Of the approximately 900 colleges founded in the United States before the Civil War, fewer than 200 exist today. Lawrence University, one might say, represents three of those surviving institutions, having been formed in 1964 by the consolidation of Lawrence College (1847) and Milwaukee-Downer College, itself the result of the 1895 merger of Milwaukee Female College (1851) and Downer College (founded as Wisconsin Female College in 1855).
Milwaukee-Downer College was a pioneering institution for women's education, continuing Milwaukee Female College's close association with pioneering educator Catharine Beecher. In 1889, Wisconsin Female College changed its name to Downer College, in honor of Judge Jason Downer, associate justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, its trustee and benefactor. Two strong presidents led Milwaukee-Downer through most of its history: Ellen Clara Sabin from 1895 to 1921, and Lucia Briggs from 1921 to 1951.
In 1964, Downer's 43-acre eastside Milwaukee campus was sold to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and 49 female students and 21 faculty members transferred to Lawrence. Forty-four of the original 49 Milwaukee-Downer students eventually earned bachelor's degrees from Lawrence, and 11 of the faculty members remained at Lawrence until retirement. Today Lawrence counts more than 1,600 living Milwaukee-Downer graduates among its alumnae.
Several items of historical and sentimental value from Milwaukee-Downer have been transplanted to Lawrence's Appleton campus, including the sundial from Merrill Hall, which was moved to the south side of Main Hall by the Milwaukee-Downer Class of 1932, and the Teakwood Room from Chapman Memorial Library on the Downer campus, which was dismantled piece-by-piece and reassembled in Jason Downer Commons, a dining facility at Lawrence. The Chapman Library's rare book collection, along with other items of M-DC memorabilia, is housed in the Milwaukee-Downer Room of the Seeley G. Mudd Library, dedicated during Sesquicentennial activities in the fall of 2001. A beloved grove of Hawthorn trees, known as Hawthornden, has been recreated in Appleton, near Colman Hall. And Lucia R. Briggs Hall, named for the second president of Milwaukee-Downer College, was dedicated in 1997 as the home of Lawrence's mathematics and social science departments.
