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.
This blog may contain archived web content. This blog may link to catalog records which no longer exist as of a software change in 2026.
If you’re a fan of soccer in general or Team Algeria in particular, be sure to stop by Spencer Research Library this summer and check out our small exhibit in honor of this year’s FIFA World Cup.
A photograph of the Baker University soccer team in Baldwin City, Kansas, 1911. Leonard Hollmann Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH 536. Click image to enlarge.
One case features materials documenting the history of soccer locally and internationally. For example, Matthew Concanen’s 1721 work A Match at Foot-Ball; Or the Irish Champions: A Mock-Heroick Poem, in Three Canto’s (Call Number: B519) is a very early account of “foot-ball,” a precursor to modern Association Football (soccer), Rugby, and Gaelic Football, which were not codified separately until the mid-1800s.
The other case in this display highlights items about the history of Algeria, whose national soccer team is based in Lawrence during the tournament. The exhibited items span more than four centuries and reveal both European and Algerian perspectives toward the North African country.
An illustration of the Algerian capital Algiers in Description de l’Afrique [Description of Africa] by Olfert Dapper, 1686. Heavily defended under Ottoman rule during the 1500s and 1600s, Algiers was protected by the series of fortifications, walls, and gates seen in this image. Call Number: Summerfield E1118. Click image to enlarge.
This is the second post in a series highlighting various titles from Spencer Research Library’s vast children’s book collection.
Well-loved children’s books spark magic from the thrill of adventure to imagination of far-off, enchanted places. Beloved by generations, classic children’s stories remain with us throughout life, whether it is re-reading childhood favorites or sharing our most loved stories with young people in our lives. These classics ignite imaginations and impart timeless lessons. They become some of our most cherished friends that stay with us throughout our lives.
While browsing our children’s collections for this series, my eye caught the book Rumpelstiltskin. It was a beloved story from my childhood. I carefully pulled the volume from the shelf and discovered that this is the exact same book with the little yellow troll that I remembered. The copy I grew up with made it from 1973 through three kids and years of love, although the dust jacket was lost along the way.
The front cover (left) and title page (right) of Edith H. Tarcov’s retelling of the Brothers Grimm story Rumpelstiltskin,illustrated by Edward Gorey, Four Winds Press: 1973. Call Number: Children C262. Click images to enlarge.
Before opening Spencer’s copy, I realized how little of the story I actually remembered – just impressions, really. A spinning wheel. A frightened girl. A strange little man whose name felt impossible and magical all at once. Childhood stories often linger this way, not as full plots but as bright fragments that stay tucked in the corners of memory. Holding the book again, I felt those fragments stir, as if the story had been waiting patiently for me to return.
Browsing through the pages, I was transported back to a place and time I had not visited in years. Books have that effect on people. They can sweep you into imagined worlds filled with wonder, but they can also return you to the most familiar corners of your own story: the home of your youth, your small hands turning the pages, the feeling of sitting on your mother’s lap as she reads to you. That quiet comfort stays with you long after childhood has passed.
Selected pages in Rumpelstiltskin, 1973. Call Number: Children C262. Click images to enlarge.
The illustrations were the first things to rise up from memory, those bold shapes and bright colors that once felt larger than life. Seeing them again was like recognizing an old friend across a crowded room. Childhood stories often imprint themselves visually before anything else, and these images had lived quietly in the back of my mind for decades. Each page brought back a flicker of familiarity: the tilt of a character’s expression, the sweep of a dress, the way the little man seemed both mischievous and mysterious. Illustrations have a way of anchoring a story in the imagination and rediscovering them reminded me just how powerfully art shapes the way we remember the tales we loved.
Selected pages in Rumpelstiltskin, 1973. Call Number: Children C262. Click images to enlarge.
Stories also change as we change. The tale I remembered from childhood – a frightened girl trapped in an impossible bargain – reads differently now. With adult eyes, I see a young woman navigating power, danger, and impossible expectations and ultimately outwitting the very creature who sought to control her. What once felt like a simple “damsel in distress” story reveals itself as something more layered: a narrative about resourcefulness, resilience, and the quiet strength of naming what threatens you. It is remarkable how familiar tales shift over time, offering new meanings as we grow into new versions of ourselves.
That feeling – that sudden, tender collapse of past and present – is exactly why special collections stewardship matters. We preserve these books because they are more than paper and ink. They are anchors. They are memory‑keepers. They are the quiet, steady companions that shaped childhoods, sparked imaginations, and offered refuge on difficult days. When we protect them, we are not just saving objects; we are safeguarding the emotional landscapes they hold.
Selected pages in Rumpelstiltskin, 1973. Call Number: Children C262. Click images to enlarge.
In special collections, we make sure that these touchstones of childhood do not disappear into attics or thrift stores or the slow erosion of time. We keep them so that someone, decades from now, can open a familiar story and feel that same rush of recognition, that same warmth of being transported home.
Selected pages in Rumpelstiltskin, 1973. Call Number: Children C262. Click images to enlarge.
As I closed the book and placed it back on the shelf, that familiar warmth lingered: the feeling of being carried, just for a moment, back into childhood. That is the quiet power of these stories, and the reason we preserve them. Through the work of special collections and the care of special collections stewardship, we ensure that these tales endure not only as artifacts, but as living companions. They remain ready to inspire new readers, spark new imaginations, and offer that same sense of home to someone else, years or even decades from now.
This is the latest installment in a recurring series of posts introducing readers to the staff of Kenneth Spencer Research Library. Today’s profile features Centennial Newby, who joined Spencer Research Library in August 2025 asa Public Services Associate.
Centennial Newby, Public Services Associate. Click image to enlarge.
Where are you from?
I am a lifelong Midwesterner! I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, but throughout my childhood, I came to Lawrence regularly to visit my older sister (who is also a librarian!) and fell in love with the town. I ended up going to KU for my undergraduate degree, stayed through graduate school, and have lived here ever since. Lawrence is truly a special place and I’m proud to call it home.
What does your job at Spencer entail?
As a Public Services Associate at Spencer, I’m a sort of jack of all trades. I staff our Reading Room desk multiple times a week, assist with answering our reference emails, tackle reproduction requests, create digital exhibits, and offer an extra set of hands with our classes & events. There’s something new every day!
How did you come to work in libraries/archives/special collections?
I knew I wanted to be a librarian from a very young age. I was always a bookish library kid – my parents took us to our public library weekly to check out an exorbitant number of books. To me, there was nothing more magical than sharing this treasure trove of stories for free, and that sense of gratitude & wonder for libraries has stayed with me. I started my career in libraries at the one and only Lawrence Public Library in the Youth Services Department as an assistant in both the children and teen areas before eventually becoming the Teen Services Librarian. While my origin story is with public libraries & I loved my time there, it’s been incredible to start a new adventure at a special collections library like Spencer!
What part of your job do you like best?
My favorite part about my job is going down a research rabbit hole for a reference question. Some folks might think otherwise, but there’s nothing like the thrill of the chase for an obscure reference or a long-thought-lost document! Even something as simple as connecting families to a great-grandmother’s KU yearbook photo brings me a lot of joy. I love being the connecting point between our patrons and our vast sea of archival material.
What is one of the most interesting items you’ve come across in Spencer’s collections?
There are so many unique items in our collections, but the one that sparked the most joy was this absolutely delightful photo I came across while looking at a 1910 family photo album / scrapbook from the Jane Comstock Clarke collection. The photos are mostly of the human members of the family, but there is one photo of a kitten wearing a monocle, posed at a desk with a book as if the sweet furry baby can read. Upon discovery, I immediately showed it to practically every coworker in the building – how could I not? And now, I share this joy with you!
Photo from the the Clarke family photo album, circa 1910, from the Jane Comstock Clarke Collection. Call Number: RH MS 1599 Box 1 Volume 1. Click image to enlarge.
What do you have on your desk?
I try to keep my desk itself pretty bare bones, but on my corkboard I have:
Practice medieval calligraphy from an event hosted by Digital Humanities Librarian John McEwan in collaboration with our Makerspace
A bookmark from the Poison Book Project which has color swatches to help identify the distinct pigment of bright emerald green used in 19th century bookmaking
A reproduction of a cyanotype photograph of the Lawrence Union Pacific Depot from the early 20th century, which featured in my recent short-term exhibit on the building & its dedicated decade-long preservation campaign.
What are some of your favorite pastimes outside of work?
I am, of course, an avid reader, mostly of the historical and fantasy genres. (Currently reading Moonbound by Robin Sloan.) Sparked by playing Animal Crossing during the pandemic with the rest of the world, I developed a love for cozy video games – although these days I prefer indie gems. Less frequently but still passionately, I love all things crafty, especially fiber art. But as we head into summertime, you’ll most often find me picnicking at Lone Star Lake or on the pickleball courts in North Lawrence!
As an elder millennial who loved history as a child and grew up with American Girl, I’ve been excited about the company’s 40th anniversary this year. As a result, I will be sharing a series of posts highlighting Spencer collection materials that connect to AG’s six original historical characters, in chronological order of when they “lived”: Felicity Merriman, Josefina Montoya, Kirsten Larson, Addy Walker, Samantha Parkington, and Molly McIntyre. Each post will focus on a different character and explore a selection of items that relate to the time and place in which she “lived” and topics or themes explored in her stories.
The front cover of the first book in Felicity’s series, first published in 1991.
When readers meet Felicity Merriman, she is a “spunky, sprightly” nine-year-old girl living in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1774. Her stories are set against the backdrop of rising tensions between Patriots and Loyalists just before the American Revolution, and the theme of independence runs throughout them. Felicity herself balks at learning expected housewifery skills, and she attempts to free a beloved horse named Penny from an abusive owner. The questions of freedom, liberty, and equality asked in the stories are not extended to the enslaved characters (and one free person of color) who are mentioned or implied. Other topics in Felicity’s books include education for girls, illnesses and injuries, British taxation especially on tea, her father’s store, and maintaining friendships in the face of disagreements.
Selected pages in The Ladies’ Diary, or, Woman’s Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1774. Published in London between 1704 and 1841, The Ladies’ Diary, or, Woman’s Almanack famously featured puzzles and mathematical questions in addition to calendars and important dates. Spencer’s 1774 copy appears to feature a red two-pence duty tax stamp. It is also bound with nine other popular Company of Stationers almanacs from the same year; similar volumes from several years between 1744 and 1826 can also be found at Spencer under the call number “Bond B17.” Call Number: Bond B17 1774. Click images to enlarge.
A folded map of North America in The North-American and the West-Indian Gazetter, London: 1778. The table in the lower right includes distances between Williamsburg and other other places. Note the inclusion of the “Kanses” indigenous tribe on the far left side of the map. The Gazetter was an encyclopedic guide to the “cities, towns, harbours, ports, bays, rivers, lakes, mountains, number of inhabitants &c.” of the continent. The 1778 edition can be read online through the Internet Archive. Call Number: B14256. Click image to enlarge.
The box lid for Dolls with Williamsburg Colonial Dress, 1940. “Let’s pretend,” declares the accompanying booklet in this set of paper dolls, “that this is a family that lived in Williamsburg in Virginia about the year 1760…There are Father and Mother. They have two children. Their little girl is called Belinda. She is twelve years old. Their little boy is Phillip. He is ten years old. Sukey is the [presumably enslaved] cook. Moses is the [presumably enslaved] colored man. Sukey and Moses do much of the work in the house.” Call Number: H180. Click image to enlarge.
The title page and publication note of An Oration Delivered March 5, 1774: At the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston; To Commemorate the Bloody Tragedy of the Fifth of March 1770 by John Hancock, Boston: 1774. “Some boast of being friends to government,” Hancock asserted in this speech. “I am a friend to righteous government, to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice; but I glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny.” This speech can be read online through the Massachusetts Historical Society; a transcription is available through the UMKC School of Law “Famous Trials” website. Call Number: D845. Click images to enlarge.
A bill of sale for “a Negro Boy Named Poppy Nine years old” in Boston, November 15, 1784. This boy was the same age as Felicity when readers first meet her in 1774. Call Number: MS B26. Click image to enlarge.
The frontispiece (left) and title page (middle) of The Experienced English Housekeeper, for the Use and Ease of Ladies, Housekeepers, Cooks, &c. by Elizabeth Raffald, London: 1778. On the right is a fold-out copper plate diagram of a first-course dinner arrangement consisting of 25 dishes, part of what Raffald calls a “grand table”: “January being a month when entertainments are most used, and most wanted, from that motive I have drawn my dinner at that season of the year.” A second copper plate diagramshows another 25 dishes, and Raffald asserts that the third (dessert) course “must” therefore “be of the same number.” Call Number: C3670. Click images to enlarge.
The title page and a selection of treatments in Every Man His Own Physician by John Theobald, London: 1766 (a “new edition, improved). Historically known as chlorosis, “green sickness” was primarily diagnosed in young, unmarried teenage girls. “Gripes” is an older term for influenza. Note that the cure for headaches includes “leeches behind the ears.” Call Number: B9522. Click images to enlarge.
The “first anatomical table of the muscles, fascias, ligaments, nerves, arteries, veins, glands, and cartilages” in The Anatomy of the Horse by George Stubbs, London: 1766. This volume includes “eighteen tables [illustrations], all done from nature,” each accompanied by explanatory text. Call Number: Ellis Omnia H16. Click image to enlarge.
Selected Additional Collection Items
Colonial British America, Virginia, and Williamsburg
Map, North America, as Divided Amongst the European Powers, London: 1774. Call Number: Orbis Maps 1:85.
The Office and Authority of a Justice of Peace Explained and Digested, Under Proper Titles by Richard Starke, Williamsburg: 1774. Includes a section on penalties for (ahem, Felicity) stealing horses. George Washington had a copy of this work in his library. Call Number: C14997.
Map, A New and Correct Map of North America, With the West India Islands; Divided According to the Last Treaty of Peace, Concluded at Paris. 10th. Feby. 1763, London: 1777. Call Number: N6 Orbis 1:81.
Map, Bowles’s New Map of North America and the West Indies, London: 1781. Call Number: N7 Orbis 1:82.
Colonial Williamsburg, the First Twenty-Five Years; A Report, 1952. Call Number: RH D1411.
Rising Tensions Before the American Revolution
First [-Fifth] Report from the Committee Appointed to Enquire [sic] into the Nature, State, and Condition, of the East India Company, and of the British Affairs in the East Indies, London: 1773? These reports document the UK Parliament’s investigation into the East India Company in 1772 and 1773. One result of this inquiry was the Tea Act of 1773, which features prominently in Felicity’s stories. Call Number: G374 v.3 items 6-10.
A Caution to Great Britain and Her Colonies, in a Short Representation of the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions by Anthony Benezet, London: 1767. Call Number: C3749.
Fragment of an Original Letter on the Slavery of the Negroes; Written in the Year 1776 by Thomas Day, London: 1784. Call Number: Howey C3950 item 2.
Household Matters and Girls’ Education
The Ready Calculator: or, Trader’s Certain Guide, in Computing the Price, or Amount of Any Quantity of Goods and Merchandizes by Thomas Slack, London: 1771. Call Number: Howey B856.
An Essay Upon Nursing and the Management of Children, From Their Birth to Three Years of Age by William Cadogan, Boston: 1772. Call Number: C1801.
Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, Addressed to a Young Lady. In Two Volumes by Mrs. (Hester) Chapone, London: 1773. Call Number: B3783.
An Essay on the Learning, Genius, and Abilities of the Fair-Sex: Proving Them Not Inferior to Man, From a Variety of Examples, Extracted From Ancient and Modern History, an English translation of Defensa de las mujer by Benito Jerónimo Feijoo y Montenegro, London: 1774. Call Number: B7649.
The Toilet of Flora, an English translation (with alterations) of La toilette de flore by Pierre-Joseph Buc’hoz, London: 1775. Contains “a collection of the most simple and approved methods of preparing baths, essences, pomatums, powders, perfumes, sweet-scented waters, and opiates for preserving and whitening the teeth” with “receipts [recipes] for cosmetics of every kind, that can smooth and brighten the skin, give force to beauty, and take off the appearance of old age and decay.” Call Number: B8738.
The Complete Vermin-Killer: A Valuable and Useful Companion for Families, in Town and Country, London: 1777. Includes “safe and quick methods of destroying bugs, lice, fleas, rats, mice, moles, weazels [sic], caterpillars, frogs, pismires, snails, frogs, moths, earwigs, wasps, pole-cats, badgers, foxes, otters, and fish and birds of all kinds.” Also includes “useful family receipts, for the preparation of medicines” and “directions for the purchase, management and cure of horses.” Call Number: Ellis Omnia C437.
Horses
Observations Upon the Shoeing of Horses: With an Anatomical Description of the Bones in the Foot of a Horse by James Clark, Edinburgh: 1770. Call Number: 18th century Prose 1841.
A Treatise on Cattle: Shewing the Most Approved Methods of Breeding, Rearing, and Fitting for Use, Horses, Asses, Mules, Horned Cattle, Sheep, Goats, and Swine by John Mills, Dublin: 1776. Call Number: C4072.
The Summerfield Collection at Kenneth Spencer Research Library consists of early-modern printed books, but the focus of a current project supervised by Special Collections Curator Eve Wolynes is to identify instances of binder’s waste and, when possible, identify their original source. Binder’s waste is a term for when parts or pages of an older, often medieval, manuscript are reused as part of the structure of a book’s binding. This could mean the boards of a book, structural support for the spine, or more decorative details like the cover, flyleaves, or similar. Many of the materials used as examples here are currently available for viewing – with a second case of materials highlighting illustrations by Edward Gorey – in Spencer’s North Gallery through May 29th.
Beginning with structure, the most obvious examples of reuse can be found in the interior of a volume, generally on the boards near the spine. This kind of reuse is generally to help support either just the spine or the adherence of the boards and the spine together. Lorenzo Valla’s Elegantiae (Call Number: Summerfield B1962) has an example of this as the paper pasted on top (pastedown) has worn away enough to show some of the reuse (Fig. 1). This is clearly a medieval text, and – while it is fragmented – some of the words such as “Johannes” in the body text and “baptista” in the marginal notation among other examples illustrate that the focus of the text is on John the Baptist.
Fig. 1: Front interior detail, Elegantiae, 1540. Call Number: Summerfield B1962. Click image to enlarge.
An example of more spinal support (Fig. 2.1) is seen in Analysis Logica Libri S. Lucae Qui Inscribitur Acta Apostoloru (Call Number: Summerfield B698). The strips are another method in which reuse occurs, though it can also be in longer or wider strips. The strips in this particular volume do not have any text or decoration remaining, so their exact origin cannot be certain. However, it is possible they come from the same leaf that was used to make the cover (Fig. 2.2). Based on the text visible both from the interior of the spine and the exterior cover, we can find that the lyrics to the music sheet are from “Lauda Sion,” a Christian hymn that celebrates Jesus Christ. Reuse of music sheets is fairly common within the Summerfield Collection, likely due to the rubrication and various ink colors or decoration that may accompany them.
Fig. 2.1: Spine interior detail, Analysis Logica Libri S. Lucae Qui Inscribitur Acta Apostoloru, 1597. Call Number: Summerfield B698. Click image to enlarge.
Fig. 2.2: Front cover, Analysis Logica Libri S. Lucae Qui Inscribitur Acta Apostoloru, 1597. Call Number: Summerfield B698. Click image to enlarge.
Music, although not a particularly popular feature, was not an uncommon form of reuse, either because of its wide availability or because it had some aspect of artistry and thus aesthetic interest for a cover. While actual music sheets may have been popular, texts of chant or hymnal lyrics are also quite common. A book of hours in the Summerfield Collection (Call Number: Summerfield B2890) has one such instance of reuse as the cover consists of a chant to laud St. Louis (Ludovicus in Latin), which would likely have been performed during Mass (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3: Front cover, Book of Hours, 1497. Call Number: Summerfield B2890. Click image to enlarge.
There were, of course, numerous other ways to reuse materials, but these are some of the most common examples within Spencer’s holdings. While some of the items are currently part of the temporary exhibit, the Summerfield Collection is always available for access in the Reading Room at Kenneth Spencer Research Library.
