This collection provides a thorough overview of the programs of the University Extension
Field Organization, or Field Services Division, and the activities of individual Field
Representatives or Agents from 1911-1958, with particular emphasis on the period from 1926
to 1954 when Chester Allen served as Director of Field Services. The papers also detail
Allen's research on commercial correspondence schools and the history of the University
Extension Division. The materials include correspondence, memoranda, internal and external
reports, meeting minutes, newsletters, magazines, articles, manuscripts, statistical data,
syllabi, fliers, brochures, posters, conference programs, and conference proceedings.
The correspondence reveals the scope of the division's programs and outreach efforts.
Frequent correspondents include the following: Field Representatives such L.J. Imhoff,
W.H.H. Liesch, and M.J. Lowe; UW Extension staff such as Division Director L.H. Adolfson and
Wisconsin State Reformatory Director of Education Steve C. Govin; and Wisconsin legislators
and state officials including prison wardens and superintendents.
Internal University Extension Division reports document a variety of programs, from the
Civilian Pilot Training Program created during World War II to the creation of an Extension
building in Milwaukee, WI in 1923. Numerous annual and biennial detail the activities of the
Field Organization and long term trends in enrollment. A 1927 report documenting the Gillian
Extension Inmate Scholarship Fund describes the impact of correspondence study courses on
incarcerated students like Wisconsin State Reformatory student "Gustav," a Hungarian
immigrant who used the courses to learn English. Additionally, many reports resulted from
the Field Organization's investigations of commercial correspondence schools at the behest
of the Governor's Educational Advisory Committee.
Meeting minutes document the activities of the Field Organization, general University
Extension Division staff, the Governor's Educational Advisory Committee, and other
organizations including the Wisconsin Industrial Commission Apprenticeship Committee and the
Madison Rotary Foundation.
Publications include Field Service Organization newsletters, magazines, manuscripts of
Allen's book "University Extension in Wisconsin," and University Extension press releases.
The collection includes several unique publications related to Allen's prison education
work. It includes an August 1938 issue of "The Candle," a magazine written, edited, and
printed by people incarcerated at Wisconsin State Prison as part of the full-time day school
run by the prison and the Extension Division. The issue includes articles, editorials, short
stories, and satire. In addition, the collection contains a 1938 Geography textbook compiled
and hand-illustrated by teacher Leo Thimesch while he was incarcerated at Wisconsin State
Prison.
The collection also documents numerous conferences which Field Organization staff
participated in, such as the 1934 Prison Education Conference and Teacher's Institute, the
Conference on Alcohol Studies, and the Wisconsin Crime Control Conference. Programs and
proceedings reveal both the impact of Extension's work and broader attitudes towards crime,
punishment, and gender. The 1937 Crime Control Conference's section meeting devoted to
"Delinquency Among Women and Girls" included sessions led by the Milwaukee Police
Department, members of the State Board of Control and Probation Department, psychiatrists,
and guidance counselors.
