Wisconsin Magazine of History

(ISSN 0043-6534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 62, No. 2 • Winter, 1978-1979 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN RICHARD A. ERNEY, Director Officers WILLIAM HUFFMAN, President F. HARWOOD ORBISON, Treasurer JOHN C. GFILFUSS, First Vice-President RICHARD A. ERNEY, Secretary ROGER E. AXTELL, Second Vice-President THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN is both a state agency and a private member organization. Founded in 1846—two years before statehood—and char tered in 1853, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public funding. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and dissemi nating knowledge of Wisconsin and of the trans-Mississippi West. The Society serves as the archive of the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic ma terials as they relate to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and re search facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of historic sites, school services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; and it publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular. MEMBERSHIP in the Society is open to the public. Annual membership is $10, or $7.50 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Family membership is $12.50, or $10 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Contribu ting membership is $25; business and professional, $50; sustaining, $100 or more annually; patron, $500 or more annually. THE SOCIETY is governed by a Board of Curators which includes, ex officio, the Governor, the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, the President of the Uni versity of Wisconsin, and the President of the Society's Auxiliary. The other thirty-six members of the Board of Curators are elected by the membership. A complete listing of the Curators appears inside the back cover. The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, at the juncture of State and Park streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. A partial listing of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows: General administration 262-3266 Library circulation desk 262-3421 General information 262-3271 Maps 262-9558 Affiliated local societies 262-2316 Membership 262-9613 Archives reading room 262-3338 Microforms reading room 262-9621 Contribution of library materials and Museum exhibits and services 262-2704 artifacts 262-0629 Museum tours 262-9567 Editorial offices 262-9603 Newspapers reference 262-9584 Film collections 262-0585 Picture and sound collections 262-9581 Genealogical and general reference Publications orders 262-9613 inquiries 262-9590 Public information office 262-9606 Government publications and reference 262-2781 Sales desk 262-3271 Historic preservation 262-1339 School services 262-9567 Historic sites 262-3271 Speakers bureau 262-3266 ON THE COVER: Glenn Frank, tenth president of the University of Wisconsin, laying the corner stone of the Memorial Union on Langdon Street, May $0, 1927. [University of Wisconsin Archives] Volume 62, Number 2 / Winter, 1978-1979 ^^KTEHISTo^ Isbst WISCONSIN SCO MAGAZINE OF > OF WIS*^ HISTORY (ISSN 0043-6534) Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed to members as part of their dues. (Annual member ship, .flO, or 17.50 for those Glenn Frank of the University of Wisconsin: over 65 or members of affiliated societies; family membership, A Reinterpretation 91 tl2.50, or 110 for those over 65 or members of affiliated societies; Steven D. Zink contributing, |25; business and professional, .|50; sustaining, $100 or more annually; patron, A German Farmer Views Wisconsin, 1851-1863 128 S500 or more annually.) Single Edited by Hartmut Keil numbers from Volume 57 forward are $2. Microfilmed copies available through University Microfilms, 300 Book Reviews 144 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106; reprints of Book Review Index 161 Volumes 1 through 20 and most issues of Volumes 21 through Wisconsin History Checklist 162 56 are available from Kraus Reprint Company, Route 100, Millwood, New York 10546. Accessions 165 Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Proceedings of the One Hundred and Thirty-second Society does not assume Annual Meeting of the State Historical Society 168 responsibility for statements made by contributors. Second- class postage paid at Contributors 176 Madison, Wisconsin, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wisconsin Magazine of History, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Copyright © 1979 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. PAUL H. HASS EDITOR WILLIAM C. MARTEN ASSOCIATE EDITOR JOHN O. HOLZHUETER ASSISTANT EDITOR WHi (D487) 9303 Lower campus of the University of Wisconsin, April, 1927, looking westward towards Bascom Hill from the State Historical Society building at the juncture of State and Park streets. 90 Glenn Frank of the University of Wisconsin: A Reinterpretation By Steven D. Zink LENN FRANK, president of the Frank was adept at his new job. His literary GUniversit y of Wisconsin from skills won him a readership; his dynamic per 1925 to 1937, is not a prominent name on the sonality, eloquence, and friendly disposition Madison campus today. While the names of won him a personal following. In a matter of such University presidents as John Bascom a few years he had emerged as a prominent and Charles R. Van Hise are commemorated liberal spokesman of national standing. by buildings, Frank is remembered, if at all, Although Glenn Frank had widespread in for his dramatic exit from office. By the stan terests, he often wrote and spoke of his deep dards of the 1970's (and only to a lesser extent veneration for scholarship and the university. those of the 1920's), Glenn Frank was an un He emphasized the fundamental importance likely person to become head of one of the of the university to American society and its nation's most prominent state universities. crucial role in preserving the "democratic ex He was not an academician, but rather a periment." To secure maximum benefits from journalist and publicist hired by a board of the nation's universities, Frank advocated that regents whose chief interest lay in refurbish they form a close working relationship with ing the University's languishing reputation. government. In many ways his ideas were And in the conducive atmosphere of the 1920's, reminiscent of the vibrant "Wisconsin Idea" Frank succeeded amazingly well. By the 1930's, of two decades earlier, but Frank proposed a however, a changing political and economic higher status for the university than that of climate, accompanied by an altered concep mere servant to the state. He idealized the uni tion of the role of a university president, over versity as an equal partner which should fur rode Frank's earlier achievements and nish the state with uncompromising "pure brought his administration to an abrupt and thought." To Frank, the full-scale regenera- unseemly end. A native of small-town Missouri, Glenn Frank held only a bachelor's degree, earned AuTHOR's NOTE: One problem common to biography at Northwestern University in 1912. After as a literary genre is that biographers frequently ex amine a subject's personality and life at the expense graduation he remained at Northwestern as of related personalities and events. Often a shift away an alumni secretary until 1916, when he ac from the biographical focus to a broader plain of cepted a position as private secretary to the analysis produces a balancing effect. Examined in such Boston merchant-philanthropist Edward Fi- a maimer, Glenn Frank's personality and ambitions lene. In 1919 he, his wife, and their young emerge as less stark than they have been previously portrayed, and the roles of contemporary personalities son moved to New York, where in three years' and events take on larger significance. A historiograph- time he became editor of Century Magazine. ical note appears at the end of this article. Copyright © 1979 by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin All rights of reproduction in any form reserved 91 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1978-1979 tion of modern politics, government, and so Status of the University of Wisconsin across ciety demanded such an intimate relationship.' both state and nation. The regents sought a When, early in 1924, University of Wiscon president who could revive at least the rhetoric sin President Edward A. Birge informed the once engendered by the Wisconsin Idea. Cer board of regents of his willingness to retire, tainly, the board members required a record several persons mentioned Frank as a possible of accomplishment from their proposed ap successor. From June, 1924, to the following pointee; but, just as importantly, they wanted January, the board evaluated several candi a man of action who could rescue the Uni dates for the position, finally agreeing upon versity from the doldrums induced by the Dean Roscoe Pound of the Harvard Law World War and the conservative Birge ad School. The press printed word of the regents' ministration. Glenn Frank, thirty-eight years selection and took for granted Pound's accept old, was the epitome of action and flair. He ance. To the regents' dismay. Pound abruptly could capture the imagination of Wisconsin's turned down the offer. From January until citizens.' Regent Michael Olbrich expressed May, 1925, the humiliated regents discontin the board's enthusiasm for associating the Uni ued their search and directed their attention versity with such a man. Said Olbrich: "This toward budget matters. As the spring semester man is not merely university presidential tim drew to a close, the board members grew ber.

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