Kenneth Spencer Research Library

Music! Races! Lemonade! Processions! In honor of the Fourth of July, here are three broadsides from the late 1800s publicizing local celebrations.

Broadside, Fourth of July celebration, Jarbalo, Kansas, 1888.
Call Number: RH Q52. Click image to enlarge.

Broadside, Fourth of July celebration,
Springfield, Missouri, circa 1890-1899.
Call Number: RH Q93. Click image to enlarge.

Broadside, Fourth of July celebration, Fulton, Kansas,
possibly 1899. Call Number: RH P100. Click image to enlarge.

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

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 5,300 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Fourth of July fireworks over the Campanile, 1981.
Gordon Holland, photographer. Look closely and you’ll see
Spencer Research Library in the background, plus people
sitting on the hill and in Memorial Stadium. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/24/1 Fireworks 1981 Prints:
Campus: Areas and Objects (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

To celebrate the Fourth of July, here are a selection of festive photographs from the Kansas Collection at Kenneth Spencer Research Library.

John S. Salmon (1867-1927), owner of Salmon Brothers Photography Studio, took these photographs of the 1898 Fourth of July Parade in Mount Hope, Kansas, located in the south-central part of the state between Wichita and Hutchinson. Operating his studio at the turn of the century, Salmon captured the town just as it was making the shift from horse transportation to the automobile.

Buggies decorated for the Fourth of July, Mount Hope, Kansas, 1898.
Salmon Brothers, Mt. Hope Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH 131.
Click images to enlarge.

Georgetown Band playing on the Fourth of July, Mount Hope, Kansas, 1898.
Salmon Brothers, Mt. Hope Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH 131.
Click image to enlarge.

Fourth of July parade, Mount Hope, Kansas, 1898.
Salmon Brothers, Mt. Hope Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH 131.
Click images to enlarge.

Additional records documenting the activities of the Salmon Brothers Photography Studio can be found at Wichita State University’s Special Collections and University Archives, which has made an inventory of the collection available online.

Kathy Lafferty
Public Services