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Inside Spencer: The KSRL Blog

Books on a shelf

Welcome to the Kenneth Spencer Research Library blog! As the special collections and archives library at the University of Kansas, Spencer is home to remarkable and diverse collections of rare and unique items. Explore the blog to learn about the work we do and the materials we collect.

Throwback Thursday: Suitcase Avalanche Edition

August 17th, 2017

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 34,800 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Today is Move-In Day, and new and returning Jayhawks are arriving on Mount Oread. This week’s post features a verbal description and visual depiction of what this looked like at the beginning of KU’s 1928-1929 academic year, according to the 1929 Jayhawker yearbook.

Happy greetings…hand shaking…taxis whizzing away loaded with newly arrived students…perspiring baggagemen swearing at an avalanche of trunks and suitcases…The sleepy town of Lawrence suddenly awakened to the realization that another nine months session had begun at K.U.

Page from the Jayhawker yearbook, 1929 Page from the Jayhawker yearbook, 1929

Selected pages from the 1929 Jayhawker yearbook. University Archives.
Call Number: LD 2697 .J3 1929. Click images to enlarge.

Subsequent pages in the yearbook describe the high points of the first week of freshman life at KU. Some events are familiar to modern students, for example participating in fraternity and sorority recruitment and learning about university customs and traditions. Other events – like taking a psychological examination, attending teas, and registering and enrolling for fall classes right before the beginning of the semester – would be foreign.

Page from the Jayhawker yearbook, 1929

Page from the Jayhawker yearbook, 1929 Page from the Jayhawker yearbook, 1929

Selected pages from the 1929 Jayhawker yearbook. University Archives.
Call Number: LD 2697 .J3 1929. Click images to enlarge.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Hawk Week, Nineties Style

August 16th, 2012

In honor of Hawk Week 2012, the festivities that mark the beginning of the fall semester, we bring you some images of Hawk Week events from the late 1990s. KU alumni may recall Traditions Night, Beach-n-Boulevard, Jayhawk Playfest, and the Rock-a-Hawk Dance.

Rock-a-Hawk Dance 1998

Photograph of Dancers at the Rock-a-Hawk Dance, 1998

Rock-a-Hawk Dance, 1998. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/51. Click images to enlarge.

Photograph of Beach n Boulevard, 1998

Beach-n-Boulevard, 1998 (top) and 1999 (bottom).
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 71/51.
Click images to enlarge.

A poll from August 2011 in the University Daily Kansan listed Traditions Night as the readers’ favorite Hawk Week event. What was yours?

Photograph of Audience at Traditions Night 1998

Photograph of students carrying a torch at Traditions Night 1999

Traditions Night, 1998 (top) and 1999 (bottom).
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 71/51.
Click images to enlarge.

Photograph of Jayhawk Playfest, 1998

Photograph: More fun at Jayhawk Playfest, 1998

Jayhawk Playfest 1998. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/51. Click images to enlarge.

Whitney Baker
Head, Conservation Services

Letha Johnson
Assistant University Archivist