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.
Assorted sea creatures depicted in the map Nieuwe groote en seer Curieuse Paskaart van Gehell-Westindien… by Jan Sikkena, circa 1698-1715. Call Number: Orbis Maps 1:156. Click image to enlarge.
In May of this year, students and staff in the Conservation Lab undertook the ambitious project of rehousing the Spencer Library’s Orbis Maps collection. This collection includes more than one thousand maps that span centuries, forming a vibrant repository of our geographic landscape through time. Though there was much to explore, one of the most exciting parts of this project was the continual discovery of sea monsters, peppered in the blue of the earliest maps.
Assorted sea creatures depicted in the map America by Jodocus Hondius, circa 1609-1633. Call Number: Orbis Maps 1:33. Click image to enlarge.
Though these sorts of depictions seem mystical to us, sea monsters were often included by mapmakers who were striving for scientific accuracy. Prior to the eighteenth century, seafaring legends heavily influenced what people knew of oceanic life. Sailors would return from their expeditions with tales of close brushes with vicious kraken, sirens, and serpents. Such beasts were then often included by mapmakers — a practice which, according to the Smithsonian, was an act of upholding the common understanding of that time.
A whale-like sea creature depicted in the map Americae sive novi orbis, nova descriptio, circa 1570-1600. Call Number: Orbis Maps 1:30. Click image to enlarge.
In many instances, sea monsters were inspired by animals that sailors might have come across, but perhaps not accurately seen. For example, in Orbis Maps 1:30, above, a whale-like creature swims through a gulf, with only small characteristics distinguishing it from the sea mammal we’ve come to know. In other cases, as with Orbis Map 1:5 (below), the sea monsters have virtually no bearing in reality and are altogether closer to the traditional monsters of myths and legends.
Nova totius terrarum orbis tabula Amstelaedami… by Frederik de Wit, [173-]. Call Number: Orbis Maps 1:5. Click image to enlarge.
These sea monsters are just a few of many that were found in the Orbis Maps collection. As the maps progressed through time, we observed the image of the world change to become more and more representative of what we have today, and sea monster numbers slowly dwindled as scientific knowledge became more absolute.
Three-headed sea monster depicted in the upper left corner of Nova totius terrarum orbis tabula Amstelaedami… by Frederik de Wit, [173-]. Call Number: Orbis Maps 1:5. Click image to enlarge.
The rehousing project for the Orbis Maps was completed on July 30th of this year and, overall, a total of sixteen maps were found to contain sea monsters like the ones shown here. These creatures, and many more delights from this collection, can be visited in the Spencer Research Library.
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created this series to provide a lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique items at Spencer. “That’s Distinctive!” is meant to show that the library has something for everyone regardless of interest. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, you can leave a comment at the bottom of this page. All collections, including those highlighted on the blog, are available for members of the public to explore in the Reading Room during regular hours.
This week on That’s Distinctive! we continue on our journey of spooky items. Today I am sharing yet another item from the Herd family papers. With the collection spanning the time frame of 1817 to 2013, there is just about anything a person could be looking for. The item shown today is a dance card from KU’s third annual all-university Halloween party. It took place in 1917, six months after the U.S. entered World War I. The card shows that it was held in Robinson Gymnasium, which was located where Wescoe Hall now stands. The current Robinson Center is just east of Allen Fieldhouse.
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Pages from an All-University Halloween Party dance card, 1917. Herd Family Papers. Call Number: RH MS 1374. Click images to enlarge.
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Two articles about the party in the University Daily Kansan, October 29, 1917. Florence (Mrs. Eustace) Brown was the “advisor of women” at KU (and sometimes cited as the school’s first Dean of Women), 1914-1918. Courtesy Newspapers.com. Click images to enlarge.
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created this series to provide a lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique items at Spencer. “That’s Distinctive!” is meant to show that the library has something for everyone regardless of interest. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, you can leave a comment at the bottom of this page. All collections, including those highlighted on the blog, are available for members of the public to explore in the Reading Room during regular hours.
This week on That’s Distinctive! I am sharing a “spooky” book from the Kansas Collection: Trespassing Time: Ghost Stories from the Prairie by Barbara J. Baldwin, Jerri Garretson, Linda Madl, and Sheri L. McGathy. Published in 2005 by Ravenstone Press in Manhattan, Kansas, the book compiles sixteen “scary stories of love, legends, and evil [that] will challenge your sense of reality.” Stories in the book include “The Graveyard Dance,” “What Do Ghosts Do?” and “Halloween at the Gates of Hell.”
Interested in seeing the book? You can visit the Reading Room anytime during normal operating hours. The Internet Archive also has a digitized copy of the book.
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The front cover of – and the table of contents and selected pages from – Trespassing Time: Ghost Stories from the Prairie, 2005. Call Number: RH C11220. Click image to enlarges.
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created this series to provide a lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique items at Spencer. “That’s Distinctive!” is meant to show that the library has something for everyone regardless of interest. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, you can leave a comment at the bottom of this page. All collections, including those highlighted on the blog, are available for members of the public to explore in the Reading Room during regular hours.
Hello October! If you were around last year, you might remember that for the whole month of October I shared “spooky” items from our collections. This week we are going to ease into it by sharing an item from the Herd family papers. Also, if you’ve been following That’s Distinctive! for a while, you know I just love using the Herd family papers. The collection offers a wealth of items that cover a wide range of dates and topics, so I can almost always find something relevant to what I am looking for. The item shared today is a Halloween party invitation. It’s not just any regular invitation though; it’s in the form of a poem.
I promise to be all treats and no tricks this October. However, finding items to share sent me on quite the adventure. Having FIVE weeks to cover is a lot of material. Not wanting to overlap with last year or step on any toes of other items that have been shared in various blog posts, I went on a hunt for these items. Hence, I’m going to my trusty collection for this first item. No matter how you choose to celebrate (or not), I hope this spooky season is good to you.
A Halloween party invitation poem, undated. Herd Family Papers. Call Number: RH MS 1374. Click image to enlarge.
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created this series to provide a lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique items at Spencer. “That’s Distinctive!” is meant to show that the library has something for everyone regardless of interest. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, you can leave a comment at the bottom of this page. All collections, including those highlighted on the blog, are available for members of the public to explore in the Reading Room during regular hours.
This week on That’s Distinctive! I am sharing some watercolor paintings from the Lawrence, Kansas, Photographs Collection. Spanning the early 1800s through the twentieth century, the collection is an artificial collection comprising of “wide variety of photographic media, including prints, stereographs, ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass plate negatives, glass plate positives, nitrate negatives, and other flexible negative types.” When a collection at Spencer Research Library is deemed “artificial,” it just means that not everything in the collection came to the library together. Artificial collections are often put together based on topic, in this case Lawrence, Kansas. The collection, which covers a wide array of subjects, spans 32 document cases, one slide box, two card file boxes, eleven oversize boxes, and ten oversize folders.
The watercolors shared this week were done by Orlando E. Wilson. I could not find any information about Wilson online. The paintings shared today show the Union Pacific Railroad depot, the Lawrence National Bank, and the Eldridge Hotel as it was before and rebuilt after Quantrill’s Raid. I stumbled upon these paintings while working on an exhibit I am currently putting together. They weren’t of use to me for the exhibit, but I found them fascinating enough to share. There are a few more within the collection that I am not including today.
![Full view of the map Nova totius terrarum orbis tabula Amstelaedami...by Frederik de Wit, [173-]. Call Number: Orbis Maps 1:5.](https://blogs.lib.ku.edu/spencer/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Orbis-Maps-1.5-B.png)
