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.
Another election day is here! This Tuesday, November 8th, 2022, we’ll be voting in a midterm election for all sorts of positions in local and state service with a national potential impact. So, with all of us in a somewhat political frame of mind, we wanted to share a few collection highlights related to campaigns and elections of the past.
Union ticket for President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and Vice-President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, 1864. Call Number: RH VLT Misc. 2. Click image to enlarge.
Election ticket for the slate of candidates representing the National Union Party (as a temporary name used for a conglomeration of the Republican Party and some smaller factions of other parties) in the 1864 election.
Agnes T. Frog, campaign button, 1986. Agnes T. Frog political campaign materials. Call Number: RH MS 472. Click image to enlarge.
An artifact of a very local campaign, this button was part of a write-in campaign in 1986 for Agnes T. Frog for Douglas County Commissioner to protest the environmental impacts of the southern Lawrence bypass.
Flyer for D. Jenilee Miller campaign, 1970. 1970 political campaigns collection. Call Number: RH MS 1453. Click image to enlarge.
And something in between. In 1970 D. Jenilee Miller lost her campaign for Secretary of State for Kansas with 41.13% of the popular vote, campaigning on modernizing Kansas Government and election issues which still hold public interest today.
Union ticket for President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and Vice-President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee (rear), 1864. Call Number: RH VLT Misc. 2. Click image to enlarge.
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!
Election Day is less than a week away. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to get out and vote!
KU students voting in student elections, 1980. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 3/11 1980 Slides: Governance: Student Senate (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 34,500 images from KU’s University Archives andmade them available online; be sure to check them out!
With Student Senate elections taking place today, this week’s photograph highlights the election for class officers that took place at KU during the fall semester in 1919.
Student election posters, 1919. Strong Hall is
in the background. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0 1911 Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
An advertisement for the Loyalty ticket ran in the Daily Kansan student newspaper on October 16, the day before the election: “Loyalty stands for class spirit, student government, faculty student cooperation, [and] better athletic support.”
On October 18, 1919, the day after the election, the Lawrence Daily Journal-World reported the results in a story entitled “Big Vote Was Out at Hill Election.”
The “Status Quo” Senior ticket at K. U., meaning “As It Was Before the War” went “over the top” in the class elections yesterday. Wint Smith being elected president of the senior class with a majority of twenty-five votes over Basil T. Church. Both are Lawrence men. Smith’s whole ticket carried, Eileen Van Sandt of Chanute for secretary running high with 200 votes. Fred Pausch was elected vice-president on the ticket and Warren Blazier of Lawton, Okla., was elected treasurer…
A larger per cent of the students voted in the elections Friday than in any previous year and showed a great amount of interest where there was a contest. Of 350 seniors 320 voted…
In 1947, senior class president Wint Smith was elected to represent Kansas’s (now obsolete) 6th Congressional District. Voters sent Smith to Congress for six more consecutive terms, and he served until 1961.
Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services
Melissa Kleinschmidt and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants
November 3rd is Election Day here in the U.S. and although it’s not time for the presidential elections, the races and ballot initiatives taking place are no less vital. To celebrate the importance of civic engagement, I’ve selected a few items from Spencer Library’s Kansas Collection that highlight different ways of being politically active.
One of our researchers from the University of Chicago found this delicious thank-you note. Coffeyville, Kansas, native Bruce McKinney was thanked by Bill Clinton and Al Gore for his vote by receiving his very own copy of Hillary Clinton’s Chippers recipe!
Hillary Clinton’s Chippers Recipe, circa 1992-1996.
Papers of Bruce McKinney, 1900-2008. Call Number: RH MS 1164.
Click image to enlarge.
Mervyn Anderson was an active member of the League of Women Voters of Kansas. Her dedication to informing Kansans on political issues and candidates is evident in these two items from her papers.
War time (probably referring to the Vietnam War) pledge card for the
League of Women Voters of Lawrence, Kansas.
Mervyn Anderson Papers, 1956-1987. Call Number: RH MS 1091.
Click image to enlarge.
Cover of the April 8-9, 1959 League of Women Voters State Convention
program in Salina, Kansas. Mervyn Anderson Papers, 1956-1987.
Call Number: RH MS 1091. Click image to enlarge.
Many Kansans have engaged politically by serving in local, state, or national government. Robert C. Caldwell is an excellent example of a public servant to the city of Salina, where he was elected as the first African American mayor in 1970.
Two identical keys to the city of Salina, Kansas, undated.
The key at the top displays the side engraved with Salina, Kansas,
while the key on the bottom is engraved with Mayor’s Key.
Robert C. Caldwell Family Papers, 1922-1999. Call Number: RH MS Q119. Click image to enlarge.
Mindy Babarskis
Library Assistant and Supply Coordinator
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 5,000 images from KU’s University Archives andmade them available online; be sure to check them out!
Spring General Elections for KU’s Student Senate are currently under way, characterized by computers and electronic ballots instead of paper forms and ballot boxes.
KU student election in Strong Hall, early 1950s.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 3/11 1950s Prints:
Student Government (Photos). Click image to enlarge.
Student Senate voting in Strong Hall, 1986-1987.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 3/11 1986/1987:
Student Government (Photos). Click 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
