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.
Kenneth and Helen Spencer with their dog Topper in the garden of their home in Mission Hills, Kansas, spring 1959. Helen Foresman Spencer Papers. Call Number: RH MS-P 542. Click image to enlarge.
After much deliberation, Kenneth Spencer Research Library (KSRL) will be changing its name to Topper’s Library for Dog Research (TLDR) in honor of the Kenneth and Helen Spencer’s dog Topper, pictured above. Here at KSRL, staff seek to tell the stories of the hidden figures of history, not just people of great renown. Behind every Alice Walker (RH PH P2851) or Langston Hughes (RH MS 127), there are communities who helped support these figures of history. And of course, what greater support could there be than the support of man’s best friend!
The TLDR, formerly known as the KSRL, already has many historical items featuring these good boys and girls of history, and we seek to collect and preserve even more. We’ve included some of our favorite photographs of TLDR’s canine companions below.
“One way to beat the heat. Little Georgeann Levon of Pottstown PA and her dog, Mike, wrap in wet towels and drink,” June 1957. Lawrence Journal-World Photograph Collection. Call number: RH PH LJW. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Portrait of H. G. Davis and his dog, 1911. Joseph Judd Pennell Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH Pennell. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Portrait of Mrs. Dot Kline and her dog, 1909. Joseph Judd Pennell Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH Pennell. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
We here at TLDR encourage you to also take part in this important record-keeping process. Take and share a photo of a dog today. Be sure to include names and dates! Here’s hoping some doggy smiles brighten your April Fools’ Day.
Charissa Pincock Archives and Manuscripts Coordinator
Archival collections do not always have a great deal of
visual appeal—correspondence, diaries, reports, completed forms, memos, and
other related record types may or may not include sketches, images, and other detritus
that catches the eye when first opening a volume or folder.
But archival collections frequently contain photographs, ephemera, objects, and other items that do have visual appeal. In the last six months of 2019, Spencer Research Library staff completed processing a wide variety of archival collections, many of which have something to catch the eye as well as a great deal to research.
A candid photograph of Kenneth and Helen Spencer, probably dating from the 1940s. Robert S. Lemon Photographs. Call Number: RH PH P2837, Folder 2. Click image to enlarge.
A wooden pickers’ crate displaying the United Farm Workers’ stamp. United Farm Workers Collection. Call Number: RH WL MS Q8, Box 2. Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas. Click images to enlarge.
Edith Krull, a freelance art critic and journalist, reviewed and saw a wide variety of art exhibits in East Germany during the latter half of the twentieth century, presumably including this showing of Budapest-born artist Gabriella Billege:
Front cover of a leaflet from the Berlin Gallerie Mitte for a 1983 show of Gabriella Billege’s works. Edith Krull Collection. Call Number: MS 345, Box 1, Folder 34. Click image to enlarge.
Harold Orel’s 1941 “Books I Have Read” journal may not at first glance appear visually appealing, but his witty writing style makes for entertaining reading.
A page from Harold Orel’s reading journal, discussing one of the books he read as a teenager in November 1941. The entry foreshadows Orel’s future career as an English professor at KU. Personal Papers of Harold Orel. Call Number: PP 615, Box 30. Click image to enlarge.
Please feel free to perform research in any of the newly processed collections listed below and see what catches your eye!
