University of Wisconsin–Madison

Category: History

Pictures of our past

For a long time, there was that box of photos tucked away in one of the administrative offices. Then it got shuffled when we moved around offices, and it got put into that long dark storage where we put things we don’t know what to do with. But then, we found it. And we decided …

The computing history you didn’t know about

In 1952, Fred Gruenberger, a supervisor in the Math Department computing lab(!),  published the “Computing Manual” through University of Wisconsin Press.  It was the first documents to show how computers could be used to do math and was used to teach students how to use IBM systems.  This picture, from https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/QJKGRFVXRPDUL9A, is undated, but it …

John B. Parkinson, Professor from 1867-1872, participated in the California Gold Rush

One of the first professors in the Math Department was, in his youth, one of the many Americans lured to the wild west of California during the Gold Rush.  This article, from 1922, has Professor Parkinson recounting his adventures, but “in the spring of 1855, Professor Parkinson resolutely turned his mind from the thought of …