University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Magazine 2018 Fall Libraries Magazine | Page 18

UW–Madison #throwback Meme Discovery Made
By Käri Knutson,
University Communications
Vitamins A and B.
Homo naledi.
The anticancer drug fluorouracil.
T
he University of Wisconsin–Madison is
known for many great discoveries. And
recently, another important discovery was
made: the world’s first meme.
Well, maybe.
It didn’t start out as a meme. The joke
was found in a 1921 copy of the Octopus, a
humor magazine at UW–Madison published
from 1919 to 1959. It plays with the popular
“expectations vs. reality” found throughout
social media.
This discovery of what may be the world’s
first meme (before the word meme was even
invented) was first celebrated on Tumblr
in April 2018, and has since been shared
thousands of times.
Why? Well, who can’t
relate to feeling like
you’re looking pretty
dapper until you look
in the mirror and see
reality staring back.
Hard.
BBC News first
covered the breaking
story, citing Richard
Dawkins in his 1976
book The Selfish
Gene as the person
who coined the term
meme, meaning
“ideas that spread
from brain to brain.”
18 | LIBRARIES Fall 2018
This was published in a 1921 edition of the Octopus, a UW–
Madison humor magazine. But it would be right at home on
social media.
Time, Vice, Gizmodo, and other media also
covered the story as it unfolded.
While this old comic is being shared
using modern technology, it’s important to
remember that it was discovered thanks to
the dedication of University Archives. So,
what other treasures can be found? Katie
Nash is finding out as the new university
archivist and head of University Archives.
“That’s part of the beauty of making
collections available for all to use, you never
know what gems might be found,” said Nash.
As for the first meme, she’s not so sure.
“I tend to be cautiously optimistic when
labeling anything as the ‘first,’ but it’s very
exciting that UW–Madison may have created/
published one of the earliest memes,” said
Nash.
Fair enough. But she does know the value
of preserving things from the past. She was
excited to see the original image of the meme,
right there on page 18 of the May 1921 issue of
the Octopus.
“There’s something special about seeing it
in print. The magazine is one of the many
humor publications at UW–Madison and
if you need a good laugh, come peruse our
copies,” Nash said. “Most humor transcends
generations, but of course there are some
things that were considered ‘funny’ in the
1920s and during other decades that would
not be considered humorous today. It makes
me wonder what we find funny today that
won’t be amusing years from now.”
It might surprise people to know that
all types of materials are collected in the
University Archives, including paper records,
electronic records, photographic media,
oral histories, audio/video recordings,
3-dimensional objects/artifacts, scrapbooks,
maps, posters, and other ephemera and
memorabilia, ranging in dates from the 19th
century to the present day, and most of it is
available for people to use, view, and touch.
University Archives has a significant
collection on Aldo Leopold, which can be
viewed online or in person, and quite a rich
set of materials relating to the Vietnam War
era (photographs, chancellors papers, oral
histories, posters, and other ephemera). It
also has an LGBTQ archive, which includes
oral histories, personal papers, photographs,
ephemera, and organizational records related
to LGBTQ life in Madison and Dane County
from the 1940s to the present.
The collections include more than 26,000
cubic feet of paper and publish