UW Extension's Bureau of Audio-Visual Instruction (BAVI), initially named the Bureau of
Visual Instruction, circulated films, slides, and other audiovisual aids to teachers, county
agents, and organizations across Wisconsin, beginning in 1915. Beginning in 1947 with
"Better Schools for Rural Wisconsin," BAVI staff produced full scale films and television
programs in collaboration with UW-Madison and UW Extension faculty and organizations
including numerous Wisconsin state agencies, the City of Milwaukee, the Anti-Defamation
League, WHA-TV (now Wisconsin Public Television), and the United States Office of
Information. They also produced films documenting Wisconsin's history, geography, and
government, racial discrimination in the Madison housing market, and local social service
organizations.
BAVI publicized University of Wisconsin faculty research in fields including agriculture,
anthropology, political science, geography, languages, healthcare, music, social work, and
psychology. On April 26th,1955 BAVI released "Barns for Better Dairying," a film about new
alternatives to traditional warm barns, sponsored by UW-Madison's College of Agriculture and
the U.S. Steel Corporation. Films such as "Cancer Research at Mcardle" (1953), "Cancer
Quest" (1954), and "The Sounds of Siamese" (1952) broadcast UW-Madison faculty research
across the state. From the "Face of Youth" (1951) to "The Future is Now: Community Mental
Hospitals in Wisconsin" (1964) BAVI promoted preventative mental healthcare and the emerging
field of community mental health. "The Future is Now" was a cooperative project of BAVI, the
UW-Madison School of Social Work and the Wisconsin State Department of Public Welfare,
Division of Mental Hygiene that documented Wisconsin's groundbreaking system of county
mental health hospitals.
In addition, BAVI staff helped UW Extension students in classes like "Introduction to
Motion Picture Production" produce films focusing on campus life such as the 1955 film "So
You Want to Be a Badger" (also known as "Undergraduate Life at the University of Wisconsin")
and the 1964 film "The Great Grade Raid."
From 1954-1956 BAVI staff produced several films on behalf of the United States Information
Agency's Motion Picture Services Division under the umbrella of the "International
Understanding and Folklore Film Project." The films promoted cross-cultural understanding
using folklore, with an emphasis on the Arab world. The films included "The Fountain and the
Apple Tree," "Hoja Meets Americans," and "International Understanding and Folklore."
Numerous BAVI films focused on Wisconsin's history, geography, and government. From
1956-1960 Jackson Tiffany and Cameron Macauley wrote and produced a series of films targeted
at elementary school students entitled "Wisconsin's Geography." University of Wisconsin
Extension Geography Professor Robert Finley served as an expert consultant. The films
included: "Wisconsin Geography: An Introduction," "Wisconsin Mining and Manufacturing,"
"Wisconsin Physical Geography," "Wisconsin's Recreational Resources," and "The Geography of
Wisconsin Agriculture."
Many BAVI films during the 1950s and early 1960s focused on the expansion of Madison and
Milwaukee and the role of urban citizens and city governments in improving local conditions.
Tiffany wrote and directed the Wisconsin Government Series in collaboration with the State
Department of Public Instruction from 1953-1963. These films included "Wisconsin's State
Capitol," "Wisconsin's Constitutional Officers," "Wisconsin Makes Its Laws," "The Milwaukee
Way," and "Wisconsin Patrols for Safety." In 1953 Tiffany and Herman Engel produced "The
Milwaukee Way'' on behalf of the Milwaukee City Council. The film was designed to inform
Milwaukee residents about their local government and industries.
In February of 1954 BAVI received an $8,000 grant from the National Association of
Educational Broadcasters to produce a series of thirteen television episodes for WHA-TV
covering topics including city planning, growing urban populations, housing, municipal
government, urban education, and the future of cities. The collection primarily focuses on
the first two films in the series "What is a City?" (1954) and "Expanding City'' (1956) but
also includes the script for "Traffic in the City'' and a proposal and syllabus for a
correspondence based course using the programs entitled "Our City" which would occur in
collaboration with the Extension Bureau of Government.
In 1960 Lloyd Barbee, then president of the Wisconsin NAACP, Bureau instructor Stuart
Hanisch, and UW-Madison graduate student George Allez filmed a documentary that used hidden
cameras to expose 13 instances of housing discrimination against the Black community in
Madison. While BAVI officials initially approved the film for publication, after an initial
1962 screening the University refused to release it, arguing it violated the proprietors'
privacy. Hanisch resigned in protest and BAVI wrote a new film using actors loosely based on
Barbee's documentary entitled "To Find a Home" in 1963 in collaboration with the
Anti-Defamation League.
BAVI also engaged in several research and educational projects in this period including the
1952 Television Workshop, the Audio Visual Education Institute in the mid 1950s, and the
1966-1969 Wisconsin Audio-Visual Education Demonstration, a federally funded series of media
demonstrations at public schools and colleges throughout the state. In 1954, the Wisconsin
State College at River Falls founded its own film library of 300 films and a local branch of
the Bureau of Audio-Visual Instruction to provide training to local teachers. BAVI staff
published in various journals throughout the 1950s-1970s and created specialized film
catalogs for new disciplines like Environmental Studies. The last catalog included in the
collection was published in 1992.
