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Kake Walk at UVM

229 Objects

Date Created: 1896-2004
Description: The Kake Walk at UVM collection documents a racist event held at the University of Vermont that was the highlight of the campus social calendar for over eighty years. Annual Kake Walk performances featured fraternity brothers in blackface and kinky wigs dancing to the tune of "Cotton Babes." The items in this digital collection were selected from holdings in the University Archives in 2010 by Robin Katz, Digital Initiatives Outreach Librarian, and Dr. Brian Gilley, Anthropology Professor and Director of the ALANA US Ethnic Studies Program. They are presented here to acknowledge and shine a light on a painful part of the University’s past and to highlight the protests which eventually resulted in its termination. In 2010, while the digital collection was being developed, students enrolled in Katz’s and Gilley’s ALANA US Ethnic Studies course, "Curating Kake Walk: Race, Memory, and Representation," contributed to this collection overview. In a statement reflective of class discussions and opinions, one group wrote that the Kake Walk at UVM materials "should be seen not as encouraging racism, but as an opportunity to learn from insensitivities from the past that can help us build a more unified future.”
Kake Walk History
UVM's Kake Walk dates to the early 1890s when it resembled the popular American minstrel show. A dance known as the cakewalk, by then a standard act in minstrel theatre, originated on plantations as a competition among slaves. The pair that most entertained their white owners would be awarded cake. The cakewalk later evolved into a refined social dance whose accompanying music was a predecessor to ragtime. UVM's Kake Walk departed from these styles, however, to become its own unique tradition. Early Kake Walks featured a pair of men in costume (one in drag) wearing blackface. In addition to the "a walkin' fo' de kake" competition, the event included grotesque stunts and a peerade; skits were soon added. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Winter Carnival weekend grew to include the election of a King and Queen and a snow sculpture competition. After World War II, male walkers wore suits in the colors of their fraternity known as "silks." The judging was codified as the high-stepping dances became more and more stylized. By the 1960s, the three-day festival also included a ball, a jazz concert, and winter sporting events. Local merchants benefited from the influx of returning alumni and visiting guests, and the organizing committee made significant profits. Kake Walk was governed by fraternity brothers known as Directors, as well as a female student appointed Secretary. Professors James Loewen and Larry McCrorey date dissent concerning Kake Walk to as early as 1954 when Phi Sigma Delta first refused to wear blackface. Various statements opposing Kake Walk were printed in the student newspaper The Vermont Cynic, published in local papers, and delivered at public events; two students picketed the last performance. In 1963, the Interfraternity Council (IFC) voted to eliminate blackface in favor of light green makeup but to continue using dialect. In 1964, due to audience complaints, the makeup was changed again to a darker green which, in black and white photographs, is impossible to distinguish from blackface. In 1969, due to successive decisions by a student-faculty committee, the Student Association, and the IFC, Kake Walk was officially eliminated from the Winter Carnival weekend.
Detailed Description of Collection
This digital collection contains a selection of records from the University Archives such as event invitations, recruitment flyers, documentation of ticket requests, press releases, financial records, committee minutes, and director's reports. There are several representative examples of correspondence from alumni and community members responding to the discontinuation of Kake Walk. Some notable records include the 1964 document "A New Face," which announces the switch to dark green makeup after one year of light green; the results of the 1969 student opinion poll on the future of Kake Walk; the October 31, 1969 announcement eliminating Kake Walk from the Winter Carnival weekend; and a 1977 letter describing the Greek and Panhellenic vote to oppose any Kake Walk revivals. Fourteen student newspapers from the University of Vermont are included in this collection. Every year, The Vermont Cynic produced a Kake Walk special edition. A sampling of papers from 1923 - 1977 were selected for this digital collection, as well as an article from 2004. The Cynics include some advertisements and articles unrelated to Kake Walk, but the majority of the papers' contents document Winter Carnival planning, activities, and participants. Some of the later newspapers, such as the 1954 Cynic, include debates around Kake Walk and voices of dissent. Twenty-one Kake Walk programs ranging from 1898 to 1970 document the increasingly well-designed and expensively-produced publications. The programs contain information about winter carnival events, judges, committee members, participants, scorecards, royalty candidates, and awards. The programs include advertisements from local businesses, photographs of activities and participants, and various accounts of the history of Kake Walk. Blackface first appeared on a program cover in 1938 and was depicted on subsequent publications, with varying degrees of realism, until the last performance in 1969. Researchers will notice two parody programs: a 1922 publication imitating a Communist "rag" and a 1924 program entitled “The Bohemian Meow.” The program for the 1970 film festival which replaced Kake Walk is also included. More than one hundred photographs taken during the last decade of the University of Vermont's Winter Carnival are available in this collection. The photos were most likely taken by staff and student enthusiasts to document and publicize the committee's production work, Winter Carnival events, and Kake Walk performances. In some cases, professional photographers may have been hired. This collection also includes many non-traditional archival formats. Starting around 1912, all Kake Walkers choreographed their high-stepping dances to the syncopated tune of "Cotton Babes." A 10 inch 78 rpm record of this signature musical piece has been digitized and made available online. Originally composed by Percy Weinrich, this version of the song was arranged by UVM Band Director Joseph Lechnyr. A bronze Kake Walk trophy and fraternity drinking souvenirs such as a metal cup and a ceramic jug represent the many artifacts associated with this event. In 2004, the Howe Library held an exhibit entitled "UVM's Past: The Legacy of Kake Walk." This collection makes available exhibit materials archived at UVM, including newspaper articles which may have been on display, draft exhibit labels, and a notebook containing visitor comments.
Processing Information
Undergraduate and continuing education students enrolled in the summer 2010 ALANA US Ethnic Studies course "Curating Kake Walk: Race, Memory, and Representation" contributed to this collection overview and provided subject headings describing many of the collection's digital objects. They also developed several criteria in order to select the original collection image thumbnail. In a statement reflective of class discussions and opinions, one group wrote that the Kake Walk at UVM materials "should be seen not as encouraging racism, but as an opportunity to learn from insensitivities from the past that can help us build a more unified future.”
Suggested Readings
For more information about the Kake Walk tradition at UVM and this digital collection, see the following: Katz, Robin M. “Teaching Cultural Memory: Using and Producing Digitized Archival Material in an Online Course” in Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives, edited by Eleanor Mitchell et al. Association of College & Research Libraries, 2012. Loewen, James. "The Black Image in White Vermont: The Origin, Meaning, and Abolition of Kake Walk" in The University of Vermont: The First Two Hundred Years, edited by Robert Daniels et al. University of Vermont: Distributed by University Press of New England / University of Vermont, 1991. This chapter is included in this digital collection. At the time this collection launched in 2010, it was the only known scholarly work on Kake Walk. McCrorey, H. Lawrence. “The History of Racism at UVM: the Vermont Paradox,” speech given on February 19, 2004 in the University of Vermont’s Bailey/Howe Library. University Archives, Record Group 53: Fraternities and Sororities, Series: Kake Walk. This speech is included in this digital collection. Spees, Emil R. "Kake Walk Data" in University Archives, Record Group 53: Fraternities and Sororities, Series: Kake Walk. This document, which compiles minutes and published information on committees, judges, programs, receipts, rules, and walkers, is included in this digital collection. Tunc, Tanfir Emin. “Kake Walk on Kampus: Ritualizing Racism or Commemorating Tradition at the University of Vermont?” in We are what we remember : the American past through commemoration, edited by Jeffrey Lee Merriwether and Laura Mattoon D’Amore. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012
Updates
Collections description, thumbnail image, banner image, and suggested readings updated in April 2025 by the Silver Special Collections Library’s reparative description working group.

UVM Web Archive - Pilot

2 Objects

Fletcher Family

478 Objects

Date Created: 1826-1903
Description: The Fletcher Family collection includes family correspondence from the period 1826-1903 and photographs from circa 1860-1890. The material comes from the Fletcher Family subseries of the Consuelo Northrop Bailey Papers, which contains family papers collected by Consuelo's mother, Katherine Fletcher Northrop. The correspondence included in this collection was collected by Ruth Allen Colton Fletcher, Henrietta Smith Fletcher, and Katherine Fletcher. Ruth was born in 1810 or 1811 to Lydia and Lemuel Colton of Sharon, VT. She married Andrew Fletcher in 1839, and lived in Waterville, Belvidere, and then Johnson, VT until her death, circa 1903. Her oldest surviving child was Andrew Craig Fletcher, who married Henrietta Smith in 1869. Henrietta was born in 1845 to Catherine and George Smith of Burke, NY. Katherine Fletcher was born in 1870 to Henrietta and Andrew Craig Fletcher of Jeffersonville, VT. She attended Johnson State Normal School from 1885-1887, graduating in January 1888. The correspondence describes the experiences of several family members who moved west to New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and California. The correspondents recount in great detail the work of creating and managing their farms in these new states or territories, and many letters give meticulous lists of the prices of land, grains, stock, and groceries. The families in this correspondence endure a great deal of sickness and deaths and these as well as some accounts of their medical treatments are described in the letters. There are a few letters from Enos Fletcher and Charles Hogan that are from the Civil War, and several letters refer to the War and its effects on their communities. There is an account of the "St. Albans Raid" by Ruth's son Andrew Craig Fletcher, who was working in St. Albans at the time. Katherine Fletcher's correspondence with her family and classmates document her life and studies at Vermont's teacher training institution twenty years into its history as such.

Civil War Broadsides and Epemera

37 Objects

Date Created: 1861-1865
Description: The Civil War Broadsides and Ephemera Collection contains items from the UVM Silver Special Collections Library that were printed and circulated from 1861 to 1865. Most of the items are related to the war, while a small number are related to Vermont’s efforts to organize and train the state militia after the war. The collection features proclamations, orders and announcements about the state’s military operations, including recruitment, enrollment, supplies, and equipment; relief efforts; the end of the war; and President Lincoln’s death. One of the most unusual items is a broadside alerting the public to the theft of U.S. Treasury notes and bonds stolen from a St. Albans, Vermont bank by Confederate raiders in October 1864.

George Perkins Marsh Online Research Center

549 Objects

Description: The George Perkins Marsh Research Center provides access to transcriptions and images of selected letters in Marsh's correspondence. With a generous grant from the Woodstock Foundation we have transcribed over 650 letters from the University manuscript collection and from Marsh's letters located at other institutions.

Fire Insurance Maps of Burlington, Vermont, 1889

25 Objects

Description: The 1889 fire insurance maps for Burlington, Vermont were produced by the Sanborn Map and Publishing Co. to provide insurance companies and underwriters with detailed and accurate information about individual properties. Queen City Park, located in the adjacent town of South Burlington, is also shown.
Parent Collections: Fire Insurance Maps of Vermont, Fire Insurance Maps of Burlington, Vermont

Fire Insurance Maps of Burlington, Vermont, 1894

29 Objects

Date Created: 1894
Description: The 1894 fire insurance maps for Burlington, Vermont were produced by the Sanborn-Perris Map Co. to provide insurance companies and underwriters with detailed and accurate information about individual properties. Two areas located outside Burlington, Queen City Park in the town of South Burlington and Dr. W. Seward Webb's farm in Shelburne, are also shown.
Parent Collections: Fire Insurance Maps of Vermont, Fire Insurance Maps of Burlington, Vermont

Fire Insurance Maps of Richmond, Vermont, 1904

1 Objects

Creator: Sanborn Map Company
Date Created: 1904
Description: The 1904 fire insurance map sheet for the central part of the village of Richmond, Vermont was produced by the Sanborn Map Company to give fire insurance companies and underwriters accurate information about insured properties. Insets show the facilities of manufacturing enterprises, including the Richmond Underwear Co., Vermont Condensed Milk, and a lumber company.
Parent Collections: Fire Insurance Maps of Vermont, Fire Insurance Maps of Richmond, Vermont

Fire Insurance Maps of Winooski, Vermont, 1909

8 Objects

Creator: Sanborn Map Company
Date Created: 1909
Description: The 1909 fire insurance map sheets for Winooski, Vermont were produced by the Sanborn Map Co. to give fire insurance companies and underwriters accurate information about insured properties. The maps document the extensive mill complexes along the Winooski River, commercial buildings, and the expanding residential areas.
Parent Collections: Fire Insurance Maps of Vermont, Fire Insurance Maps of Winooski, Vermont

(Iris)

5 Objects

Creator: Prospect School and Center for Education and Research
Date Created: 2008-09-11
Description: (Iris’) original collection in the Archive spans 8 years, 1978-1986, from ages 5 years to 12 years and 9 months. The full collection contains 1,544 items, which are reproduced on microfiche in the Reference Edition. (Iris’) work is full of people. Both the visual work and writing reveal a deep sense of wonder about human activity, the internal life of people and the nature of relationships. (Iris’) figures are highly expressive, full of movement and emotion. (Iris) captures human qualities, like wickedness, in details of clothing, hairstyle and facial expression. Portraits of striking women appear throughout the work, some with mysterious, dream-like qualities. (Iris) also tells stories, first with drawings of favorite fairy tales, then writing her own. Houses also appear. Drawings of exteriors show an interest in structure and design, and cross-sections revealing the “story” of each room through furnishings and activities of characters. Houses also hold secrets, concealed staircases, and hidden treasure. Humor runs through the visual work and writing with a particular emphasis on mischief and trickery. Drawings made with marker and pencil predominate. The line is quite varied, and color ranges from vibrant to drab. Painted landscapes and perspective appear later. (Iris) uses a form, the arch, for multiple purposes. It appears as window, door, face, and repeated pattern. (Iris’) writing begins as simple journal entries about school, friends and family. Over time it expands to include poems and other reflective pieces on time, change, history, war and peace, and the natural world. There are also lengthy serialized stories. Conversation, and especially dialogue, dominates the writing during (Iris’) fifth year (age 9). Stories read like scripts. In the later years, poetry becomes a means of expressing complex moral/philosophical ideas concerning human nature, which remains a persistent interest for (Iris).
Parent Collections: Prospect Archive of Children's Work

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