Story by Vicki Tobias
University Archives
Happy Birthday Edward Asahel Birge!
Birge was born September 7th in Troy, New York 160 years ago.
My fascination with this campus legend has grown since I first encountered a photo of Professor Birge balancing precariously on a fencepost while conducting an experiment.
With my curiosity sufficiently piqued, I set out to learn more about this "mad" university scientist who seemed to defy gravity in pursuit of knowledge.
The central facts of Birge's life and contributions to the University of Wisconsin are easily discovered through a review of campus histories or even a quick look at Wikipedia.
We remember Birge as a much beloved Zoology professor, pioneer Limnologist, and respected Dean and university administrator in the College of Letters & Science.
Birge Hall is named after him.
I'd like to share a few favorite and perhaps lesser known impressions of Birge gleaned from a memoir written by his longtime friend and UW colleague, George Clark Sellery.
In his thoughtful and detailed work, E.A. Birge: A Memoir (UW Press, 1956), students and colleagues who knew and worked closely with Birge provide exceptional insight into his character, ideology, teaching methodology, and love of learning.
Birge introduced innovative tools to UW faculty and students. In the early 1880s, he returned from a year in Leipzig, Germany with a small instrument that allowed scientists to cut extremely thin sections of specimens to view on microscope slides, a practice previously unavailable on campus.
The practice grew into a popular new course in microscopic anatomy, and as a result, "Birge's Boys" were highly coveted and quickly recruited by medical schools around the country for their innovative knowledge and training. Many became international leaders in science and medicine.
UW Dean Harry L. Russel (B.S., '88) was one student who benefited from this new curriculum. He remembers Birge as "the best teacher I ever had...fresh from the laboratories of Germany, fired with enthusiasm which his keen analytical mind brought to the consideration of every subject he taught."
In the classroom, Birge set high standards for all students.
Leila Bascom (L.S., '02), daughter of UW Professor and administrator John Bascom, recalled Birge as "patient and understanding with any student who misunderstood or fumbled a bit...but woe to the bluffer, who was named such in no uncertain terms."
May Foster (B.L., '94) shared a similar memory: Birge's students had to be "on constant alert or it was just too bad...there was no guessing or stabbing about...we either knew the answer or sat down promptly."
Birge had what he described as a "glutinous memory." He was an avid reader, and lectured on a variety of subjects at both the Madison Literary and Town and Gown clubs, revealing an intellectual curiousity far beyond his academic specialty.
Birge was a charter member of both clubs, and was renowned for his "verbal felicity and wit," as well his easy rapport with an audience.
These traits allowed for rich debate on controversial subjects such as war or Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species. Birge was equally at ease reporting on the works of Christopher Marlowe and George Eliot.
In 1925, UW Professor German A.R. Hohlfeld paid tribute to "Birge, the Humanist" at a jubilee banquet honoring his service, stating "the range and accuracy and vitality of his knowledge and appreciation in this field at times have shamed some of us who draw our pay as the official keepers of the garden of literature."
In July of 1956, College of Letters & Science Dean Mark Ingraham reviewed George Sellery's memoir for the Wisconsin State Journal.
Ingraham reflected on Birge's philosophy and approach to education, maintaining "what Birge defended was worth the defense: freedom of the intellect; literary values in an age of science; the use of the wide natural philosophy as a background for the effectiveness of the specialist; the interests of the university against the selfish exploitation of the individual; the importance of time - for he was jealous of his allotment of a mere century."
It is no surprise that Birge actively participated in campus and intellectual activities until his death in 1950, just a few months shy of his 100th birthday.
Ingraham championed Birge as a model for those pursuing a career in academia, suggesting, "if a faculty could regulate its own preparation for service...Sellery on Birge would be required reading."
As one who continues to admire Birge's many accomplishments and takes great joy in the discovery of a previously unknown Birge photo or document, I share Ingraham's sentiment.
Happy Birthday, Edward A. Birge!
Notes: Sellery, G.C. E.A Birge: A Memoir. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1956.