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
Nola Ayers’s senior picture and a description of her KU life in the 1909 Jayhawker yearbook. University Archives. Call Number: LD 2697 .J3. Click image to enlarge.
Nola Mary Ayers was born in Horton, Kansas, in 1886. She arrived in Lawrence in the fall of 1905 to enter the University of Kansas and graduated from KU with a bachelor’s degree in 1909. Nola documented her college years by creating a scrapbook, as did many other university students at the time.
Typically, students purchased a large scrapbook from one of the bookstores near the university. Nola broke with tradition by using a blank “Specimens” science notebook to paste in mementos of her life at KU.
The front cover of Nola Ayers’s scrapbook, 1905-1909. Call Number: SB 71/99/8. Click image to enlarge.
Nola’s scrapbook was also unique because she was an artist and decorated her album with original pen and ink drawings. One of the first drawings in the scrapbook is a self-portrait where she describes herself as a “poor home sick freshman” whose “college home for the year 1905-06 was 1305 Vermont St. Lawrence, Kansas with Mother Dow to call us eight girls down.” This house on Vermont is still standing in the Oread neighborhood. In the years before dormitories, many students lived in boarding houses near campus; many of these large multi-story houses still exist.
Nola Ayers’s scrapbook entry about being “a poor home-sick freshman,” 1905. Call Number: SB 71/99/8. Click image to enlarge.
Nola documented her studies in her scrapbook. As seen in the image below, she took “Hygiene” and “Gymnasium” during her freshman year – courses that all KU students in the early twentieth century were required to enroll in. Nola also studied rhetoric, German, geology, solid geometry, and botany. Her scrapbook reflects her love of drawing, and her coursework included drawing, ornament design, and Greek art.
Nola Ayers’s freshman-year courses listed in her student scrapbook, circa 1906. Call Number: SB 71/99/8. Click image to enlarge.
Besides coursework, friendships with other students are well represented in the pages of Nola’s scrapbook. She documented slumber parties with other girls, popcorn making, a Halloween party where she dressed as the “Western Girl,” and events at her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. Nola celebrated Valentine’s Day with a party and red hearts pasted into her scrapbook.
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Selected pages from Nola Ayers’s scrapbook showing her hanging out and celebrating holidays with friends, 1905-1909. Call Number: SB 71/99/8. Click images to enlarge.
As evidenced by her scrapbook, Nola partook many of the outdoor activities KU students enjoyed in the early twentieth century: walking, boating on the Kaw River, picnicking in the countryside, and attending sporting events. According to the 1908 Jayhawker yearbook, Nola was an “authority on baseball” and an “enthusiastic fan.” Indeed, she pasted photos of the KU baseball team into her scrapbook. Nola also included items related to the KU debate team. Debate was almost as popular as athletic sports during the early twentieth century, and students would travel to other cities like Topeka to support the KU team.
A two-page spread in Nola Ayers’s scrapbook, circa 1906. Call Number: SB 71/99/8. Click image to enlarge.
According to a newspaper article, Nola was crowned Queen of the May at the second annual May Fete in 1909. She was a member of Allemania (German Club) and attended their events. She appeared to have attended many dances, plays, and concerts while a student, as documented by the many programs decorating her scrapbook. Plays and concerts were held on campus and in downtown Lawrence at the Bowersock Opera House.
A page of invitations and dance cards in Nola Ayers’s KU student scrapbook, circa 1907-1908. Call Number: SB 71/99/8. Click image to enlarge.
The bottom photo on this page might show Nola Ayers with her housemates, circa 1909. During her junior and senior years at KU, Nola lived at 1400 Tennessee Street in Lawrence. Call Number: SB 71/99/8. Click image to enlarge.
Nola Ayers married KU alumus Benjamin P. Young in 1910. According to a newspaper article announcing their wedding, the couple settled in Halstead, Kansas, where Ben was a high school principal. Ben and Nola relocated to Ithaca, New York, by 1923 and appear to have lived there for the rest of their lives. They had two children. Ben died in 1958; Nola passed away in 1973 at age 86.
Becky Schulte Retired University Archivist and Curator of the Wilcox Collection
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 some photographs from University Archives. Housing all things KU related, University Archives collects and preserves manuscripts, maps, blueprints, artifacts, photos, and more. The collection houses over a million photographs alone. As with last week’s post, this week’s images come from the library’s digital collections, which can be found on the “Find Collections” page of Spencer’s website. While not nearly all of the photos from University Archives are digitized, there are a ton to browse in the online collection.
The images shared this week show various scenes from inside KU Libraries. KU Libraries consist of six locations across campus: Watson (which is turning 100 years old), Anschutz, Spencer, Spahr Engineering, Art & Architecture, and Music & Dance. With over 5.6 million items on campus and even more available online, the libraries offer a wide variety of materials that serve users – especially KU students, faculty, and staff – and help them reach their goals. The Libraries’ mission is to “advance research, teaching, and learning at the intersection of people and ideas.” So while I boast that Spencer has something for everyone, every library on campus has something to offer.
Library bookstacks, probably in Watson Library, 1954. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 32/0 1954 Prints: University of Kansas Libraries (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
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Two views of the Undergraduate Reading Room at Watson Library, 1955. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 32/0 1955 Prints: University of Kansas Libraries (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Bookshelves for reserve materials, probably in Watson Library, 1996. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 32/0 1996 Prints: University of Kansas Libraries (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
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 items from the Lawrence Journal-World photograph collection. Spencer Research Library holds the newspaper’s physical photograph collection, which contains about 545 boxes of negatives and an additional 113 boxes of prints. The collection spans the 1950s through 2001. Topics in the collection include athletics, anniversary celebrations, weather events, agriculture, organizational meetings, and more. The collection is organized chronologically by date rather than topic, which can make sorting through the photos an adventure for patrons.
The images shared today are from our digital collections, which can be found on the “Find Collections” page of Spencer’s website. The library has many digital collections available online for patrons to view from anywhere they please. Per the website, “KU Libraries Digital Collections provide free, public access to thousands of objects digitized from across Spencer’s holdings, including photographs, documents, and audiovisual materials.”
Bell Telephone employee Claude Milliken, March 1955. Lawrence Journal-World Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH LJW. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Kevin Heck with Ringing Bros. circus elephants, September-October 1954. Lawrence Journal-World Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH LJW. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
Three-year-old Chris Hunsinger looking at prizes during the Douglas County Derby, June 1957. Lawrence Journal-World Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH LJW. Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).
This weekend, alumni will gather to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Douthart and Grace Pearson Scholarship Halls on the KU campus. While Douthart was slated from the beginning as a scholarship hall, it appears that Grace Pearson was originally conceived as a “general” women’s residence hall and was added to the scholarship hall system a few years after it opened.
At the time it was built, Douthart Hall was the fourth women’s scholarship hall and ninth total in the system. The location had previously been the site of Carruth Hall, the former residence of Chancellors Snow through Lindley, and after 1940 a small student residence hall. An August 1953 KU News Bureau report noted that Douthart was “the gift of the late Miss Lela Douthart and the late Mrs. Ava Douthart Chronister of Kansas City, Kansas, and of Burt Chronister of Kansas City, Kansas. Douthart Hall will be built at the northwest corner of 14th and Louisiana streets.”
1954 construction of Grace Pearson Hall, with newly-built Douthart Hall in the background. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/22/26, University General: Buildings: Grace Pearson Hall (Photos). Click image to enlarge.
The first residents of Douthart Hall, 1954-55. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 56/6, Housing: Douthart Hall (Photos). Click image to enlarge.
J.R. Pearson and his wife Gertrude Sellards Pearson generously donated funds for various residence halls at the University of Kansas. Grace Pearson Hall, named in honor of J.R. Pearson’s mother, was built as a reverse copy of Douthart Hall and was situated between Douthart and the KU Faculty Club on Louisiana Street. It was designed to be a 48-student women’s dormitory but, as a KU News Bureau report from 1953 noted, “The new hall will not be a scholarship hall, but whether it will be used for freshman or upper class women has not been determined.” Within a few years it had become a men’s hall and is currently co-ed.
Residents of Grace Pearson Hall, 1978-79. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 56/5, Housing: Grace Pearson Hall (Photos). Click image to enlarge.
Scholarship halls were designed to provide an economical place to live on campus, with residents assuming cooking and cleaning duties to cut costs and foster a cooperative sense of community living. Residents were selected on the basis of need, scholarship, and character. A 1954 KU News Bureau report stated that the first residents received room and board “for about $300 a year less than the outlay for comparable accommodations” and also received $300 scholarships when admitted to a scholarship hall. Originally each scholarship hall also housed a housemother, later replaced by a scholarship hall director.
Resident of Douthart Hall washing dishes, 1987. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 56/6, Housing: Douthart Hall (Photos). Click image to enlarge.
We hope that the former and current residents of Douthart and Grace Pearson Halls who gather in Lawrence this weekend have a wonderful time reminiscing about their experiences living on the Hill.
Douthart Hall (left) and Grace Pearson Hall (right), 1956. University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/22/16, University General: Buildings: Douthart Hall (Photos). Click image to enlarge.
Whitney Baker Head, Conservation Services (and former Douthart Hall resident)
