car·il·lon[ˈkarəˌlän,-lən] noun; pl. carillons: a set of bells in a tower, played using a keyboard or by an automatic mechanism similar to a piano roll.

After a disastrous fire in 1916 destroyed the dome that once crowned Bascom Hall, successive graduating classes of UW alumni sought to raise funds to rebuild the dome, along with a set of carillon bells to be housed in it. In 1931, state architect Arthur Peabody declared that for structural and aesthetic reasons, the dome would never be rebuilt. Donated funds were used to construct a carillon tower, which was completed in 1936.

Until the controversial construction of the Social Science Building in the early 1960s, the Carillon Tower was surrounded on all sides by woodland, now called Muir Woods.

The carillon’s original 25 bells have been upgraded over the years, resulting in the current configuration of 56 bells ranging in size from 15 to 6,823 pounds.