#wihistory

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The Artist Who Was too Controversial for the Justice Department - And his Arrival to Madison

John Steuart Curry was born in Dunavant, Kansas in November 14, 1897. He has several famous paintings and is now known as one of the most influential American Regionalist artists. He became the nation’s first artist in residence at the University of Wisconsin Madison from 1936 to 1946. Also in 1936, Curry was commissioned to paint a mural for the Department of Justice. However, his concept was deemed too controversial for the government building. So, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law school Dean at the time, Lloyd K. Garrison (who also happened to be the grandson of famous abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison) helped bring Curry’s vision to the University Law School. Curry completed Freeing of the Slaves in 1942 during residency at Madison. The mural stands in the Law School to this day. 

(Image title: “John Steuart Curry and Wife,” circa 1941, local identifier S13688)

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50 Years Ago: APA Removes "Homosexuality" From DSM Diagnoses

Written by Bailey Watson, LGBTQ+ Archive Student Processing Assistant

12/18/2023

December 15, 1973 - By a vote of 5,854 to 3,810, the American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in the DSM-II Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Content advisory: This post discusses the history of homosexuality in Western psychiatry and may contain offensive language or topics.

Last Thursday marked 50 years since the APA (American Psychiatric Association) removed “homosexuality” from its list of mental disorders. This change was made to the DSM-II Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the current edition as of 2023 is the DSM-5-TR). The long history of homosexuality being included with physical and mental disorders dates back to the 19th century with Western European theorists working towards an understanding of same-sex attraction, leading to the coinage of the term “homosexuality” or “homosexual.” While these early theories positioned same-sex attraction or desires as unnatural, other theorists of the same decades aimed to prove that homosexuality was not abnormal but instead a natural variance of human sexuality.

Photo Dr. Franklin Kameny from David Carter papers, Collection no. uac 183,  Box 5, Folder 49. 

The conversation around homosexuality as a disorder took a turn during the post-WWII period in the United States, during a phenomenon referred to as the “lavender scare.” This period, parallel to the “red scare” was a reaction to the Cold War policies and politics, resulting in the massive purge of homosexuals or suspected homosexuals from the federal government, and even further down to local governments (see here for information on UW-Madison’s history with the gay purges). Similarly, communists and suspected communists were also barred or purged from public service and government-contracted sectors. 

In response to these purges, the early gay rights movement, then known as the homophile movement focused on organizing and protesting the conditions that made up the lavender scare. These conditions included the DSM’s classification of homosexuality as a diagnosable disorder. To the early homophile movement, as to some early theorists, homosexuality was perfectly natural, and therefore they could not pose a threat to national security. 

One aspect of activism from this period was addressing the DSM's use of homosexuality as a diagnosable disorder. The homophile movement argued that sexuality had no bearing on mental health, and by stigmatizing the gay community, the DSM and APA were adding to the problem. Furthermore, by diagnosing people as "homosexual" the APA created a way to dismiss those voices and placed a barrier on the conversation on who was fit to participate in society freely and who was not.

Finally, in 1973 after years of protest and activism, the influence of activism, including the voice of Dr. Franklin Kameny (pictured above) and internal changes led to a new definition of mental disorder within the APA and thus removed homosexuality from diagnoses. A win for the homophile movement and a change that brought lasting and positive impacts to many people's lives, even 50 years later.

References and for further consideration:

Drescher, Jack. 2015. "Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality" Behavioral Sciences 5, no. 4: 565-575. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs5040565 (open access)

For more on Kameny and the early homophile movement, explore the David Carter papers, uac 182, located in the Madison LGBTQ+ Archive (housed at the University Archives, Steenbock Library)

Research Guides: LGBTQIA+ Studies: A Resource Guide: Before Stonewall: The Homophile Movement

The collections of the Library of Congress tell the rich and diverse story of LGBTQ+ life in America and around the world. This research gui

How LGBTQ+ Activists Got “Homosexuality” out of the DSM - JSTOR Daily

The first DSM, created in 1952, established a hierarchy of sexual deviancies, vaulting heterosexual behavior to an idealized place in Americ

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UPDATED. Deadline to apply is January 8 📣📣

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WORT (89.9 FM) Queery Segment

Tonight (11/8/2023) from 7-7:30pm, WORT (89.9 FM) will be hosting Katie Nash and Scott Seyforth from Madison's LGBTQ+ archive on their Queery radio program! They are very excited to share their knowledge and promote the archive. If you or someone you know would be interested in learning more about WORT's Queery show or would like to listen to past shows, more can be found here. You can tune in on your radio, or on WORT's website under "Listen Live."

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The UW Band Tours the West in the Summer of 1915

From February 20-December 4, 1915, San Francisco played host to the Panama Pacific International Exposition, held to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, officially opened on August 15, 1914, and to commemorate Vasco Núñez de Balboa’s crossing of the Panama isthmus to the Pacific Ocean in 1513.   

President William Howard Taft chose San Francisco as the site of the exposition in 1911, and the fair would help spur the recovery from the 1906 earthquake and showcase the Bay Area.

The Panama Pacific International Exposition at night. UW-Madison Archives image #S16442.

As early as December of 1912, the Wisconsin Alumni Association for Northern California passed resolutions asking the State of Wisconsin and the University to plan for a building and exhibits at the upcoming exposition.  Governor McGovern responded that a bill was being prepared, and the legislature ended up appropriating $75,000 for the exposition, including $15,000 for the building.

The site for the building was dedicated in October, 1913, and the Wisconsin building itself was dedicated on March 8, 1915.

Wisconsin Building at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.

By 1914 the University First Regimental Band was planning for a western tour in 1915, to include the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, the competing Panama California Exposition in San Diego, and stops in many other towns in the West.    

The band was to be “made up from fifty to sixty men, chosen from the hundred or more regular men taking band work for credit” plus some faculty members and alumni. The tour was purposely planned for the summer “in order not to interfere with the scholastic duties of the members.” At that time, the band was a part of the military department on campus.  

UW Band tour emblem. UW-Madison Archives image #S16438.

With help and encouragement from Charles “Charlie” Mann, the band and orchestra conductor from 1908-1916, the tour was mostly arranged by Jesse E. Saugstad.   Saugstad conducted the band on the tour and he would take over as director of the band when Mann left to pursue his other interest, chemical engineering.  

Band tour commemorative ribbon and program. UW-Madison Archives images #S16437 and #040502as006.

Between June 16 and July 31, the First Regimental Band played in 20 western cities and for a week at the Panama Pacific Exposition.   Due to “difficulties which arose at a late hour” the band was unable to play in San Diego, although the band did travel to the city.  

Expenses noted by Saugstad in his letter to the Regents asking for support, included two special sleeper cars for 30 days at $50 per day plus $30 per day for dining service.   The band had also spend $650 for an extensive advertising campaign.  

UW Band tour train, trip itinerary and performance in Lewiston, Montana. UW-Madison Archives images #S16443, #S16444 and #S16441.

Monday, July 26, 1915 was the “University of Wisconsin Day” at the exposition.  The regimental band led a march from the entrance of the exposition to the Wisconsin building, on the Avenue of the States.  Later in the evening there was a reception and a dance, all in all “a splendid success.”

Wisconsin Day venue and band posed at Exposition entrance. UW-Madison Archives images #S06257 and #040502as007.

 In the Alumni Magazine for November 1915, the band reported having the “unusual satisfaction of being able to state that the success of the tour was far beyond our expectations, and that we feel amply repaid for the efforts put forth in making the tour possible.”

The trip, which was meant to be self-sustaining, cost $11,000, with the members raising $3000, the Board of Regents giving $1900 for the band to play at the Wisconsin building at the exposition for a week, and concert receipts totaling nearly $6000.  

The UW-Madison Archives houses several photo albums and scrapbooks documenting the Western trip of the band in 1915.   Band members held regular reunions into the 1970s, and the archives also has a great deal of information on the reunions.  

Band members from the 1915 trip reunite in 1955. UW-Madison Archives image #S16436.

By David Null for the University Archives. 

For more information about this event or UW campus history in general, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!

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Wisconsin Free Library Commission, Free traveling libraries in Wisconsin: the story of their growth, purposes, and development, with accounts of a few kindred movements, 1897.

via: Turning Points in Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Historical Society

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Observatory Hill to Lake Mendota in nine seconds? That's one way to beat the long, cold winter days on campus. Thrilling!

UW Tobogan Run, c. 1911. Launch site located (approximately) between the current site of Washburn Observatory (R) and the La Follette School for Public Affairs building (L).

Image #S07723 and #S07722.

For more information about UW-Madison campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!

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Homecoming queen candidates of 1974, St. Norbert College, De Pere, Wisconsin.

via: St. Norbert College in Photos