Now we have it. There is nothing mandatory about the act. It is purely per- missive. This leaves a heavy responsibility on those interested in history at the local level to see that valuable records are not de- stroyed but are made available to a local depository under the provisions of this act. All too frequently the demands for addi- tional filing space cause house-cleanings in governmental offices. All too frequently in such cases the wheat is discarded with the chaff. Now, working with local societies and other depositories, and with local officials, we may hope to see such records pre- served in the hands of interested local groups. The previously existing legal obstacles to this procedure have been cleared away. Local vigilance to see that valuable records are not destroyed, local responsibility to see that they are cared for in local depositories after their usefulness to local officials is terminated are the keys to the success of this program. REVAMPING THE LAW to fit contemporary conditions, the 1949 Legislature has also designated the Society as the State's public documents depository and exchange agent.