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.
This blog may contain archived web content. This blog may link to catalog records which no longer exist as of a software change in 2026.
In honor of the celebrations surrounding the 250th birthday of the United States this week, we’re taking a look back at how KU commemorated the bicentennial fifty years ago.
A full-page advertisement in the University Daily-Kansan for the Sunflower Spectacular bicentennial fireworks show, July 1, 1976. University Archives. Call Number: UA Ser 69/2/1. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
A year of intensive planning, special projects, and varied events at the university culminated in the Sunflower Spectacular fireworks show at Memorial Stadium on July 4, 1976. The show “featured the cooperation of the University Alumni Association with Vince Bilotta as coordinator, the Summer Band Camp under the direction of Robert Foster, and the Lawrence Jaycees with their annual sponsorship of the fireworks display.” Prior to the show were afternoon and evening performances of patriotic music at the Memorial Campanile and Carillon, part of a bicentennial summer concert series. Lawrencians also participated in a broad array of off-campus festivities that weekend, concluding the Douglas County Bicentennial Commission’s similarly busy and productive year.
People at Memorial Stadium for the Sunflower Spectacular show, July 4, 1976. Photo by George Millener for the Lawrence Journal-World. Lawrence Journal-World Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH LJW (negatives). Click image to enlarge.
Fireworks during the Sunflower Spectacular show, July 4, 1976. In the first two images, note the spectators on the hill near the Campanile. Photos by George Millener for the Lawrence Journal-World. Lawrence Journal-World Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH LJW (negatives). Click images to enlarge.
A description of the fireworks show and preceding musical program in the Lawrence Journal-World, July 5, 1976. Article courtesy of the Google News Archive. Click image to enlarge.
A questionnaire attached to the final report of KU’s seventeen-member Bicentennial Committee stated that 1,335 individuals had been “actually involved and participating” in its various commemorative efforts. The Committee also estimated that more than 70,500 people had attended KU’s bicentennial events (“based on estimates where numbers could be determined”). “The philosophy of the University Bicentennial Committee,” noted the document, “was reflected in the nature of the projects and events that were identified and sponsored. The emphasis was upon activities that coordinated closely with the major missions of the University in its academic programs, its research projects, and its responsibility of service to the people of the state of Kansas.”
Reflecting back on the academic year, the editors of the 1976 Jayhawker yearbook wrote (somewhat hyperbolically):
If nothing else, the student of ’76 always will remember this year for the pomp and sure-coin-stance of the American Revolution Bicentennial. Attending an official Bicentennial university, living in an official Bicentennial community, taking a course in the history of the American Revolution from W. Stitt Robinson, professor of history and chairman of the KU Bicentennial Committee, celebrating homecoming with the theme of Jayhawk Rebellion, going to one of the five Humanities Series lectures with a Bicentennial theme, taking in a Saturday afternoon of Bicentennial music at Off-the-Wall-Hall, watching the official Bicentennial flag flutter in the Bicentennial breeze, seeing musical presentations, theater productions and museum exhibits with a Bicentennial flavor, applauding a Bicentennial Rock Chalk Revue, seeing the KU Symphonic Band off for a Bicentennial tour and dancing to Bicentennial banjos in a Bicentennial street dance during a Bicentennial Festival of the Arts were some of the things the Bicentennial student did.
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!
The Campanile in snow, 1970s. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/24/1 Snow 1970s Prints: Campus: Areas and Objects (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
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!
Bells being installed inside the World War II Memorial Campanile, 1951. University
Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/22/8 1951 Prints: Campus: Buildings:
Campanile (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
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 andmade them available online; be sure to check them out!
It’s National Read a Book Day, and a visit to Spencer Research Library is a great way to celebrate! Our collections have something for everyone: books in various genres covering a wide range of topics, places, and time periods. Or, bring your own book to the library and find a quiet spot to read. You might enjoy the coziness of the antique furnishings in the Spencer lounge or, like the student in this week’s photo, you might prefer the grandeur of the North Gallery, with its glass-enclosed book stacks and spectacular campus views.
A library student assistant reading a book in Spencer’s North Gallery, 1970s.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 32/37 1970s Slides: University of Kansas Libraries:
Special Collections (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital Collections).
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 andmade them available online; be sure to check them out!
On this date sixty-eight years ago, ground was broken for the Memorial Carillon and Campanile, which honors the 277 KU alumni, students, faculty, and staff who died in World War II.
Groundbreaking for the Campanile, January 11, 1950.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/22/8 1949 Negatives:
Campus: Buildings: Campanile (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
According to a “data sheet” – located in the Campanile building file in University Archives – the small ceremony began at 11:00am. Moreover, the document notes that
The ground breaking today is arranged only for picture-taking purposes and a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Memorial Association. The University held an impressive memorial service May 5, 1946, for its war dead. The chief celebration in connection with the Campanile will come at the time of its dedication. At that time one of the great Carillonneurs of the country will be called in to play the dedicatory recital and doubtless great crowds will gather for viewing the Campanile and hearing the Carillon.
An article about the groundbreaking in the January 1949 Graduate Magazine (page 9) noted that
Tommy Constant’s big power shovel [Constant Construction Company] moved in and started operation immediately as soon as the honorary hand diggers stepped aside. The power shovel had an excavation down 12 feet by evening of the first day.
