Kenneth Spencer Research Library

In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, I’m highlighting items from our Kansas Collection that feature events and people from Haskell Indian Nations University, which has been educating First Nations students since 1884 in Lawrence, KS.

Did you know that Haskell offered the first touch-typing class in Kansas? The commercial department, now known as the business department, opened in 1895 with five typewriters. To find this information and other interesting facts about Haskell, check out their school history webpage.

Vivian McAllister with students typing in class at Haskell.
Miscellaneous photographs and negatives, ca. 1970.
Wallace Galluzzi Papers. Call Number: RH MS 807. Click Image to Enlarge.

This picture was taken in the 1930s by the well-known local photographer, Duke D’ambra. It illustrates Haskell’s long history as a diverse intertribal educational institution. Haskell continues to celebrate its cultural diversity with the annual Haskell Indian Art Market.

Unknown Haskell students. Photograph of Haskell Activities, 1930s.
Duke D’ambra photograph collection. Call Number: RH PH 69.542.6. Click Image to Enlarge.

Haskell has a long tradition of producing exceptional athletes. Below are a couple of examples from Haskell’s rich athletic history.

John Levi played football at Haskell from 1921-1924 and then came back to coach the team from 1926-1936. He has been inducted into 3 sports hall of fames, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Athletic Hall of Fame, and the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame. Check out Haskell Athletics’ Flashback Friday post on John Levi to learn more.

Photograph of Haskell football player John Levi and accompanying document chronicling
his actions in a game against the Quantico Marines. Duke D’ambra photograph collection.
Call Number: RH PH 69.583.3. Click Image to Enlarge.

Billy Mills was a graduate of both Haskell and KU. He is most remembered for his surprise win of the 10,000-meter race at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. To learn more about Billy Mills and his incredible life story check out this interview with Mills from Haskell Athletics’ Flashback Friday post and “Mill’s Moment” on KUHistory.com written by Mark D. Hersey.

“Billy Mills is inducted in Sports Hall of Fame.” The Indian Leader,
November 27, 1964.William Galluzzi Papers. Call Number: RH MS 807.
Click Image to Enlarge.

Mindy Babarskis
Library Assistant and Supply Coordinator

The following images were taken by Joseph Judd Pennell, a professional photographer in Junction City, Kansas, from 1888 to 1923. The images in the collection represent a comprehensive record of life in a turn-of-the-century small Kansas town and the nearby army post of Fort Riley.

Football team on Thanksgiving Day, Fort Riley, Kansas, 1896.
Joseph Judd Pennell Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH Pennell.
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

A major U.S. Army post, Fort Riley was the site of a light artillery unit; several cavalry units, including the 9th and 10th black cavalry troops; one of the best cavalry schools in the world; and Camp Funston, a major army induction center during World War I.

Kitchen staff in the 20th Battery Dining Hall prepared for Thanksgiving dinner, Fort Riley,
Kansas, 1904. Joseph Judd Pennell Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH Pennell.
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Soldiers gathered in the 20th Battery Dining Hall for Thanksgiving dinner, Fort Riley,
Kansas, 1904. Joseph Judd Pennell Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH Pennell.
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Although primarily a studio portrait photographer, Pennell also went out into the community to photograph. He recorded business, social, church, and school activities; people’s prized moments and possessions; and events that touched everyone’s lives, such as floods, parades, President Theodore Roosevelt‘s visit, the racket nine-cent sale, polo games, and Chautauqua. Revealed within the photographs is the detail and complexity of rural and urban life. The collection as a whole shows how a town and its people changed over time, evidenced in things like the styles of fashion and consumer goods, the appearance of new buildings as the town grew, and the entrance of technology into everyday life. One of the most notable technological changes that Pennell documented was the gradual movement from horse to automobile power.

Dining room set for Thanksgiving dinner, Fort Riley, Kansas, 1905.
Joseph Judd Pennell Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH Pennell.
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

6th Band dining room set for Thanksgiving dinner, Fort Riley, Kansas, 1913.
Joseph Judd Pennell Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH Pennell.
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Spencer’s Pennell collection consists of approximately 30,000 glass plate negatives, 6,074 contact prints (some dry-mounted on boards), 302 original Pennell photographs, and ten studio register books containing Pennell’s negative identification system. The glass plate negatives vary in size from 4″ x 5″ to 12″ x 20″, with the bulk of the collection in the 5″ x 7″ format. There are also a small number of flexible negatives and forty-six large panoramic negatives.

Kathy Lafferty
Public Services

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

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

On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, making it illegal to produce, sell or transport “intoxicating” liquors. It passed in spite of President Wilson’s veto. It was also known as the Volstead Act, named after Congressman Andrew J. Volstead of Minnesota, who worked closely with the Anti-Saloon League to draft and promote the bill until it became law. The Volstead Act implemented the Prohibition (Eighteenth) Amendment by defining the process and procedures for banning alcoholic beverages, as well as their production and distribution.

Men at an unknown saloon in June 1919. The caption reads “fill ’em up, boys; last chance.”
Ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment was certified on January 16, 1919;
it took effect one year later. Call Number: PH PH P238. Click image to enlarge.

Ardmore [Oklahoma] Police Department members pouring out barrels of alcohol,
November 22, 1916. Call Number: PH PH P1617. Click image to enlarge.

In Kansas, however, prohibition had been an issue even before statehood in 1861. Organized groups such as the Order of Good Templars, the Kansas State Temperance Union, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union fought for statewide prohibition, eventually establishing Kansas as the first state to adopt prohibition into its constitution. Strongly prohibitionist, Republican governor John P. St. John was elected in 1878, and by this time the legislature was like-minded. The state law was ratified by voters in November 1880, and prohibition in Kansas took effect on January 1, 1881, making it illegal to manufacture or sell intoxicating liquors in the state.

Kansas delegates to a Michigan prohibition meeting, undated.
Call Number: RH PH P164. Click image to enlarge.

A Prohibition pamphlet published in Kansas City, Kansas,
by M. A. Waterman, etc., 1911. Call Number: RH C4581.
Click image to enlarge.

Prohibition may have been the law of the land in Kansas, but saloons and bars simply paid fines and used loopholes in the law to stay in business. Established temperance organizations still worked to get stronger laws and ensure enforcement of them, but the failure to enforce the law, combined with a decline of support for prohibition among the general population, caused a rise of prohibitionist radicals such as Carrie Nation (1846-1911). Nation and her followers attracted attention to the liquor issue by using unconventional methods, such as smashing saloons with rocks and hatchets and getting arrested as a result. Topeka, Kansas, became Nation’s home base as she traveled around, in state and out, taking her message to the people. While her methods may have been radical, they did get results. She addressed a joint session of the Kansas legislature, went on a lecture tour, and published a temperance newspaper called the Smasher’s Mail. In 1907 the government began real enforcement of the prohibition laws, and the governor and the legislature made the laws stronger, closing loopholes.

The Smasher’s Mail, edited by Carrie Nation,
“your loving home defender.”
Topeka, Kansas: Nick Chiles, 1901.
Call Number: RH VLT H5. Click image to enlarge.

For several years national, state, and local law enforcement officials worked to make the country “dry.” However, by the 1930s, most citizens thought prohibition had failed, and the amendment was repealed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. However, in Kansas prohibition continued to be the law until 1948, when it was finally voted down. Alcohol in Kansas returned to being subject to local option laws, much like those that had been in place seventy years before.

Two songs from The Prohibition Bugle Call: New Songs for Prohibition Clubs,
Temperance Societies, Gospel Temperance Meetings and the Home Circle by H. H. Hawley.
New York: Biglow & Main, 1887. Call Number: Shull C148. Click image to enlarge.

Kathy Lafferty
Public Services