Kenneth Spencer Research Library

Spring has finally, truly arrived on Mount Oread, which has meant the eagerly-awaited return of warmer weather and the not-so-eagerly-awaited return of final exams. The Student Activities record group in University Archives contains a number of photographs showing the bowed heads of generations of anxious KU students poring over their work.

While it’s unclear, in almost all cases, whether these pictures were taken during final exams, this time of year seems like the most appropriate time to feature some of these fun images here at “Inside Spencer.”

Good luck to all KU students on their final exams!

Group of students studying, 1950s. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1950s Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Student with typewriter, 1950s. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1950s Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Bare feet, 1950s. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1950s Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Asleep while highlighting, 1967-1968. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1967-1968 Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Studying in the shade, 1969-1970. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1969-1970 Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

“I’m too nervous to sleep in my room,” 1970s. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1970s Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Studying on a stump, 1975-1976. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1975-1976 Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
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Backpack as table, 1976-1977. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1976-1977 Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Panic, October 1978. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/”A Day in the Life of KU, October 13, 1978″
Prints: Student Activities (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

Calculator and computer printouts, 1979-1980. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1979-1980 Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Creative (and uncomfortable?) study location, 1979-1980. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1979-1980 Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Studying on stairs, 1980-1981. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1980-1981 Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Sprawled out, 1981-1982. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1981-1982 Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Student working in his room, 1982-1983. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0/1982-1983 Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Many visitors to Spencer Research Library walk straight into the Marilyn Stokstad Reading room, a classroom, or the exhibit space, bypassing the elegant furnishings of the Spencer Lounge and missing completely the large and imposing ledger nestled in an 18th century secretary desk on the north wall. This book has served as the library’s guest book since the opening of the building in 1968.

Spencer Library guest book, located in the Spencer Lounge. Click image to enlarge.

Researchers who come to use the collections at the Spencer Library now use our Aeon system to register and make requests, and before that, a number of different paper forms recorded names, addresses, and call numbers. So the guest book was never an official document required for using the collection, but instead a ceremonial record of visitors.

The first page, with beautiful calligraphy attributed  to librarian Jim Helyar, marked the building’s opening on November 15th, 1968. Entries continue through 1974, when it was set aside from daily use. After a few blank pages, names, messages, and the occasional doodle resume, coinciding with its “rediscovery” and reinstatement in 2002.

Guest book calligraphy on the first page. Click image to enlarge.

The first entries were clearly in pen, probably the same pen used throughout the opening celebration.  At least since 2009, and probably earlier, an iconic green “Spencer pencil” has sat aside it, although many guests do sign in (presumably their own) pen. We are in the process of ordering some pigment based pens to place conveniently at hand so that the inscriptions will endure as part of the history of the building.

    

Examples of guest signatures, including “Jesus Christ” (L) and an enthusiastic video gamer (R).
Click images to enlarge.

Like so many things in this inspiring building, the guest book is humbling. Distinguished visitors, scholars, and schoolchildren have walked through this place and left their mark. The pages are filling up again, and I hope to be able to place another, equally impressive volume, in its place. I began this project thinking I would highlight some of the most interesting entries. I was charmed by the young child from “SUMSET HILL” [sic] and intrigued by non-Roman scripts I could not even identify. I wondered what would motivate a person to draw a big heart around their name in such a formal setting, and I spent a lot of time looking for the name “Don Johnson,” who allegedly signed the book during his days as a student here at KU. In the end, although I could not pick a favorite, I spent much time leafing through the pages and I encourage you to do the same the next time you visit the library.

Beth M. Whittaker
Assistant Dean of Distinctive Collections
Director, Kenneth Spencer Research Library

John Fraser, KU’s second Chancellor, served as a general in the Union Army during the Civil War.  Displayed here are his dress saber and saber belt.  The saber was an 1862 gift from “the ladies of Canonsburg,” Pennsylvania, in appreciation of his service.

Saber belonging to John Fraser. Records of  the Office of the Chancellor: John Fraser. Call Number: RG 2/2: Saber

For additional images, please click to enlarge:

Becky Schulte
University Archivist

Herpetology is the study of amphibians and reptiles. Pictured here is the Supreme “Herp” from Hell in a manuscript that could be Heaven on Earth to a student of Old Russian. St. John Chrysostom was the most famous of the Greek fathers of the Church. His works consist of discourses illustrating passages of scripture, commentaries on the Biblical books, etc.

Above: Image from Saint John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople (died 407).
[Extracts from the works, In Russian]. Manuscript from Russia, 16th-17th century. Call Number: MS C38.

As we all know, Evil is in the eye of the beholder; indeed, the presence of a snake in a Russian peasant household was often considered an omen for Good, and brought wealth and good health. The snake, as one of the domovye, or house spritis, lived behind the stove or wherever fires were lighted. In White Russia the domovoi was called tsmok (snake). If the master of the house treated it badly or forgot to leave out some eggs for food at night, tsmok might burn the house down. In some Slavic households the snake was a bad egg, often the embodiment of a dead man’s soul, a rough and evil character like Baba Yaga.

The Spencer Library has books in Slavic languages scattered throughout the collections, and one of the best collections of rare Pollonica in the United States.

Sally Haines
Rare Books Cataloger
Adapted from her Spencer Research Library exhibit and catalog, Slithy Toves: Illustrated Classic Herpetological Books at the University of Kansas in Pictures and Conversations

The world of written information is changing.  We are in the midst of a major shift from print to digital culture (you are, after all, reading this online).  It seems timely, then, to look back at an artifact from another major revolution in the technology of writing — the shift from manuscript to print culture.  The first hundred years of printing offer many fascinating examples of  the overlap between the conventions of manuscript culture and the emergence of a new print culture.  One such example is this book of hours, Hore intemerate Virginis Marie secundu[m] vsum Romanum cum pluribus orationibus tam in Gallico [et] in Latino, produced in Paris circa 1505.

Hore intemerate Virginis Marie secundu[m] vsum Romanum cum pluribus orationibus tam in Gallico
[et] in Latino [Printed Book of Hours]. [Paris: G. Anabat, 1505.] Call Number: Summerfield C65

Squint and it looks like an illuminated manuscript (at least in the top image), but it is actually a printed volume, with hand-colored  illustrations and metalcut borders.  During the late medieval period, books of hours were among the most common manuscript volumes owned by laypeople (whether nobility or wealthy merchants).  Accordingly, it is not surprising that with the advent of moveable type, printers soon tried their inky hands at producing these devotional texts.  This particular volume draws upon several features of manuscript books of hours.  It is printed on vellum (treated calf skin) and contains hand-colored initials and miniatures (the latter literally painted on top of the metalcut illustrations).

Printed books of hours flourished roughly between the 1480s and 1530s, co-existing alongside their manuscript counterparts.  This volume from the Spencer Library’s collections was printed in Paris, a center for printed books of hours, by Guillaume Anabat for the bookseller Germain Hardouin and likely hand-colored in the Hardouin workshop (see the colophon pictured below).

Encountering a book like this makes one wonder which present-day artifacts will someday be seen as the products of a writing culture in transition.   In 500 years, will we look at early e-readers as strange hybrids: objects that apply the conventions of the “print world” to the digital environment?

See more….click thumbnails to enlarge.

Elspeth Healey
Special Collections Librarian