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Inside Spencer: The KSRL Blog

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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.

Throwback Thursday: Homecoming Display Edition

October 24th, 2019

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!

We hope students and alumni have had a wonderful time celebrating KU’s 107th Homecoming this week!

Photograph of the Cosmopolitan Club house decorated for Homecoming, 1925
Photograph of the Cosmopolitan Club house decorated for Homecoming, 1925
The Cosmopolitan Club house decorated for Homecoming, 1925. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 71/1 1925: Student Activities: Homecoming (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

According to a 1920 bulletin from the Institute of International Education, Cosmopolitan Clubs were “organized in many of the leading universities” in the early twentieth-century “for the purpose of promoting international good will by bringing into fellowship selected representatives of each nationality within a given university. The motto of the Cosmopolitan Club is ‘Above All Nations is Humanity'” (77).

The 1926 Jayhawker yearbook states that the KU chapter of the Cosmopolitan Club was established in 1920; the club’s house was located at 1653 Indiana Street.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services