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.
Over the past few years, before Juneteenth became a national holiday, KU Libraries gave employees the day off as a Day of Reflection. We used this time to reflect on what we knew and learn more about African American history, understanding the history of emancipation.
Official souvenir program from the 23rd annual Emancipation Celebration in Dayton, Ohio, 1923. Marcus Hamilton Papers. Call Number: RH MS 667. Click image to enlarge.
I grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan. It wasn’t as big as Detroit or Grand Rapids, but it was a large city with a number of companies that kept the city in business. Battle Creek is where the Kellogg brothers and Charles W. Post invented cereal. Those companies employed the majority of Battle Creek’s population. It is also the place where Sojourner Truth is buried.
Having this connection to the Underground Railroad where I lived, I became more interested in history. However, we learned about emancipation only from one view.
The front cover of Freedom to the Free: Century of Emancipation, 1863-1963, a report to the President by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1963. Call Number: RH WL C10768. Click image to enlarge.
A flier for the 1963 Emancipation Celebration in Wichita, Kansas. Leonard Garrett Papers. Call Number: RH MS 689. Click image to enlarge.
From junior high to college, many of my classmates were African American. I also had teachers, principals, and a high school counselor who were Black. It was only when I lived in and traveled around the country that I became aware of the lack of diversity in many communities.
A flier for the 1992 Juneteenth Celebration at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. Personal Papers of Moses Gunn. Call Number: PP 463. Click image to enlarge.
When I began my research on Juneteenth, I could not find much information. A colleague mentioned that I should use “emancipation” as my search term instead. I wanted to learn the importance and history of the Juneteenth holiday. I found that emancipation celebrations were held on different days of the year in different locations.
With Juneteenth becoming a national holiday, I hope it is a catalyst for people understand and learn more about African American history from their perspective. Juneteenth is more than a day off work. It is a day to celebrate African American history and U.S. history to the present.
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A Juneteenth Celebration program, 2008. Records of the Topeka Council of Colored Women’s Clubs. Call Number: RH MS 1289. Click image to enlarge.
Researching our collections, I was able to find many documents on emancipation. This blog post is only a small sample from our holdings.
I encourage you to visit Spencer to see and touch the historical materials housed at the library. Spencer is free and open to the public. A reference librarian can work with you to find resources on emancipation, Juneteenth, and broader African American history in Kansas. See the library’s website for more information.
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 an item from our collection of Lawrence Public Schools (USD 497) records. The collection spans 1858 to 2022 and contains a myriad of items including records, reports, newsletters, yearbooks, and photographs. The collection consists of 144 boxes, 33 oversize boxes, 24 oversize folders, 143 video tapes, 18 audio tapes, and seven CDs. According to the collection’s finding aid, “the State of Kansas unified Lawrence schools in 1965, creating Lawrence Unified School District #497, or the Lawrence Public Schools. This was during an era when schools were consolidating across the state in part due to better transportation options.”
The pages shared below are from “Charlsia’s Cordley [Elementary School] Recipe Book.” The document is undated, although other items in the box range from 1962 to 2012. The recipe book contains various recipe entries for date cake, applesauce salad, refrigerator rolls, and more. I assume the recipes were submitted by students.
Before finding this item, I did not know that the USD 497 collection existed. I was digging through the finding aids looking for old recipes when I found this folder. I thought it would be fun to share given the school district is here in Lawrence.
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Selected pages from “Charlsia’s Cordley Recipe Book,” undated. Unified School District 497 Records. Call Number: RH MS 1255. 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 an item from our artificial portraits collection. Artificial collections contain smaller collections that have been grouped and stored together based on some similarity. Oftentimes, items in artificial collections do not come to the library together. Per the finding aid for the portraits collection, “many of the purchases were selected by Spencer Research Library’s Kansas Collection photo archivist during the 1980s and 1990s. The collection consists of real photographic postcards, lithographic print postcards, cabinet cards, cartes de visite, mounted and unmounted prints, glass plate negatives, and other visually-based formats of individuals, couples, and groups posed formally, often in photographic studios.” The items date from approximately 1868 to 1986.
The portrait shared today is of John Brown (May 9, 1800-December 2, 1859). Brown was an American abolitionist who, according to PBS, “could not be deterred from his mission of abolishing slavery.” Throughout his life, Brown settled in many various states, held numerous jobs, and fathered twenty children. He “first reach[ed] national prominence in the 1850s for his radical abolitionism and fighting in Bleeding Kansas,” notes Wikipedia. For example, “in May 1856, Brown and his sons killed five supporters of slavery in the Pottawatomie massacre, a response to the sacking of Lawrence by pro-slavery forces.” In 1859, Brown was “captured, tried, and executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia for a raid and incitement of a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry.”
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 book titled Random Rhymes by Ed Blair. The book was published in Spring Hill, Kansas, in 1939. It contains 213 pages of poems.
Not much about Random Rhymes can be found on the internet. It is another item that I stumbled upon while walking through the stacks. Sometimes I go wander around to see what titles pop out at me. I had no background knowledge on what the book held until I had it paged to the Reading Room. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was delighted to find the poems. A couple of poems from the book are included below.
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The front cover, the first page of the table of contents, and selected poems from Random Rhymes by Ed Blair, 1939. Call Number: RH C6635. 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 news clippings (circa 1951-1952) about the Lawrence Historical Museum, now known as the Watkins Museum of History. The Lawrence Historical Museum, which was overseen by the Douglas County Historical Society, was located in a city building at 8th and Vermont streets. The Watkins Museum of History, which is also run by the historical society, opened in 1975 at the corner of 11th and Massachusetts streets. The building housed the Watkins National Bank before being refurbished for the museum.
The Douglas County Historical Society was started in 1933 “when a group of concerned citizens were motivated to preserve the community’s early history.” Today, the society’s main activity is maintaining the museum.
The news clippings are part of an artificial collection, meaning it was put together by library staff (not assembled by an individual or organization and then donated to the library). The clippings discuss plans for the Lawrence Historical Museum and highlight when the museum opened for visitors in the basement of the new city building – a span of about six months. The articles also share information about new additions to the museum.
The Watkins Museum of History is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 4pm. Admission is free to the public. The museum “showcases unique and fascinating stories from Douglas County’s past.” Exhibit topics include Territorial Kansas, Civil War era artifacts, Quantrill’s Raid, and more. The museum also hosts many public programs and school groups, and it’s open for community research.
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The title page of – and selected pages page from – a scrapbook of Lawrence Historical Museum clippings, 1951-1952. Call Number: RH MS B64. Click images to enlarge.
