Kenneth Spencer Research Library

Celebrate the last weeks of summer (according to the academic calendar, at least) with these photographs of a sun-soaked past on the KU campus.  And while you’re at it, contemplate a new fall research project: when did Potter Lake lose its diving platform and why?!?

Swimming at Potter Lake, 1925 (above) and circa 1926 (below).
Call Number: RG 0/24/1: Potter Lake (Photos). Click to images to enlarge.

Summer sports:  women with rackets, 1940s (above) and croquet during summer session PE, 1941 (below).
Call Number: RG 71/0: Student Activities (Photos). Click to images to enlarge.

Above: Fishing at Potter Lake, 1950. Photograph by Bill Olin. Call Number: RG 0/24/1: Potter Lake (Photos).
Below: Chatting in front of Watson Library, 1950s. Call Number: RG 71/0: Student Activities (Photos).
Click to images to enlarge.

Above: Splashing in the Chi Omega Fountain, 1970s. Call Number: RG 0/24/1: Chi Omega Fountain (Photos).
Below: Fishing at Potter Lake, 1970s. Call Number: RG 0/24/1: Potter Lake (Photos). Click to images to enlarge.

At “Wescoe Beach”: skateboarding, 1980s (above) and sunbathing, 1980/1981 (below).
Call Number: RG 71/0: Student Activities (Photos). Click to images to enlarge.

Chi Omega Fountain: lounging by the edge, 1991 (above) and floating on rafts, 2000 (below).
Second photograph by Doug Koch. Call Number: RG 0/24/1: Chi Omega Fountain (Photos).
Click to images to enlarge.

Elspeth Healey
Special Collections Librarian

This week’s blog post comes from Museum Studies Graduate Student and Conservation Student Assistant Jami Roskamp.

There are always hidden treasures in the Archives; however, the containers they are kept in can be far from the treasure chests that these gems deserve.  One of the many interesting items that can be found in the University of Kansas Archives is a collection of plaster masks (call number: 22/12) originally from the Art Department Sculpture Studio.  Several of these plaster masks capture the likenesses of past chancellors and students.  Initially some of these masks were housed in cardboard boxes and wrapped in newsprint, while others were placed in file boxes that did not adequately accommodate the object’s size. 

The challenge: how to rehouse fragile plaster masks (some of which were in pieces)

Under the supervision of Whitney Baker, Conservator for KU Libraries, I was tasked with providing the plaster masks with more suitable forms of housing to extend preservation and accommodate their ranging sizes.  I conducted an item condition report on each of the masks–recording measurements for size, material, and damage, if the object had any–prior to rehousing the masks in new containers. 

Jami Roskamp examines a plaster mask in order to determine how best to rehouse it.

For the rehousing of the masks, they were placed in archival quality boxes that were padded with Ethafoam so the objects would be securely stored.  A few of the masks were in more fragile condition and needed to have further padding created for them to secure their pieces.  Now the plaster masks are placed in spacious new storage containers that effectively house and preserve them so that they will be protected for future Jayhawks to view.

New housings for plaster masks: (left)  fragmented mask by or of “Nelson” and (right) mask of former KU Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy.

Jami Roskamp
Museum Studies Graduate Student and Conservation Student Assistant

When the Spencer Research Library receives a collection of personal papers it can sometimes include materials that aren’t papers at all. Further, the creator of the papers may just be the most famous of a whole constellation of friends and family members whose stories are also revealed in those papers.

This first came to my attention, as an assistant in the Processing Department, with the personal papers of E. H. S. Bailey (call number: PP 158).  Edgar Henry Summerfield Bailey arrived at the University of Kansas in the fall of 1883, where he taught chemistry for the next fifty years until his death in 1933. In addition to teaching he also authored the lyrics for the famous KU “Rock Chalk” chant and pioneered the detection and exposure of fraudulent practices on the part of food manufacturers in the early 20^th century.

Late in his life, he took a great interest in genealogy, and his papers include much about his relatives in 19^th century Connecticut. Among them, his maternal grandmother, Charity Birdsey Miller, is vividly represented by a surviving portrait in oil (artist unknown) that also arrived with the Bailey papers. A stern, sensible-looking woman, she is portrayed wearing eye glasses. Those spectacles are included with Bailey’s papers in the University Archives, as is the original case in which they were sold by a jeweler and optician in Meriden, Connecticut.

Top: Portrait of Charity Birdsey Miller. Personal Papers of E. H. S. Bailey.  Call Number: PP 158, Oversize Folder 8. Bottom: Charity Birdsey Miller’s eye glasses and eye glasses case. Personal Papers of E. H. S. Bailey.  Call Number: PP 158, Box 4, Folder 140. Click images to enlarge.

For further insight into the life of this woman, the collection includes her Last Will and Testament, as well as probate documents inventorying her possessions and their distribution among her three grown daughters.

Thus, a collection which might have been expected to address only the life of a Midwestern academic in the early 20^th century can also be of great value in illuminating the life of a virtuous woman of modest property in early- and mid-19^th century New England.

Larry M. Brow
Program Assistant,  Spencer Research Library Processing Department

Reposted from the KU Libraries Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/KULibraries

Remembering Dr. King today with an image from the University Archives in the Spencer Research Library, home to some of the most precious materials in the world—-and to gems like this one–that capture remarkable moments in our rich KU history.

Trying to decide what you would like to do over the winter holidays?  Why not get a head start on your research?  Here is a list of the newest finding aids and additions to finding aids available at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library.  Please scroll down for images from three of these collections.

• Acton, Harold, 1904-1994. Letters to Geoffrey Elborn, 1978. (MS P736)
• Arkansas River Coalition. Corporate Records of the Arkansas River Coalition, 1997-2010. (RH MS 1268, RH Video 38)
• Condon, Edwyna Forsyth. Personal Papers of Edwyna Gilbert, 1955-2011. (PP 519)
• Creeley, Robert, 1926-2005. Letters by Robert Creeley, 1959-1965. (MS 15CR)
• Devin, Dorothy Barto, 1897-1987. Dorothy Barto Devin Diary, 1915-1916. (PP 500)
• Dyche, Lewis Lindsay, 1857-1915. Personal Papers of Lewis Lindsay Dyche, 1882-1914. (PP 66)
• Finlay, Ian Hamilton. Poetry and Correspondence, 1964-1967. (MS 48, MS Q49)
• Goff, Charles W. Manuscript letter of Charles W. Goff, 1918. (MS P734)
• Griffin, Dorr C. Manuscript journal of Dorr C. Griffin, 1914. (MS B174)
• Hall, E. Raymond (Eugene Raymond), 1902-1986. Personal Papers of E. Raymond Hall, 1890-1983. (PP 167, PP 513)
• Hamilton, Gail J. KU Twelve Incident, 1980-1983. (PP 497)
• Haydon, Benjamin Robert, 1786-1846. Clipping Book, 1813-1846. (MS 305)
• Hazard, Ebenezer, 1744-1817. Ebenezer Hazard letter to Jedidiah Morse, New York, 1789. (MS P737).
• Inge, William. Peter Stansky’s William Inge Collection, 1968-1972. (RH MS 1249)
• Jackson, Elmer C. (Elmer Carter), 1912-. Elmer C. Jackson papers, 1896-1999. (RH MS 410, RH MS 760, and additional call numbers)
• Johnson, Jennie. Correspondence of Jennie and Will Johnson, 1885-1888. (RH MS P909)
• Kaw Valley Quilters Guild. Kaw Valley Quilters Guild records, 1977-2011. (RH MS 695, RH MS 1248, and additional call numbers)
• Lawrence Association for Innovative Education. Alternative Schools in Lawrence Kansas, 1970-1980. (RH MS 1225, RH MS Q360, RH MS R324)
• Levertov, Denise, 1923-1997. Letter by Denise Levertov, 1964. (MS 15L)
• Pitney, Jerome. Letters of Jerome Pitney, 1882?-1888. (RH MS P908)
• Purdy, James. Letters to Geoffrey Elborn, 1976-1981. (MS 302)
• Reddin, Kenneth, 1895-1967. Writings and correspondence of Kenneth Reddin, 1914-1958. (MS 14)
• Rhodes, Richard, 1937-. Richard Rhodes papers, 1938-2011. (RH MS 1134  and additional call numbers)
• Sauer, Gordon C. (Gordon Chenoweth), 1921-. Personal papers of Gordon C. Sauer, 1947-1991. (PP 349)
• Shenk, Henry A., 1906-1989. Personal Papers of Henry A. Shenk, 1933-1971.  (PP 211)
• Sullivan, Anna C., 1848-. Collection of Anna C. Sullivan, 1914-1920. (MS B175, MS R11)

Top: “Free the KU Twelve” buttons. Gail J. Hamilton Collection. Call Number: PP 497: Box 1, Folder 26; Left: Letter from Jennie Johnson to Will Johnson, January 26, 1886. Jennie Johnson Collection. Call Number: RH MS P909: Folder 1; Right: Letter from Ernest Boyd to Kenneth Reddin, October, 14, 1936. Kenneth Reddin Collection. Call Number: MS 14: Box 3, Item C1. Click images to enlarge.