Kenneth Spencer Research Library

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 10,100 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

KU fans taking a carriage to a football game, 1895. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/66/14 1895: Student Activities: Sports: Football (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

The caption on the back of the photograph states that it shows members of “Kappa Alpha Theta going to a football game in the ‘Jim Donnelley Talley Ho’. black and gold trimmings on the horse.”

James Donnelly (1842-1918) was born in Ireland and arrived in Lawrence with his siblings in 1857. A 1909 article in the Lawrence Daily Journal described him as a “fixture in this town [who] has always been one of our best citizens.” James, partnered with his brother Neill, managed a livery stable – where horses and vehicles are cared for or rented out for pay – under the name Donnelly Brothers. The 1909 article, which reported the sale of the business due to James’s poor health, stated that the “livery stable has a reputation all over the state. It has always been a favorite with the students. The firm always kept high grade rigs and accommodated the public.” The livery stable was located on New Hampshire Street at Winthrop (now 7th Street).

Caitlin Donnelly (no known relation to James)
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

In honor of Veteran’s Day on November 11, we feature this item from the Verlean Tidwell Family Collection, from our African American Experience Collections. This collection was donated by Dr. John Edgar Tidwell, a KU English Department faculty member. His mother, Mrs. Verlean Tidwell, served as a member of Maple Street Baptist Church in Independence, Kansas, for more than 70 years.

This handmade Veteran’s Day book was compiled by Mrs. Arletta Moore in 1966 to honor veterans of World War I and II from Maple St. Baptist Church.

The decorated cover features glitter, gold stickers, and a silk flower. Call number RH MS 1286 Box 10, Kansas Collection. Click image to enlarge.

The book includes clippings about war, a typed list of veterans and their next of kin, poems, and handwritten notations. Call number RH MS 1286 Box 10, Kansas Collection. Click images to enlarge.

Detail of handwritten Pledge of Allegiance, along with gold stickers and handwritten “war” in block letters. Call number RH MS 1286 Box 10, Kansas Collection. Click image to enlarge.

Whitney Baker
Head, Conservation Services

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 9,800 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

If you’ve ever visited Spencer Research Library, you may have noticed a plaque adjacent to our third-floor entrance: “This research library is a gift of Helen Foresman Spencer in memory of her husband Kenneth Aldred Spencer, November 8, 1968.” That was date, forty-seven years ago Sunday, that the library was dedicated in a private ceremony attended by several hundred of Mrs. Spencer’s friends and educators from across the country. It marked the completion of the library’s construction, which took nearly two years. A public opening occurred one week later.

A story about the new library in the December 1968/January 1969 Kansas Alumni magazine noted that “Mrs. Spencer waxed and polished the furnishings and the floor of the Spencer Room [memorial office] herself before the opening and created floral arrangements for many of the rooms” (12).

Spencer Research Library dedication ceremony on the terrace, November 8, 1968.
British novelist, scientist, and government official Sir Charles Percy Snow is at the rostrum.
Mrs. Spencer is shown sitting to the right of the entrance, behind the speaker.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/22/82 1968 Dedication Prints:
Campus: Buildings: Spencer Research Library (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

We look forward to sharing more photographs and documents about Spencer Research Library’s beginning and early years as we approach our fiftieth anniversary in 2018!

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

November 3rd is Election Day here in the U.S. and although it’s not time for the presidential elections, the races and ballot initiatives taking place are no less vital. To celebrate the importance of civic engagement, I’ve selected a few items from Spencer Library’s Kansas Collection that highlight different ways of being politically active.

One of our researchers from the University of Chicago found this delicious thank-you note. Coffeyville, Kansas, native Bruce McKinney was thanked by Bill Clinton and Al Gore for his vote by receiving his very own copy of Hillary Clinton’s Chippers recipe!

Hillary Clinton’s Chippers Recipe, circa 1992-1996.
Papers of Bruce McKinney, 1900-2008. Call Number: RH MS 1164.
Click image to enlarge.

Mervyn Anderson was an active member of the League of Women Voters of Kansas. Her dedication to informing Kansans on political issues and candidates is evident in these two items from her papers.

War time (probably referring to the Vietnam War) pledge card for the
League of Women Voters of Lawrence, Kansas.
Mervyn Anderson Papers, 1956-1987. Call Number: RH MS 1091.
Click image to enlarge.

Cover of the April 8-9, 1959 League of Women Voters State Convention
program in Salina, Kansas. Mervyn Anderson Papers, 1956-1987.
Call Number: RH MS 1091. Click image to enlarge.

Many Kansans have engaged politically by serving in local, state, or national government. Robert C. Caldwell is an excellent example of a public servant to the city of Salina, where he was elected as the first African American mayor in 1970.

Two identical keys to the city of Salina, Kansas, undated.
The key at the top displays the side engraved with Salina, Kansas,
while the key on the bottom is engraved with Mayor’s Key.
Robert C. Caldwell Family Papers, 1922-1999. Call Number: RH MS Q119. Click image to enlarge.

Mindy Babarskis
Library Assistant and Supply Coordinator