Kenneth Spencer Research Library

This is the thirteenth (lucky number thirteen!) installment in a recurring series of posts introducing readers to the staff of Kenneth Spencer Research Library. Today’s profile features Lynn Ward, who joined the Spencer Research Library processing unit in late October as a processing archivist. 

Where are you from?

Since most of my adult life has been spent in Lawrence, I like to say that’s where I’m from. I grew up in Missouri but attended the University of Kansas for my bachelor’s degree (anthropology) and masters (museum studies). I have moved from Lawrence a few times, but I keep coming back!

What does your job at Spencer entail?

How do researchers know what’s on the shelves in the archives? That’s my job. I work on making all the amazing information that is here in the library—in documents, letters, maps, photographs, diaries, drawings, scrapbooks, and records—accessible. I do that by processing donations and collections and then making finding aids for them online. Then the information contained in the donations and collections can be searched, found, and utilized.

Making Spencer’s collections accessible:
Lynn Ward in the Kansas Collection stacks.

How did you come to work at Spencer Research Library?

This isn’t the first time I have worked at Spencer Research Library. When I was a graduate student in the Museum Studies program here at KU, I worked in the University Archives up on the 4th floor. That was my first archives position. Since then, I have had a long career working in a variety of museums, archives, and libraries. At each one, I have learned new skills, experienced many situations, and gained lots of knowledge! I’m happy to bring all this to Spencer Research Library where I can use all these skills and knowledge, plus learn even more from the excellent staff here. In a way, I’ve come full circle and now I’m back home.

What is one of the most interesting items you’ve come across in Spencer’s collections?

It’s hard to narrow down one, because I find it all so interesting! I have worked on some great collections since starting here in late October. But, I would have to say that I am most interested in the territorial Kansas and also the early KU history material. In the lobby of the Spencer Research Library there is a map of Lawrence from 1854 that I love to look at—especially since “Kansas” is spelled with a “z”—“Kanzas.” I also like to walk in the North Gallery and see a cross-section of all the fascinating collections that are in the library. I love looking at all of the books and exhibits in that beautiful space.

Map of “Lawrence City, Kanzas Territory, Surveyed Oct. 1854 by A. D. Searl.”
This map hangs in the Spencer Research Library lobby. Click image to enlarge.

What part of your job do you like best?

I like the feeling of being part of a team. We are all working to make the collections accessible so that everyone—the public, historians, students, genealogists—can benefit from them.

What are some of your favorite pastimes outside of work?

I love, love, love to travel and explore. I’m happy going anyplace and doing anything. For example, a few weeks ago, I went with a friend on a fun daytrip exploring territorial history in Big Springs, Kansas. And last summer, my daughter and I found a cool shark’s tooth near Hays, Kansas. (I’m a huge dinosaur and prehistoric life fan.) I enjoy little adventures like that! I’ve got two teenage kids, so my husband and I spend a lot of our time involved in their activities. I also read a lot—mostly books about Kansas history—but I do enjoy a good historical fiction or a Michael Creighton novel, too!

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

I would tell them to take the time to talk to the reference room staff. If the staff know about your research project, they can help you think of resources here at Spencer Research Library.

Lynn Ward
Processing Archivist

Is the cold weather encouraging you to stay indoors? Why not dive into a new research project using one of the recently processed collections at Spencer Research Library? Today we share with you a list of finding aids published between May 2017 and November 2017. Finding aids are inventories or guide documents that assist researchers in navigating collections of manuscripts, organizational records, personal papers, photographs, and audio visual materials. You can learn more about finding aids in an earlier Finding Aids 101 post, and you can search the library’s finding aids here. As you begin your research, remember that Spencer Library will be closed for the holidays from December 23-January 1. However, if your New Year’s resolution is to conduct more archival research, you’re in luck since Spencer Library re-opens on January 2nd!

Enjoy a few images from three of these recently processed collections, and then scroll down for the full list of new finding aids.

Selected pages from a jazz scrapbook from the Chesterman C. Linley Scrapbooks.
Left page: Chesterman C. Linley with Count Basie at the at the Panhandle Christmas Party,
with Count Basie’s signature below. Right: Bobby Brookmeyer, Clark Terry, and Carmell Jones (top),
and Marilyn Maye (bottom). Call Number: RH MS EK5, Vol. 1. Click image to enlarge.

A volume containing two literary manuscripts by Mademoiselle de Lubert, “Les événements comiques conte” (above) and “Chélidonide histoire grecque,” approximately 1740-1760. Call Number: MS B182. Click images to enlarge.

University of Kansas postcards showing Frazier (i.e. Fraser) Hall (1909)
and a general view of campus (1910), from the Miller Family Postcard Collection.
Call Number: PP 581. Click image to enlarge.

New Finding aids

• African American Photograph Album, between 1880-1900. (RH PH 531)
• Reverend Lewis Allen Alderson Letters, March, April 1875. (RH MS P953)
• Phog Allen Papers in the Basketball Coach Records, 1933-1955. (RG 66/13/3)
• Sam Anderson World War II Ration Books, 1942-1945. (RH MS P957)
• Personal Papers of Brian Beatty, between 1996 and 2005. (PP 579)
• Bethel College, Newton, Kansas Negatives, between 1945 and 1955. (RH PH 528).
• Arden Booth State Senate Papers, 1964 to 1990 (bulk 1971 to 1976).  (RH MS 1404, RH MS R405)
• Brenna Buchanan’s Research on La Yarda Collection, 1999-2009. (RH MS 1431)
• Personal Papers of John A. Burzle, 1920-1002. (PP 547)
• Confucian Culture in Korea: Woodblocks for printing books, 1867, circa 1910. (MS Q10)
• Creek Nation School Catalogue Page, 1871. (RH MS P954)
• Charles and Julia Dandridge Family Papers, 1901-1995.  (RH MS 1153, RH MS 1306, RH MS-P 1306, RH MS-P 1306 (f), RH MS R350, RH Video 45, RH Cassette Tape 67,  RH MS R257)
• William Dickerson Lithograph, 1934. (RH PH P2828 (f))
• Records of the Douglas County Home Economics Association, 1974-2014. (RH MS 1419, RH MS R416)
• Douglas County, Kansas Soil Conservation Practices Photographs, 1930-1979. (RH PH 532)
• Louis Drogey Collection, “Ice Gorge” of Lawrence, Kansas postcard, [between 1900 and 1920].  (RH PH P2820)
• Barbara Duke photographs, 1915, 1934. (RH PH P2827, RH PH P2827 (f))
• Early Telephone Service in Kansas Collection, 1879.  (RH MS P951)
• Quentin James Eklund Studio Negatives and Photographs, 1946-1983. (RH PH 530
• English Poetical Miscellanies First-line Index, compiled 196-?. (MS 333, MS P746)
• Dr. H. M. Floersch Collection, between 1920 and 1946. (RH MS P950, RH MS-P P950).
• Fort Riley, Kansas Counseling Project Records, 1970s. (RH MS 1019)
• Great Armour Packing Factory Stereocard, 1890. (RH PH P2816)
• Edward Everett Hale carte de visite, circa 1870. (RH PH 2817)
• Hillcrest School Student Photographs, 1961-1962. (RH PH P2818)
• Lillie Holliday Papers, 1876-1932. (RH MS 1244, RH MS A42)
• Howard Family Collection, between 1850 and 1990. (RH MS 1410, RH MS-P 1410, RH MS R412, RH MS Q424)
• Judge William L. Huggins Photographs, 1870-1910. (RH PH 525)
• Hungate Family Papers, circa 1860-1965 (bulk 1920s-1948). (RH MS 1420, RH MS-P 1420)
• Diaries of Anna Johnson, 1910, 1920-1924, 1928-1950, 1956-1970, 1986, 1988.  (RH MS 1421)
• Ronald Johnson Holograph Books, bulk 1963-1967. (MS D214, vols. 1-2)
• Ronald Johnson Collection (Literary Estate Papers), 1950-2007. (MS 336, MS Qa21, MS R18, SC AV 15, SC AV 16, SC AV 17)
• Kansas City Red Cross Photograph, July 17, 1951 (RH PH 2814)
• Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma Postcard Sets, 1944[?]. (RH PH P2822)
• Kansas Women Schoolteachers Project Records, 1981-1982. (RH MS 872)
• Kaw Valley Older Women’s League (O.W.L.) Records, 1983, 1991-2016 (bulk 1992-2008). (RH MS 1423, RH MS Q47, KC AV2)
• Lawrence Art Guild Collection, 1992-2013. (RH MS 1430, RH MS Q431, RH MS R422)
• Lawrence Kansas Downtown Historical Survey, 1983-1984. (RH MS 403, RH MS-P 403)
• Lawrence, Kansas 75th Anniversary Collection, 1920-1929. (RH MS P777, RH MS R44, RH MS E142)
• Postcards of Lawrence, Kansas, 1912. (RH PH P2819)
• Chesterman C. Linley Scrapbooks, 1950-1979. (RH MS EK5)
• Little Bighorn Prints by William Nelson, 1976 (RH PH P2826(ff))
• Locomotive Finished Material Company of Atchison, Kansas Collection, approximately 1925. (RH PH P2821)
• Two Literary Manuscripts by Mademoiselle de Lubert, approximately 1740-1760. (MS B182)
• D. D. McCleery photographs, 1964, 1996-1997. (RH PH 524)
• Jim McCrary Papers, 1972-1995. (MS 332, MS Q69)
• Personal Papers of Ross E. McKinney, 1962. (PP 580)
• Henry Messenger Photographs, between 1910 and 1950. (RH PH 526)
• Miller Family Postcard Collection, 1909, 1910, [1915?].  (PP 581)
• Tim Miller Papers, 1970-1984, 2000. (RH WL MS 44, RH WL-P PH 5)
• E. Jennifer Monaghan Papers, 1974-2011. (MS 308, MS 335)
• Russell Mosser Collection, 1902-1917, 1949-1992.  (RH MS 1429, RH MS-P 1429 (f))
• Group Photograph by Murray Studio, between 1940 and 1960. (RH PH P2825)
• Northwestern Missouri Photographic Prints, [1890-1900?]. (RH PH P2824)
• Penn House Collection, 1970s-1981. (RS MS 1432)
• Pride Week of Lawrence, Kansas Collection, 2002. (RH MS P955)
• Personal Papers of Amber Reagan-Kendrick, 1995-1997. (PP 578)
• William C. Rein Papers, 1985-1993, circa 2007. (RH MS 1181, RH Cassette Tape 50)
• Robert  B. Riss  Collection, approximately 1400-1949. (MS 331, MS Qa18, MS Q68, MS R17)
• Personal Papers of Edward L. Ruhe, 1951-1989. (PP 510)
• Gertrude Leona Sailors‘ Daughters of the American Revolution Records, 1917-1930s. (RH MS P948)
• Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Photograph, 1929. (RH PH P2823)
• Stewart Family Photographs, between 1850 and 1939. (RH PH 529)
• Howard N. Stoner Audio Recordings, approximately 1970s-1980s[?]. (KC AV 3)
• Street Parade Photograph, between 1890-1910. (RH PH 2815)
• Lois Swaney Collection, 1929-1940s. (RH MS P949, RH MS-P P949, RH MS R410)
• Helen Thomas Papers, 1975. (RH MS P956)
• Virgil Thomson Collection, 1952-1954. (RH MS P947)
• Personal Papers of Rud Turnbull, 1967-2010. (PP 511, 545)
• Unified School District 497 Records, 1867-2013. (RH MS 1255, RH MS 1334, RH MS H21, RH MS Q353, RH MS R318, RH MS R319, RH Video 32, RH Cassette Tape 56, RH CD 31)
• John Palmer Usher Correspondence, 1861-1865 (RH MS P565)
• Views of Western Kansas Photographs, 1911, 1927, undated. (RH PH P2813)
• William and Lula White Family Papers, 1867-1990.  (RH MS 1310, RH MS-P 1310, RH MS Q382)
• William B. Young Journal, April 19, 1865 – June 30, 1865. (RH MS P958)

Elspeth Healey
Special Collections Librarian
and
Marcella Huggard
Archives and Manuscripts Processing Coordinator

In order to make manuscript collections available to researchers, we have to describe what we have so they know whether it is of interest or not. Typically archival description provides information about what is in the collection itself, as well as some contextual information to aid researchers in understanding more about why materials may be in the collection—a biographical note or administrative history of the creator of the collection, for example, or information about how Spencer acquired the collection. This additional information may come from the collection itself—the creator handily leaves a copy of their resume in their files, or the organization has created annual reports that provide some historical information about them. It can also come from external sources, such as websites and materials the creator and/or donor provided the curator when transferring the collection to Spencer, including notes the curator took when discussing the collection with the donor.

Sometimes, particularly with photographic collections that have little to no textual material donated with them, processing staff have very little to go on when creating a finding aid to help researchers. Take, for example, a collection of cabinet cards and tintypes that had been assembled into a photograph album. These photographic images are beautiful, posed portraits of African Americans in late 19th-century eastern Kansas—but we have very little external information about these images. We’re not even sure how we acquired this collection, or the story behind the creation of the photograph album. If any portrait is identified with a name, it’s hidden on the back, and we haven’t taken the album page package apart, even if the album overall was disbound due to its severe deterioration.

Family group, circa 1890s? African American Photograph Collection.
Call Number: RH PH 531. Click image to enlarge.

In this kind of situation, we provide what information we can. We can describe simply at the collection-level, or we can attempt to describe at the file or individual item level, but those descriptions will necessarily be generic: “Tintype of a soldier in a Civil War-era uniform.”

Tintype of a soldier in a Civil War-era
uniform, circa 1880-1900.
African American Photograph Collection.
Call Number: RH PH 531. Click image to enlarge

We can also provide rough date estimates for when the portraits were made, based upon the clothing worn by the sitters and upon the photographic processes used.

This woman’s overskirt—draped at the back of her dress
helping to create a bustle—tightly-fitted sleeves with cuffs,
and fitted basque-type bodice all indicate her photograph
was probably taken around the mid-1880s. African American Photograph Collection.
Call Number: RH PH 531. Click image to enlarge.

Photographers’ names, often provided on the bottom of cabinet cards and cartes de visite—think about watermarks on professionally-made digital photographs in the 21st century—also provide clues about where and when a collection is from. The photographers found in this collection mostly appear to come from Topeka, Kansas, with some also from Atchison, Lawrence, and perhaps other towns in the eastern part of the state.

The text under the image indicates it was taken by F. F. Mettner,
photographer of Lawrence, Kansas. Also notice the girl’s giant
leg o’mutton sleeves; this style was quite popular in the mid-1890s.
African American Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH 531. Click image to enlarge.

There are many decisions that go into processing a collection like this: Do we take apart the individual album pages to see if we can find more identifying information? Do we leave as is because this was how the images were intended to be seen (and who knows if anybody wrote anything on the back anyway)? Do we describe at a detailed level when we cannot provide names, or are we content with providing a simple collection-level description and hope that researchers are able to realize there may be a treasure trove from that collective description?

Who is this gentleman? If we knew his name,
what other information could it provide?
African American Photograph Collection.
Call Number: RH PH 531. Click image to enlarge.

No matter what we choose to do, archival description cannot capture the beauty of the women’s and children’s dresses and men’s suits—the sitters no doubt wearing their Sunday finest—the personalities that peek through even these stiffly posed studio portraits, the stories that may be hiding in the pictures themselves.

Portrait of an unknown woman, circa 1880-1900.
Marcella is especially fond of this photograph.
African American Photograph Collection.
Call Number: RH PH 531. Click image to enlarge.

If you have any information about any of these images, or others in the collection, we would be happy to add that information to the finding aid. To request to use the collection, contact Public Services staff at ksrlref@ku.edu. To provide more information about the collection, please also contact our African American Experience field archivist, Deborah Dandridge, at ddandrid@ku.edu.

Marcella Huggard
Manuscript Processing Coordinator

Finding aids are documents created by a repository’s staff members as a point of access for an archival or manuscript collection. To understand more about how finding aids helps researchers navigate collections of manuscripts, organizational records, personal papers, letters, diaries, and photographs, check out our Finding Aids 101 blog post. Here’s a list of some of Kenneth Spencer Research Library’s newest finding aids, so see which collections interest you!

A photograph of members belonging to the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at a banquet
from the Dorothy McField collection of sorority and fraternity papers.
African American Experience Collection. Call number: RH MS P944.3. Click image to enlarge.

The first page of a listing of titles for Éigse Eireann [“Poetry Ireland”]
from the Catholic Bulletin collection. Special Collections.
Call number: MS 329, Box 2, Folder 45. Click image to enlarge.

A photograph of two cowboys on horseback from the Wallace, Kansas photographs collection.
Kansas Collection. Call number: RH PH 60, Folder 1. Click image to enlarge.

The title page from Eugène Farcot’s Literary Manuscript Un Voyage Aérien; Dans Cinquante Ans.
Special Collections. Call number: MS K32. Click image to enlarge.

May 7th and 8th from the five year Diary of Maude Egbert, note her entry on May 8, 1945
or Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day). Kansas Collection.
Call number: RH MS B77. Click image to enlarge.

Other new finding aids:

• Blachly, Nora E. Crawford, 1907-2003. Nora Crawford Blachly personal papers. (PP 575)
• Cuthbert & Suehrk, Architects. Cuthbert & Suehrk architectural drawings. (RH AD 2, RH PH P62)
• Diary of an unknown young man. (RH MS P938)
• Flint, Homer Eon, 1889-1924. Homer Eon Flint papers. (MS 328)
• Harrison and Gladys Hollie family photograph collection. (RH PH 112)
• Hersh, Sally Six, 1933-2001. Sally Six Hersh collection. (RH MS 573, RH MS Q97, RH MS R89, RH MS R90, RH MS R91, RH MS S10, RH MS-P 573)
• Kansas Authors’ Club. Kansas Authors Club records & memorabilia. (RH MS 1397)
• Kaw Valley Hemp Pickers photograph collection. (RH PH P2811)
• Keystone View Company. Native American stereocards collection. (RH PH 521)
• Pemberton, Murdock, 1888-1982; Pemberton, Sally. Murdock Pemberton. (MS 327, MS Q67, MS Qa16)
• Proctor, Frank, 1908-1972. Frank Proctor family papers. (RH MS P943)
• Smith, Gary Mark. Gary Mark Smith collection. (RH MS 1380, RH MS Q409, RH MS R386, RH CD 42, RH MS-P1380, RH MS-P1380 (f), RH MS-P1380 (ff))
• Stephen J. Parker personal papers. (PP 574)
• Sturgeon, Christine Hamilton Dicker, 1897-1963. Christine “Felix” Sturgeon papers. (MS 330, MS Qa17)
• Swan, Robert Austin, 1942-. Citizen Diplomacy Archives of Bob Swan. (RH MS 1393, RH MS R394, RH MS R395, RH MS S44)
• United Spanish War Veterans. Frank C. Armstrong Camp No. 3 (Topeka, Kan.) Portrait collection of past commanders of Frank C. Armstrong Camp No. 3, United Spanish War Veterans. (RH PH 53)
• Wight, Lucy A., 1864-. Lucy A. Wight photograph collection. (RH PH 132)

Mindy Babarskis
Reference Specialist
Public Services

Last week Spencer Research Library hosted a workshop on the care and identification of photographs, taught by photograph conservator Gawain Weaver. I was fortunate to attend the four-day workshop along with three other fellow Spencer staff members from Conservation, Public Services, and Processing, as well as archivists and conservators from Missouri, Texas, and elsewhere in Kansas.

Our group met in Spencer’s Johnson Room and jumped right into things on day one by preparing paper to make our own salt prints. We coated paper first in a sodium chloride solution and, once dry, in a silver nitrate solution, then we placed leaves on the coated paper and exposed them in the sunlight over our lunch break. This simple exercise was a fun and engaging way to demonstrate the fundamentals of photographic chemistry.

The salt print I made in the workshop…it isn’t pretty, but the exercise was very useful!

Over the four days, we divided our time between Gawain’s incredibly information-packed lectures on the history of photographic and photomechanical processes, and lively hands-on sessions examining examples of many of the processes we’d learned about. The workshop fee included a small 60x-100x handheld microscope and a binder filled with the lecture slides, reference guides for identifying various processes, articles and recommended reading lists, and lots more useful information. Participants also had the option to purchase a sample set of photographic and photomechanical prints – a great addition to an archivist’s or conservator’s reference library.

This microscope is small, inexpensive, and very handy for identifying photographic & printmaking processes.

Photograph sample set of eighteen different photographic and photomechanical prints.

In addition to covering photographic history and technique, Gawain also discussed digital prints and issues of photograph deterioration, storage conditions, and proper housings. I enjoyed this workshop a great deal, and I came away with a clearer understanding of how photographs are made as well as greater confidence in my ability to identify photographic processes and to better address the particular preservation needs of photographs in the collections I work on. Many of the guides and resources in the workshop packet are available for purchase or to download for free from Gawain’s website, along with links to many more resources and information about this and other workshops that Gawain offers.

Angela Andres
Special Collections Conservator
Conservation Services