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.
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’re looking forward to the first home game of the KU football season on Saturday. During the first half of the twentieth century, that event would have been celebrated with a Nightshirt Parade tomorrow night.
KU students in the Nightshirt Parade, 1951. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 71/17 1951 Negatives: Student Activities: Nightshirt Parade (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Nightshirt Parades became a venerable KU tradition. Typically, on the night before the first home game of the season, hundreds of students wearing nightshirts (usually over top of their clothing) would make their way north through campus to Sixth Street, then march east along Sixth until they reached Massachusetts Street. At this point, students would form “into one continuous serpentine line,” which amounted to a fair approximation of a conga line. Single file and holding the person in front of them, the students would weave their way down Massachusetts until they reached South Park where a bonfire would be held in anticipation of the next day’s game. At other times, the route was essentially reversed, with the procession beginning in the park and winding its way onto campus…
The onset of World War II marked the beginning of the end for the traditional Nightshirt Parade. Student enrollments dropped, and the annual procession filled in the depleted ranks by including coeds for the first time. When enrollments revived in the post-war years, the student body contained many veterans attending on the GI Bill. Serious, older, and less impressionable, these students were ill inclined to participate in or otherwise put up with anything they considered collegiate foolishness. They brought an end to the freshman cap tradition at KU, and saw little reason to don pajamas for a public event. Nonetheless, a version of the Nightshirt Parade continued well into the 1950s. However, the event had lost much of its original spontaneity and student enthusiasm for it dwindled.
The last Nightshirt Parade took place in 1957, replaced the following year with a “Traditions Rally.”
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!
KU football practice, 1930s. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 66/14 1930s: Athletic Department: Football (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
This photo was taken approximately where the football team’s current outdoor practice field stands. Mississippi Street is visible on the left. In the background, from left to right, are the Kansas Union, Dyche Hall, and Green (now Lippincott) Hall.
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!
An American flag flying over Memorial Stadium, 1969. Note the two men in uniform saluting the flag. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 71/66/14 1969/1970 Prints: Student Activities: Sports: Football (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 34,800 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!
Tomorrow – the Friday before Memorial Day – is National Road Trip Day. Do you have any travel plans for this long holiday weekend?
KU football fans in a decorated car preparing to drive to Columbia, Missouri, 1940.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 71/66/14 1940: Student Activities:
Sports: Football (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 34,800 images from KU’s University Archives andmade them available online; be sure to check them out!
You may not be able to watch the Jayhawks play in any college football bowl or playoff games this year, but you can enjoy this week’s post highlighting the fiftieth anniversary of KU’s Orange Bowl appearance on January 1, 1969. The Jayhawks played Penn State.
A KU fan with a Jayhawk hat putting Orange Bowl luggage
in the trunk of a car, 1968. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/66/14 1968: Student Activities: Sports: Football (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
A KU Orange Bowl sign depicting a Jayhawk kicking a Penn State Nittany Lion, 1969.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 71/66/14 1969: Student Activities:
Sports: Football (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
