Kenneth Spencer Research Library

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 34,800 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

It’s another busy summer at KU, with lots of campus construction projects underway. This week’s photograph features a pedestrian walkway that was built along Jayhawk Boulevard during the construction of Wescoe Hall, which began in May 1971.

Wescoe Boardwalk, September 1972. Kansas Alumni photo by Hank Young.
Note the KU logo in the upper left corner of the sign. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/24/1 Wescoe Boardwalk 1972 Prints: Campus: Areas and Objects (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 34,800 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

This week’s photograph is an early view of Corbin Residence Hall, KU’s first dormitory, which opened in 1923. Corbin will close for renovation starting this month and will remain closed during the 2017-2018 school year.

Corbin Hall, 1925. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/22/13 1925 Prints: Campus: Buildings: Corbin Hall (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

The original structure shown in the picture is the southernmost section of the current residence hall. It faces 11th Street at Ohio, which is to the right of the building but not visible in the picture.

Additional photographs of Corbin Hall are available through Spencer’s online collection of University Archives images.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 34,500 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Commencement is this Sunday, and we join others in congratulating all graduating Jayhawks and wishing them the very best. This year’s graduates will follow the footsteps of previous classes by participating in the KU tradition of walking down the hill. But, they may not know about earlier commencement customs that are no longer practice. One such such tradition – smoking the peace pipe – is the focus of this week’s photograph.

Five KU graduates sitting in front of Strong Hall
with peace pipes, 1928. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/17 Negatives 1928:
University General: Commencement (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Additional information about the pipes can be found in a Commencement vertical file located in the Spencer Reading Room. One untitled and undated document describes the tradition this way:

The smoking of the Peace Pipe by all members of the Graduating Class had its beginning with the very earliest classes of the University in the 1800s. Records show that the Class of 1893 gathered on graduation day to smoke the Pipe of Peace, symbolizing the elimination of all past feuding on the part of Class Members — dissolving differences between the Laws and the Engineers, the Greeks and the Independents, and all other possible fractures of solidarity.

In the old days, a single pipe was passed around from one graduate to another. Today we are much more sanitary (and perhaps more wealthy); we can afford a pipe for each of us.

Now it is the time for all of us, men and women alike, to lift the pipe and light it signaling the complete and harmonious unity of the K.U. Class of 1967.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 34,500 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Good luck, Jayhawks, on finals and end-of-the-year projects!

Four KU students reading, 1890s. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0 1890s Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 34,500 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Rain may be in Lawrence’s forecast for this weekend, but today is beautiful and sunny – perfect for relaxing outside like the former KU students in this week’s picture.

Students on campus near Old Fraser Hall (located roughly where
modern Fraser now stands), 1900-1909. Lippincott and Dyche Halls
are visible in the background. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0 1900s Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants