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 16,200 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Happy holidays, Jayhawks! Remember that Spencer Research Library will be closed through Sunday, January 3rd.

Chancellor’s Residence with holiday lights, 1966. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/22/11 1966 Negatives: Campus: Buildings: Chancellor’s Residence (Photos).
Click on image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, 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 1,700 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all of our friends, supporters, researchers, and visitors! Please remember that Spencer Research Library will be closed through Sunday, January 4, 2015. We have more exciting resources to share in the new year, and we look forward to discussing them with you!

 Christmas tree in Strong Hall, 1980. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/24/1 Christmas 1980 Prints: Campus: Areas and Objects (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Brian Nomura
Public Services Student Assistant

Enjoy a breathtaking image from the Vosper Hours (MS Pryce C1) during this week of Christmas. This highly decorated manuscript was created in 15th-century France as a book of hours, or Christian devotional book.

Vosper Hours. Nativity Scene. MS Pryce C1. Click image to enlarge.

For more information on this beautiful book, see Sharon L. Foster’s 1965 master’s thesis, “The Kansas University Hours of the Virgin”.

Whitney Baker
Head, Conservation Services

Several archival collections in our Kansas Collection contain images showing Christmas scenes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We’ve selected a few to show here; we hope they help get you in the holiday spirit!

Room interior with Christmas tree and presents, 1896.
Leavenworth Public Library Photograph Collection.
Call Number: RH PH 72. Click image to enlarge.

Louise and Margaret Walbridge sitting under the Christmas tree
with their toys, Profile Ranch, Russell County, Kansas, circa 1897.
Louis Chester Walbridge Collection. Call Number: RH PH 21. Click image to enlarge.

7th Battery dining hall set for Christmas dinner, Fort Riley, Kansas, 1906.
Joseph Judd Pennell Photograph Collection. RH PH Pennell.
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Douglass Grade School, Manhattan, Kansas, Christmas 1945.
James E. Butler Collection. Call Number: RH MS-P 507. Click image to enlarge.

John A. Hodge with his grandson, ten-year-old Johnnie L. Hodge, Christmas 1949.
The pair are examining Owen Wilson’s new “knockdown” electric train cars.
Photograph by Dowdal H. Davis, son-in-law. Dorothy Hodge Johnson Collection.
Call Number: RH MS-P 549. Click image to enlarge.

Winner of Christmas decoration contest, Topeka, Kansas, circa 1950s. Photograph by Joe Douglas.
Joe Douglas Collection. Call Number: RH PH 90. Click image to enlarge.

Christmas decorations on Massachusetts Street at 7th, Lawrence, Kansas, undated.
Lawrence Photo Collection. Call Number: RH PH 18H.
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

With the holiday season upon us, finding the perfect gift for a loved one can be a formidable endeavor. If you’re struggling to find something for a difficult-to-shop-for man in your life, let the resources at Spencer Research Library help you out! For example, check out The Gentleman’s Quarterly Christmas Gift Book, issued in 1928 by Ober’s Head-to-Foot Outfitters of Lawrence, Kansas.

The cover page of The Gentleman’s Quarterly Christmas Gift Book 1928.
Kansas Collection. Call Number: RH Ser D1932 1928.
Click image to enlarge.

According to the Gift Book‘s introduction,”women may
use our magazine as an unfailing guide in the search
for gentleman’s gifts that are entirely desirable.”

For the gamer in your life, note item #13: “English pigskin bridge set
with score pad, pencil and packs of gilt edged cards.” Click image to enlarge.

The Gift Book advises shoppers (next page, not shown) that “few Christmas gifts are
as acceptable to a man as a smart robe.” Click image to enlarge.

Modern readers of the Gift Book may be amused to see “Sports Essentials”
defined as sweaters, golf hose, and a pigskin leather cigarette and key case. Click image to enlarge.

Customers at Ober’s Head-to-Foot Outfitters could choose from an assortment of mufflers, hosiery,
and handkerchiefs, in addition to neckties. Click images to enlarge.

As the Gift Book explains on the following page (not shown):
“There is no compromise with correctness where evening attire is concerned. A man’s turn-out
is either right or wrong. Intelligence is the prime requisite in
selecting full dress or dinner clothes. With such a guide, men will never be
intrigued by any of the innumerable ‘fads’ that are proffered in the name of
‘dress clothes and accessories.’ This store is thoroughly acquainted
with the style requirements of thoughtfully attired men and young men.
We are in constant touch with the smart European and American gatherings places
of men who possess the sort of wearables that are beyond reproach.” Click image to enlarge.

Meredith Huff
Building Operations and Stacks Manager, Public Services Student Assistant Co-Supervisor