The University of Kansas

Inside Spencer: The KSRL Blog

Books on a shelf

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.

That’s Distinctive!: Black Sunday

April 14th, 2023

Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created the series because I genuinely believe there is something in our collections for everyone, whether you’re writing a paper or just want to have a look. “That’s Distinctive!” will provide a more lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique materials at Spencer – including items that many people may not realize the library holds. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.

In remembrance of Black Sunday, this week we share items from the personal papers of former KU history professor Lloyd Sponholtz. According to History.com, April 14, 1935, also known as Black Sunday, was the date of the worst dust storm documented during the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl, also known as the “dirty thirties,” was a period of severe drought in the Midwest and southern Great Plains. It began around 1930 and lasted for about a decade.  By 1934, an estimated 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land had been rendered useless for farming, while another 125 million acres – an area roughly three-quarters the size of Texas – was rapidly losing its topsoil. Regular rainfall returned to the region by the end of 1939, bringing the Dust Bowl years to a close.

Black Sunday was the worst of the severe dust storms that were known as Black Blizzards. These storms included billowing clouds of dust that darkened the sky, sometimes for days at a time. In many places, the dust drifted like snow and residents had to clear it with shovels. Dust worked its way through the cracks of even well-sealed homes, leaving a coating on food, skin, and furniture. The storm of Black Sunday started in the Oklahoma Panhandle and moved east, with an estimated three million tons of topsoil blowing off the Great Plains.

Color map of the U.S. from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, showing large areas of the Great Plains affected by the Dust Bowl in varying levels of severity.
An overhead projector transparency showing a map of the Dust Bowl, from Making America: A History of the United States. Personal Papers of Lloyd Sponholtz. Call Number: PP 521, Box 11, Folder 32. Click image to enlarge.
Black text on a grey background with a black-and-white photograph of a dust storm.
A description of Black Sunday and Black Blizzards in “You Couldn’t See Your Hand in Front of Your Face”: The 1930s in Stanton County, Kansas, August 1996. Personal Papers of Lloyd Sponholtz. Call Number: PP 521, Box 11, Folder 32. Click image to enlarge.

Tiffany McIntosh
Public Services

Student Spotlight: Jenna Bellemere

March 28th, 2023

This is the latest installment in a series of posts introducing readers to student employees who make important contributions to the work of Spencer Research Library. Today’s profile features student assistant Jenna Bellemere, who is the Cataloging and Archival Processing Department’s G. Baley Price Fellow this year. This is a student assistant position for undergraduate or graduate students interested in pursuing a career in archives and special collections or a career in which research in archives and special collections will play a prominent role. The fellowship is designed to give students hands-on experience organizing, cataloging, and preserving Kenneth Spencer Research Library’s materials and making them accessible to others. Jenna answered a few questions about the projects she works on at Spencer. Some editorial or clarifying comments from Spencer staff are [in brackets].

Young woman standing next to a map case and behind an open drawer, revealing a large beige folder.
Jenna Bellemere inspects some of the many architectural drawings in University Archives for buildings that have been and still are on campus. These drawings will be added to the General record group (RG 0) finding aid soon; check back later to find out more! Click image to enlarge.

Please provide some brief biographical information about yourself.

I’m a junior at KU, majoring in Anthropology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. I started working at Spencer in February 2022.

What does your job at Spencer entail?

I’m working on updating our inventory of the University Archives, which means I spend a lot of time going through the documents we have in storage here and making sure that they’re all accounted for in our database [ArchivesSpace, our collection management system]. It’s been several years since the last update, which means there are a lot of new records in the archives that haven’t been fully catalogued yet. It’s my job to go through those records and write down all the important information about them so that researchers and the public can come to the Spencer and access them. I also write parts of the historical notes and finding aids summarizing our collections’ history and their contents.

Why did you want to work at Spencer Research Library?

In fall of 2021, I knew I wanted to get a job somewhere on campus, but I wasn’t sure where. I was looking for a job in one of the libraries on campus because I love to read and I wanted to work around books, and I stumbled across the posting from the Spencer. It wasn’t exactly what I had started out looking for, but I thought it looked interesting, so I applied. I’m interested in history, and the idea of getting to work directly with primary sources was interesting to me, so I felt confident it would be a good fit if I got the job.

What has been most interesting to you about your work?

When I have to explain to my friends why I think my job is so interesting, there’s one story I always tell them. It might be a little morbid, but it’s also a great demonstration of why I find archival work rewarding.

I was sorting through a fairly big series of faculty records [probably a series in the Faculty and Staff record group] and looking at some of the documents in more detail to get a better idea of what types of records researchers might expect to find there. Because I hadn’t been working at the archives for very long at that point, I was taking it pretty slow, and I remember pulling out one folder of records that had been kept by a professor during her time at KU. The first document was a typewritten rough draft of a speech she was planning to give, with revisions in notes scribbled in the margins in pencil. The second document was a handwritten note from her friends thanking her for helping them move into their new house. The third document was her obituary. Each paper was presented the same way: loose in the folder, with no extraneous labels or documentation. Completely matter of fact.

I think this memory epitomizes why I love places like the Spencer. The documents I found that day originated years apart from each other – decades of someone’s life, captured in the notes and paper scraps that she may have completely forgotten she had. We tend to talk about history on the biggest scale possible, focusing on the rousing speeches and the achievements of great leaders, but getting to see those stories in such a personal way, through the insignificant, interstitial moments of a subject’s life – worrying over their word choice in a speech, helping friends move into their new home – is a much rarer and more special experience. It may seem banal, but I don’t think I have ever experienced history in a way more unadulteratedly human than that moment.

What part of your job do you like best?

See my answer to the above question. Also, sometimes they have free snacks in the break room.

What advice would you offer other students thinking about working at Spencer Research Library?

Go for it! I wasn’t really thinking about the Spencer when I started applying for jobs at KU, but I’m so glad I applied here. I really only work in one small part of the archives – there’s so much more here, like the Kansas Collection [as well as Special Collections and the Wilcox Collection], that I haven’t even touched on. If you’re at all interested in history or museum studies – or if anything you’ve seen here just seems cool to you – I definitely recommend looking for a chance to work here.

Jenna Bellemere
Cataloging and Archival Processing student assistant and G. Baley Price Fellow

That’s Distinctive!: Campus Aerials

February 17th, 2023

Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created the series because I genuinely believe there is something in our collections for everyone, whether you’re writing a paper or just want to have a look. “That’s Distinctive!” will provide a more lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique materials at Spencer – including items that many people may not realize the library holds. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.

This week on “That’s Distinctive!” we will be highlighting photos from University Archives that show views of campus throughout the years. The University Archives houses over a million photographs along with departmental records, personal papers, university publications, and much more. Over 35,000 photos within University Archives have been digitized and can be browsed online. Many more photos of campus over the years can be found by using the search term “campus.”

Black-and-white photograph of large buildings on both sides of a wide street.
Jayhawk Boulevard looking east, circa 1927. On the left (from left to right) is Strong Hall, Bailey Hall, Old Fraser Hall, Old Snow Hall. On the right (from right to left) is Hoch Auditorium and Old Haworth Hall, with the roofs of Robinson Gymnasium and Watson Library visible in the background. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/24/P 1925 Prints: Campus: Panoramas (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Black-and-white photograph of streets and buildings lit by bright lights.
Aerial of campus at night, 1987. The photo appears to have been taken from Iowa Street just south of Fifteenth/Bob Billings; the Daisy Hill residence halls are in the foreground. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/24/A 1987 Prints: University General: Campus: Campus Aerials (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Color photograph of the KU campus with fall foliage.
Campus aerial, 1994. From left to right are Lippincott (Old Green) Hall, Fraser Hall, Blake Hall, and Watson Library. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/24/A 1994 Prints: University General: Campus: Campus Aerials (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

If you are following the holidays we have correlated with previously and are still in the Valentine’s Day mood, check out our 2013 “Civil War Valentine” post by Whitney Baker, Head of Conservation Services at KU Libraries. It focuses on a handwritten poem titled “A Valentine” from one of Spencer’s regional history collections.

These items are meant to show that the library houses many things that many people may not realize. From books, to manuscripts, to maps and ephemera, if you can think of a topic, we likely have something related. Have a topic in mind? I have three unplanned weeks between March and April so please feel free to leave ideas/interests in the comment box below and I will see what items we may hold.

Tiffany McIntosh
Public Services

That’s Distinctive!: The Jayhawker

January 20th, 2023

New to the blog this week is the first of many posts in a series called That’s Distinctive! I created the series because I genuinely believe there is something in our collections for everyone, whether you’re writing a paper or just want to have a look. That’s Distinctive! will provide a more lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique materials at Spencer – including items that many people may not realize the library holds. The series will be posted weekly on Friday with occasional breaks. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.

In honor of the return of students to campus, this week’s post highlights KU Jayhawker yearbooks. Here at the library, we have yearbooks ranging from 1874 to 2011, the last year it was a print publication (with a few missing here and there). While I am only highlighting a few this week, all of the yearbooks in Spencer’s holding are available for viewing in the Reading Room.

Two-page spread of black and white advertisements, mostly textual with two images.
Selected pages of advertisements in the 1899 Jayhawker yearbook. University Archives. Call Number: LD 2697 .J3. Click image to enlarge.
Two-page spread with a grid of advertisements on the left and an arrangement of snapshots on the right.
Selected pages of advertisements in the 1918 Jayhawker yearbook. University Archives. Call Number: LD 2697 .J3. Click image to enlarge.
Two-page spread of an index with two black and white advertisements.
Selected pages of advertisements in the 1993 Jayhawker yearbook. University Archives. Call Number: LD 2697 .J3. Click images to enlarge.
Two-page spread with a grid of advertisements on the left and the beginning of an index on the right.
Selected pages of advertisements in the 2000 Jayhawker yearbook. University Archives. Call Number: LD 2697 .J3. Click image to enlarge.

These images show select pages from four yearbooks displaying the variety of advertisements located in/near the index of each book. As the years go on, each yearbook seems to feature fewer ads. It can be interesting to browse the various sections of the yearbooks, which can include clubs, headshots, ads, building photos, memories of the past year, and much more.

Tiffany McIntosh
Public Services

Pride Month, 2022: Highlights from the Bruce McKinney Papers

June 27th, 2022

Hello and happy Pride Month!

The Bruce McKinney collection at Kenneth Spencer Research Library holds many pieces of LGBTQIA+ materials and memorabilia. McKinney was a Kansas activist for gender and gay rights. His collection of papers ranges from pamphlets for rallies and centers for queer individuals all over the country to stickers and pins.

For example, McKinney’s papers document the work of the Wichita, Kansas, LesBiGayTrans Center, an organization with which he worked closely.

Text that reads "Welcome to The Center, Wichita's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and HIV/AIDS Affected People's Community Center, Operated by Kansans for Human Dignity. Look for a Volunteer wearing a KFHD volunteer staff badge."
A flier for The LesBiGayTrans Community Center of Wichita, Kansas, undated. Papers of Bruce McKinney. Call Number: RH MS 1164, Box 15, Folder 29. Click image to enlarge.
Black text on a white background describing the event.
Flier for Lesbian/Gay History Month at The LesBiGayTrans Community Center of Wichita, Kansas, October 1994. Papers of Bruce McKinney. Call Number: RH MS 1164, Box 15, Folder 29. Click image to enlarge.
Black text on white and pink backgrounds. The main text reads "Your Next Step" and "This is Who I Am."
An undated National Coming Out Day pamphlet in Bruce McKinney’s files of The LesBiGayTrans Community Center. Papers of Bruce McKinney. Call Number: RH MS 1164, Box 15, Folder 29. Click image to enlarge.
Blue text that says "Safe Zone" on white paper. There is also a pink triangle centered in a blue circle.
An undated Safe Zone flier in Bruce McKinney’s files of The LesBiGayTrans Community Center. This jumped out to me because I recently learned that Nazis used pink triangle badges to distinguish gay men in concentration camps. The triangle was later reclaimed as a protest symbol against homophobia. Papers of Bruce McKinney. Call Number: RH MS 1164, Box 15, Folder 29. Click image to enlarge.

Some items in the McKinney collection highlight the history of the LGBTQIA+ community at the University of Kansas. The documents below focus on LesBiGay Awareness Week events held in 1995.

Black text on white paper. There is a black-and-white American flag in the background.
Flier for the “Pride March on Lawrence,” April 1995. Papers of Bruce McKinney. Call Number: RH MS 1164, Box 31, Folder 39. Click image to enlarge.
Black text on white paper.
KU Queer Prom flier, April 1995. Papers of Bruce McKinney. Call Number: RH MS 1164, Box 31, Folder 39. Click image to enlarge.

Additionally, McKinney’s papers includes information to help learn more about the queer community. I was particularly interested in the information written on bisexuality and even a paper about how to defend homosexuality in instances where individuals use the Bible against them.

Black text on yellowish/orange paper. The document lists four biphobic (negative) attitude levels and four bifriendly (positive) attitude levels.
“The Biphobia Scale,” undated. Papers of Bruce McKinney. Call Number: RH MS 1164, Box 14, Folder 49. Click image to enlarge.
Black text on white paper. The document is a resource order form for workshop and teaching materials.
“Campaign to End Homophobia” flier, undated. Papers of Bruce McKinney. Call Number: RH MS 1164, Box 14, Folder 48. Click image to enlarge.
Black text on white paper. The document examines Bible verses Genesis 18-19 and Judges 19, arguing that they "were not written as tools for condemnation toward homosexuals."
“Homosexuality and the Scriptures” document, undated. Papers of Bruce McKinney. Call Number: RH MS 1164, Box 14, Folder 49. Click image to enlarge.

Some of the more fun things to look at were the many different bumper stickers that McKinney saved!

Two circular stickers with primarily white text against a red background.
Hot pink text against a black background.
Pink text with a row of people in black silhouette against a white background.
Blue text with a globe, a compass, and a pink triangle on a white background.
A selection of bumper stickers from Bruce McKinney’s collection. Papers of Bruce McKinney. Call Number: RH MS 1164, Box 15, Folder 5. Click images to enlarge.

Have a happy and safe Pride!

Black-and-white newspaper clipping of a man leaning up against a wall. He is wearing a black cowboy hat and a white t-shirt that says "Queer Cowboy."
Advertisement for a “Queer Cowboy” t-shirt in the Over the Rainbow catalogue, undated. Papers of Bruce McKinney. Call Number: RH MS Q306, Box 124, Folder 10. Click image to enlarge.

Alex Williams
Public Services Student Assistant