Kenneth Spencer Research Library

Music! Races! Lemonade! Processions! In honor of the Fourth of July, here are three broadsides from the late 1800s publicizing local celebrations.

Broadside, Fourth of July celebration, Jarbalo, Kansas, 1888.
Call Number: RH Q52. Click image to enlarge.

Broadside, Fourth of July celebration,
Springfield, Missouri, circa 1890-1899.
Call Number: RH Q93. Click image to enlarge.

Broadside, Fourth of July celebration, Fulton, Kansas,
possibly 1899. Call Number: RH P100. Click image to enlarge.

Meredith Huff
Building Operations and Stacks Manager
Public Services Student Assistant Supervisor

The Daniel Vanderslice collection from the Kansas Collection was recently treated in the Stannard Conservation Laboratory. Every item in the collection was thoroughly surveyed, and select papers underwent treatments such as tear mending, tape removal, and humidification and flattening.

Daniel Vanderslice led a colorful and varied life. Born in Pennsylvania in 1799, he was apprenticed in 1820 as a papermaker in Chester County, PA. In 1822, he joined an expedition in the lead mines in northwestern Illinois, but by 1825 had moved to Kentucky and eventually became a partner in the Great Crossings paper mill with General William Johnson, nephew of U.S. Vice President Richard Johnson. Mr. Vanderslice was a trusted town leader, serving as postmaster and owner of the Kentucky Sentinel in Georgetown, KY. His ardent work in the Democratic party and perhaps friendship with the Johnsons led to his appointment as special agent for the removal of Chickasaws in 1837 from Memphis to Fort Coffee, in present-day Oklahoma.

List of Chickasaw Indians on the S.B. Itasca and the S.B. Liverpool. Kansas Collection, call number RH MS 136.1.7. Click image to enlarge.

Between 1853 and 1861, he was appointed by President Franklin Pierce as General Agent for the Great Nemaha Indian Agency that managed the activities of the Chickasaw, Iowa, Sac and Fox, and Kickapoo tribes. The collection includes administrative papers relating to these tasks.

Left: Pay Roll, Sac and Foxes of Missouri, April 1861, RH MS 136.4.12. Right: Plans for school house and teacher’s dwelling to be erected on the Iowa Reservation, 1860, RH MS 136.4.9b. Kansas Collection. Click images to enlarge.

A supporter of the Democratic Party, Mr. Vanderslice was a member of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention that in 1857 penned a document with aims to allow legal slave holding in Kansas when it became a state. Both the U.S. House of Representatives and Kansas voters later rejected the proposed constitution, and Kansas entered the Union as a free state on January 29, 1861.

Document titled, “Democratic Convention,” 1857, RH MS 136.3.1. Click image to enlarge.

Whitney Baker
Head, Conservation Services

This is the sixth installment in what will be a recurring series of posts introducing readers to the staff of the Kenneth Spencer Research Library. Deborah Dandridge is the Field Archivist/Curator for the African American Experience Collections in our Kansas Collection.

Deborah Dandridge reading over her presentation notes
at the Black Archives of Mid-America conference held in
Kansas City, MO this past October.

Where are you from?

I was born in Topeka, Kansas, where I attended school K through 12. I began kindergarten at Washington School, one of the city’s four elementary schools designated for African American students and teachers. After the 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision, I completed my grade school education at Washington because my parents determined that Washington’s excellent faculty and supportive environment afforded me the best opportunity for a quality education, although I lived only a half block from a previous whites-only school.

What does your job at Spencer entail?

I reach out to communities across the state for donations of their historical materials (i.e. written and photographic) that document the experiences of African American families, churches, organizations, and businesses and I serve as curator of these materials (i.e. the African American Experience Collections).

How did you come to work at Spencer Research Library?

I began my work in KSRL as field archivist for a 1986-1989 National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant awarded to the Kansas Collection, in cooperation with KU’s African and African American Studies department.

What is the strangest item you’ve come across in Spencer’s collections?

All of the items reflect important experiences in the lives of the donors. They represent special moments or routine activities of the past that inform us about the present.

What part of your job do you like the most?

Visiting with potential donors of materials and participating in community public programs across the Kansas region.

What are your favorite pastimes?

Although it’s difficult, I’m enjoying my new journey into the world of physical training as a client of an expert in the field.

What piece of advice would you offer a researcher walking into Spencer Research Library for the first time?

Be prepared to embark upon a fascinating, never seen before, exploration of the rich, diverse record of human past.

Deborah Dandridge
Field Archivist/Curator
African American Experience Collections
Kansas Collection

We couldn’t resist sharing an extra – and especially cute – entry this week in honor of Valentine’s Day. Enjoy!

Valentine from Buster Brown to Barbara Lauter, 1955.
Lawrence Journal-World Photo Collection.
Call Number: RH PH LJW. Click image to enlarge.

Kathy Lafferty
Public Services

Among the vast holdings of Kenneth Spencer Research Library’s Kansas Collection is an assortment of printed music, all produced by publishers based in the Sunflower State (RH E165). Song topics include patriotism, candidate promotion, parental affection, Kansas themes, waltzes, and love songs.

The publication of sheet music in the United States and Europe hit its stride during the Victorian era. An increase in the disposable income and leisure time of middle-class households meant that they could purchase pianos and other musical instruments, along with music lessons. The songs came to be known as “parlor music,” and many were composed especially for this type of use. Music in the home became a popular means of entertainment. Open the lid of the piano bench in any home that owned a piano and you would find a collection of sheet music. Phonograph records and radio would eventually replace parlor music as both a means of distributing music and home entertainment.

Since Valentine’s Day is here, this blog entry will focus on some of the love songs in the collection. Enjoy!

Sheet music cover, “I Never Knew.” Words and music by Marcus J. Lehman.
Wichita, Kansas: Mid-Continent Co. Publishers, 1920.
Kansas Sheet Music Collection. Call Number: RH E165. Click image to enlarge.

“I Never Knew”

A youthful suitor loved a maid,
How much he never knew.
He with her heart at baseball played,
Until she weary grew.
The more he teased this maiden fair
The more she did despair,
Until one day she went away,
And then I heard him say:

Chorus:
I never knew how much I’d miss you
Till you went away.
But now I want so much to kiss you,
Since you’ve gone to stay.
Your smile,
Your lips,
Your eyes so blue,
Your curls, I miss them, too.
The wealth of love you gave so true,
But most I just miss you.

Sheet music cover, “A Lover’s Quarrel.” Words and music by Rene F. Hartley.
Topeka, Kansas: Rene F. Hartley Music Publishing Co., 1922.
Kansas Sheet Music Collection. Call Number: RH E165. Click image to enlarge.

“A Lover’s Quarrel”

Often you’ll find, Sweethearts so fine,
True to each other but quarreling
When some things gone wrong.
Yes in their love play,
and just then you’ll hear one of them saying…..

Chorus:
It’s just a lover’s quarrel, yes just a lover’s quarrel,
Like all lovers have, but some so many more.
Hush now don’t you cry,
Dear now don’t you sigh,
‘Cause you know for you I’d die.
Long live the day, yes while at work and play,
For you and your winning way,
Right from the start you won my heart,
Now we must never part
Just over a lover’s quarrel.

Don’t say you’re through, that makes me blue,
When I love you and you only.
Still I know you’re mad,
And I’m feeling sad,
Now please gladden my heart dear by saying…..

Sheet music cover, “You Have Always Been the Same to Me.”
Words and music by Louis Weber, for his parents on their 64th wedding anniversary.
Kansas City, Kansas: Weber Brothers, 1912. Kansas Sheet Music Collection.
Call Number: RH E165. Click image to enlarge.

“You Have Always Been the Same to Me”

Many years ago my darling,
I remember well the day,
When I first began to love you,
Sixty years have passed away.
We have been so happy darling,
Now our locks are white, you see,
But our loves been growing stronger.
You have always been the same to me

Chorus:
You have always been the same to me.
You have always been the same to me.
When we reach the golden city
You will always be the same to me.

Many sorrows crossed our pathway,
But our lives were one sweet strain.
We have borne our lot together,
Sharing one another’s pain.
Soon we’ll close life’s pleasant journey,
Soon that city we shall see.
In that home of endless pleasure
You will always be the same to me.

Where the mocking birds are singing,
And the stars their vigils keep,
There beneath the sod my darling,
We shall sweetly sleep.
In the dawning of the morning
We shall ever happy be,
And through all the endless ages
You will always be the same to me.

Kathy Lafferty
Public Services