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.
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created this series to provide a lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique items at Spencer. “That’s Distinctive!” is meant to show that the library has something for everyone regardless of interest. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, you can leave a comment at the bottom of this page. All collections, including those highlighted on the blog, are available for members of the public to explore in the Reading Room during regular hours.
This week on That’s Distinctive! I am sharing a book from our Kansas Collection. The book, titled Poems of the Plains, and Songs of the Solitudes, Together With “The Rhyme of the Border War,” was written by Thomas Brower Peacock and published in 1888. The book is a compilation of older revised poems as well as poems Peacock had never published before. The copy of the book housed at the library is signed and dated by the author.
The library houses many other books by Peacock including The Vendetta, and Other Poems (1876), The Rhyme of the Border War (1880), and a later addition of Poems of the Plains, and Songs of the Solitudes, Together With “The Rhyme of the Border War” (1889). As one can see, The Rhyme of the Border War is included in the book shown today and was originally published as a stand-alone book in 1880.
This is one of those books I found while walking through the stacks. It just seemed to jump out to me on one particular day and I took note of the call number to pull it for the blog. It can be frustrating sometimes when I pull a book and cannot find much information on it or the author, but I suppose that should be expected especially the older the books are. Nevertheless, I do still get to enjoy the smell of old books while fumbling through the pages.
KU’s second copy of the book is available to check out from Watson Library, or it can be viewed online through the Library of Congress. The Internet Archive also has an online copy of Peacock’s 1872 work Poems. Finally, Washburn University offers a nice overview of early poems about Kansas that includes a mention of Peacock’s work.
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The front cover, author inscription, and selected poems from Poems of the Plains, and Songs of the Solitudes, Together With “The Rhyme of the Border War by Thomas Brower Peacock, 1888. Call Number: RH B112. Click images to enlarge.
Spencer Research Library and the Gordon Parks Center have collaborated to create a pop-up display and small exhibition on the life, journey, and friendship of Gordon Parks and Langston Hughes.
The Gordon Parks Center in Fort Scott, with support from Humanities Kansas, curated an exhibition in 2023 exploring the connections between these two Kansas artistic luminaries and their local connections to the state.
Two pages from A Poet and His Camera by Gordon Parks, 1968. Call Number: RH C9010. Click image to enlarge.
Oftentimes, when we think of Black artistic movements, we often think of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s or the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. What is easy to overlook is the strong Kansas connection to both movements. Likewise, when we think of Kansas art and artists, it is easy to think of pastoral landscapes that capture the natural beauty of the prairie landscape and poetic descriptions of wildflowers and controlled burns. The linking of Kansas artists to these larger artistic movements that give rise to underrepresented voices in the world of arts and letters is not always so apparent. One of the most famous artists of the state is John Steuart Curry, the hand behind the Tragic Prelude mural painted in the rotunda of the capitol building in Topeka. But, did you know that another work by Curry, The Fugitive, was featured in an exhibition titled An Art Commentary on Lynching in 1935? Of the 38 artists whose work was included in the New York exhibition, Curry’s work was used on the cover of the exhibition catalog, designed to bring attention to the need for a nationwide anti-lynching law.
Two of the most recognized artists of the Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts Movement have roots in Kansas. This is no coincidence. Kansas in the early 20th century fostered a certain creative intelligence in these young men that would translate to and be understood by a large audience. Both Hughes and Parks grew up in working class families. Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, just across the state line from Baxter Springs, Kansas. Before his first birthday, he was living between Topeka and Lawrence. Locally, he attended Pinckney School and lived on Alabama Street in West Lawrence (now referred to as Old West Lawrence). He worked for a time as a newsie, selling the Saturday Evening Post and briefly the Appeal to Reason, a socialist newspaper published out of Girard, Kansas. He stopped delivering the Appeal after being told by the local editor of the former that the latter would get him into trouble. His introduction to the social issues discussed in the Appeal would shape a sense of solidarity with working class folks. Fifty miles away from Hughes’ birthplace is the childhood home of Gordon Parks, born in Fort Scott, Kansas, where his father was a tenant farmer. While Hughes was an only child, Parks was the youngest of fifteen.
Both Parks’ and Hughes’ earliest writings were inspired by memories of their Kansas childhoods and drew upon stories about people they knew. Hughes’ first novel, Not Without Laughter, is based on his upbringing in Lawrence. In his first autobiography, The Big Sea, he reflected on the ideas that would become Not Without Laughter. He wanted to write about a typical Black family in the Midwest and about people he had known in Kansas. Yet, he felt like his family and upbringing was not typical. “I gave myself aunts that I didn’t have, modeled after other children’s aunts whom I had known,” Hughes wrote. “But I put in a real cyclone that had blown my grandmother’s front porch away.”
Langston Hughes opens Not Without Laughter with a storm. He styled Aunt Hager after aunts of his childhood friends in Lawrence, but the storm was very real. Call Number: RH B1855. Click image to enlarge.
Parks drew on his own childhood while writing his first novel, The Learning Tree. Though set in the fictional town of Cherokee Flats with fictional characters, it closely resembled Fort Scott. When Parks later directed a film based on the story, he shot it on location in Fort Scott.
Kansas was not without racial bigotry. Both Hughes and Parks talked openly about being the subject of ridicule and name-calling and feeling fearful of violence. Despite the unpleasant realities faced during their childhoods, Kansas remained an important part of their lives. In Half Past Autumn, a retrospective of Parks’ work, he calls the state his touchstone:
“I looked back to the heaven and hell of Kansas and asked some questions…My memories gave me some straight talk. The important thing is not so much what you suffered or didn’t suffer, but how you put that learning to use.”
“There had been infinitely beautiful things to celebrate – golden twilights, dawns, rivers aglow in sunlight, moons climbing over Poppa’s barns, orange autumns, trees bending under storms and silent snow. But marring the beauty was the graveyard where, even in death, whites lay rigidly from Blacks. Twenty-odd years had passed when, with these things lying in my memory, I returned to Kansas and went by horseback to lock them firmly with my camera. Spring was wrapped around the prairies. Nothing much has changed – certainly not the graveyard.”
A photo contact sheet of Gordon Parks visiting the Tallgrass Prairie with Patricia DuBose Duncan in 1979. Some photos also show Patricia’s son Don. Patricia DuBose Duncan Papers. Call Number: RH MS-P 535, Box 8, Folder 47. Click image to enlarge.
Langston Hughes returned to visit Lawrence after many years as well. Later in life, he was invited to speak at the University of Kansas, which he had visited as a small child. During one of his return visits, Hughes donated a collection of personal books and manuscripts to KU Libraries.
On page 22 of his first autobiography The Big Sea, Langston Hughes talks about selling the Appeal to Reason. He also talks about attending KU football games, only blocks from his house. Call Number: RH C7423. Click image to enlarge.
Throughout this summer, Spencer Library will feature a panel-display exhibit from the Gordon Parks Center accompanied with archival materials from the Kansas Collection to tell the stories of Langston Hughes and Gordon Parks and show the impact of their time growing up in Kansas on their life and careers. Their cultural expression through visual art, performing arts, literature, films, and music preserves our history, retells our stories for the next generation, and inspires our futures.
The exhibition will be on display through August 17, 2024, in the reception area of Spencer Research Library. The library and exhibit are free and open to everyone. You can visit our website to plan your visit.
Over the past few years, before Juneteenth became a national holiday, KU Libraries gave employees the day off as a Day of Reflection. We used this time to reflect on what we knew and learn more about African American history, understanding the history of emancipation.
Official souvenir program from the 23rd annual Emancipation Celebration in Dayton, Ohio, 1923. Marcus Hamilton Papers. Call Number: RH MS 667. Click image to enlarge.
I grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan. It wasn’t as big as Detroit or Grand Rapids, but it was a large city with a number of companies that kept the city in business. Battle Creek is where the Kellogg brothers and Charles W. Post invented cereal. Those companies employed the majority of Battle Creek’s population. It is also the place where Sojourner Truth is buried.
Having this connection to the Underground Railroad where I lived, I became more interested in history. However, we learned about emancipation only from one view.
The front cover of Freedom to the Free: Century of Emancipation, 1863-1963, a report to the President by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1963. Call Number: RH WL C10768. Click image to enlarge.
A flier for the 1963 Emancipation Celebration in Wichita, Kansas. Leonard Garrett Papers. Call Number: RH MS 689. Click image to enlarge.
From junior high to college, many of my classmates were African American. I also had teachers, principals, and a high school counselor who were Black. It was only when I lived in and traveled around the country that I became aware of the lack of diversity in many communities.
A flier for the 1992 Juneteenth Celebration at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. Personal Papers of Moses Gunn. Call Number: PP 463. Click image to enlarge.
When I began my research on Juneteenth, I could not find much information. A colleague mentioned that I should use “emancipation” as my search term instead. I wanted to learn the importance and history of the Juneteenth holiday. I found that emancipation celebrations were held on different days of the year in different locations.
With Juneteenth becoming a national holiday, I hope it is a catalyst for people understand and learn more about African American history from their perspective. Juneteenth is more than a day off work. It is a day to celebrate African American history and U.S. history to the present.
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A Juneteenth Celebration program, 2008. Records of the Topeka Council of Colored Women’s Clubs. Call Number: RH MS 1289. Click image to enlarge.
Researching our collections, I was able to find many documents on emancipation. This blog post is only a small sample from our holdings.
I encourage you to visit Spencer to see and touch the historical materials housed at the library. Spencer is free and open to the public. A reference librarian can work with you to find resources on emancipation, Juneteenth, and broader African American history in Kansas. See the library’s website for more information.
The Todd Family Photographs collection consists of thirty-seven photographic reproductions donated by Loretta Estelle Carraher. They depict three generations of her family, the Todds.
After they were freed from enslavement to a family in Platte County, Missouri, Adam and America Todd moved to Kansas with the Payne family, also freed from slavery. They raised six children, settling first in Leavenworth and then moving to Oskaloosa. Adam Todd died at the age of 98. America Todd died in 1920.
Below are a few images from the collection for you to enjoy.
America Todd, undated. Todd Family Photographs. Call Number: RH PH 74, Box 1, Folder 37. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Adam Todd, undated. Todd Family Photographs. Call Number: RH PH 74, Box 1, Folder 36. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Tom Todd (son of Adam and America Todd) and Eliza Walton Todd, undated. Todd Family Photographs. Call Number: RH PH 74, Box 1, Folder 8. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Unknown man in front of farmhouse, undated. Todd Family Photographs. Call Number: RH PH 74, Box 1, Folder 35. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Norman Estelle’s class at Lincoln School in North Lawrence, Kansas, undated. Todd Family Photographs. Call Number: RH PH 74, Box 1, Folder 28. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Soldier Bruce James, undated. Todd Family Photographs. RH PH 74, Box 1, Folder 7. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created the series because I genuinely believe there is something in our collections for everyone, whether you’re writing a paper or just want to have a look. “That’s Distinctive!” will provide a more lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique materials at Spencer – including items that many people may not realize the library holds. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
The back of the Hays postcard is labelled “J. BOWERS Photographic Co., London.” According to the Flint Hills Special Digital Magazine, John Bowers was born in 1865 and took up the trade of photography in 1896 after returning from a two-year world tour. Around 1906, Bowers and his family moved to Long Beach, California, where he opened a photography studio. During this time, he frequently visited Topeka, Kansas, by train where he “engaged in photographic excursions…Between 1907 and 1910, Bowers produced a large volume of postcard photographic views from Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska.” Bowers’ postcards from Kansas are described as “numerous and noteworthy.” In 1908, there was an explosion of interest in collecting real photo postcards, which only fueled Bowers’ business. There is no evidence that he ever operated a studio in London. More on Bowers’ life and adventures, along with more images of his postcards, can be found via the Flint Hills Special.
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Postcards from Burlington (top) and Eudora (bottom), Kansas. Kansas Towns Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH 134. Click images to enlarge.
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The front and back of a postcard from Clyde, Kansas, 1907. Kansas Towns Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH 134. Click images to enlarge.
Here is a transcription of the postcard from Clyde:
7-31st Weather here is cooler since our nice rain Sat. night & Sun. morn. Will help corn & pastures Am better since it is cooler. It’s the heat gets away with me. All the rest are well. Am going to Clyde tomorrow As Lizzie [L?] & [Jeremia?] are both home on a visit. Sister Jennie
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The front and back of a postcard from Hays, Kansas, 1910. Kansas Towns Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH 134. Click images to enlarge.
![Sepia-toned photo of a dirt street with two-story buildings - and some horses and wagons - on each side. A handwritten note says "2803 Chesnut [sic] St, Hays, Kans."](https://blogs.lib.ku.edu/spencer/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/RH-PH-134_Hays-front.jpg)
