Kenneth Spencer Research Library

This coming Tuesday, October 6th, will see the return of Day on the Hill, KU’s storied music festival that was sponsored by Student Union Activities (SUA) from 1989 to 2007. With the newly digitized University Daily Kansas (UDK) and some artifacts and photos from University Archives, we can piece together a history of “one of the best college music festivals in the nation,” as the manager of the band Soul Coughing described Day on the Hill in 1998. 

Starting in 1978, many outdoor day-long music events in spring and summer were held at KU near Allen Fieldhouse or on Campanile Hill under various names such as Day on the Green, Day on the Green Hill, Wheatstock (in homage to Woodstock), Summer on the Hill, and Jayhawk Jamboree. These events featured local or regional bands, which kept costs low and made the event free for both students and locals. By the 1980s, the Jayhawk Jamboree’s title had officially changed to its nickname to Jayhawk Jam, but it was cancelled in 1987 and 1988 because SUA did not have enough money to host it. 

In 1989, SUA decided to use the budget it had left over at the end of the year and teamed up with the Student Senate, the Association of University Residence Halls, and radio station KJHK to host a new all-day concert event called Day on the Hill. It was part of the Student Senate’s Celebrate Diversity program and it included cultural performances, local bands, Love Tractor from Athens, Georgia, and Too Much Joy from New York. Forty-seven local bands had sent in cassette tapes of their music to be considered by a committee from SUA and KJHK. Students were hired to work the event for $20, and 1,500 people attended. 

The next year, 3,000 people attended to watch more local bands, Buffalo Tom, and Toad the Wet Sprocket with reportedly beautiful weather and buckets of fried chicken. In 1991, complaints about the lack of diversity and the selection process for local bands resulted in a bigger committee and the inclusion of hip-hop groups in the lineup for the first time. 

Left: A University Daily Kansan ad for the first Day on the Hill, April 1989. Right: A UDK photo from the 1991 Day on the Hill concert. University Archives. Call Number: UA Ser 69/2/1. Click images to enlarge.

The year 1992 changed everything for Day on the Hill. In February, SUA offered the little-known band Pearl Jam $3,000 to be the headliner for the event that year on May 2nd. Their album Ten had been released the summer before, but it wasn’t until their second single “Even Flow” was released in March 1992 that the band’s popularity and album sales began to rise quickly.  

When word got out that Pearl Jam was playing a free outdoor concert at KU, high school and college students from around the region drove to Lawrence to join KU students and locals at the show. Crowd estimates range from 18,000 to 30,000; the latter number would have been Pearl Jam’s biggest show to date. A mosh pit formed in the crowd, and during an extended version of the song “Porch” singer Eddie Vedder climbed up the scaffolding of the stage, swung across the rafters, hung upside down while grabbing the mike, and finished singing the song while sitting on top of the roof, a stunt Vedder would repeat many times at outdoor shows. 

Pearl Jam’s appearance at KU became a legendary story for those lucky enough to have attended. It also, in many ways, set students’ expectations very high when it came to future Day on the Hill shows. As voiced in the UDK later in the 1990s, many students asked why SUA could not bring in bigger bands or questioned SUA’s choices when they were usually working with a budget of $20,000 to $30,000. Members of SUA had to repeatedly explain that the Pearl Jam show had been a great stroke of luck. The 1992 concert remained Day on the Hill’s highest attendance for its entire run. 

In 1993, SUA decided to host a battle of the bands to choose local performers for Day on the Hill, adding another hurdle after cassette tape submissions. The concert was called the Farmers’ Ball, and it continued throughout the 1990s. Heavy rain led to a very muddy show with headliners the Gin Blossoms and Reverend Horton Heat in 1993, and the mud came again in 1994 with Urge Overkill. 

Posters from the 1993 (left) and 1994 (right) Day on the Hill shows. University Archives Records, Student Activities: Student Union Activities. Call Number: RG 71/23. Click images to enlarge.

Leading up the 1995 show, someone started a hoax that the band Phish was going to be the headliner and posted fake flyers around campus, leading to disappointment when Matthew Sweet was announced as the real headliner. Also that year, a few students decided to load a couch into a truck and bring it to the hill to sit on during the event. For many years later, students brought couches and other furniture, hauling them up the hill to enjoy a comfortable view. 

The late ’90s brought new changes including games and carnival-like activities, and the show ended at 6pm rather than at 9pm or later. Despite its budget struggles, SUA was able to book Urge Overkill, They Might Be Giants, Soul Coughing, the Urge, and HUM. 

Scenes from Day on the Hill concerts, 1990s. University Archives Photographs, Student Activities: Student Union Activities. Click on images to enlarge.

In 2002, SUA decided to return to Day on the Hill’s roots as an event for local bands only. The show was also rescheduled a week later because of rain and moved to a parking lot near the football stadium. The low turnout that year prompted SUA to cancel Day on the Hill for the next three years. 

With a new student activity fee in 2006, Day on the Hill returned with headliners Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and Spoon. In 2007, it was moved to the Leid Center’s lawn with G. Love & Special Sauce and the Faint. In the UDK, there are no reports about that last show or why SUA stopped it entirely. 

Enjoy these lineups (compiled from the UDK) and links to some videos on YouTube. Many thanks to those who digitized their recordings and preserved these glimpses of what was possible on KU’s campus when determined, resourceful students were able to pull off ground-breaking, free shows that celebrated the very important role that music plays in young people’s lives. 

• 1989: Pathetic Excuse, The Mahoots, The Works, The Moving Van Goghs, Love Tractor, Too Much Joy 
• 1990: The Witch Doctors, 2-Mile Death Plunge, Chris Beneke, Joe Worker, The Fluid, Sin City Disciples, Buffalo Tom, DJ Sir Light, Toad the Wet Sprocket 
• 1991: Now See Hear, Two Guitars and a Short Guy, Zoom, Mutt Finicky, Az-One, DOPE (Disciples of Peace and Equality), Paris 
• 1992: Big B, Cicada Rhythm Band, Zoom, Trademark, Tribe After Tribe, Let’s Go Bowling, Pearl Jam (full set and another view) 
• 1993: Rise, Kill Creek, MU330, Crash Vegas, Gin Blossoms, Reverend Horton Heat 
• 1994: Bubble Boyz, Pegboy, Vitreous Humor, Urge Overkill 
• 1995: Lou’s Revenge, Bastard Squad, Tenderloin, Matthew Sweet 
• 1996: Champion Guts to Glory Obstacle course, Justin Case, Sick, Poster Children, The Floyds 
• 1997: Chebella!, Arthur Dodge and the Horsefeathers, The Glitterkicks, Norman 360, The Gravel Pit, They Might Be Giants  
• 1998: 2 Player Option, Fear & Whiskey, The Believe It Or Nots!, The Creature Comforts, Soul Coughing  
• 1999: Sarsky, Frogpond, Son Venezuela, Panel Donor, Poster Children, HUM 
• 2000: Proudentall , The Jesse Jackson 5, Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys, The Co-op, The Urge 
• 2001: Preferred Villain, Brent Barry and the Secondhands, The Youngblood Brass Band, Pomeroy, The Daybirds, Fastball 
• 2002: Hardaway, Thulium, No Lessons, Hotsauce, Emilia Dahlin, The Anniversary 
• 2006: Ghosty, Kelpie, The Belles, Superargo, DJ’s Hot Lunch Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Spoon 
• 2007: The Roseline, Pomeroy, G. Love & Special Sauce, The Faint 

Kate Stewart
Curator of the Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements

If you’re a fan of soccer in general or Team Algeria in particular, be sure to stop by Spencer Research Library this summer and check out our small exhibit in honor of this year’s FIFA World Cup.

One case features materials documenting the history of soccer locally and internationally. For example, Matthew Concanen’s 1721 work A Match at Foot-Ball; Or the Irish Champions: A Mock-Heroick Poem, in Three Canto’s (Call Number: B519) is a very early account of “foot-ball,” a precursor to modern Association Football (soccer), Rugby, and Gaelic Football, which were not codified separately until the mid-1800s.

The other case in this display highlights items about the history of Algeria, whose national soccer team is based in Lawrence during the tournament. The exhibited items span more than four centuries and reveal both European and Algerian perspectives toward the North African country.

Spencer’s FIFA World Cup exhibit will be installed in the reception area through August 14. Also on display is a short-term exhibit about Latino history and culture in Kansas, located in the North Gallery until July 31. And, there’s still time to explore Aging, Art, and Activism: Reimagining Our Aging Futures through Creative Representations and Personal Narratives, which you can find in Spencer’s Exhibit Space through August 14.

Caitlin Klepper
Public Engagement Librarian

As I work to develop the Spencer’s new Latina/o Collections*, I wanted to take a moment and look back at the interesting materials that are already sitting within our library stacks and viewable in our Reading Room today! All the materials presented allow us to briefly see how Latina/os have gathered and built community within different places across Kansas.

Take a look at some of those materials below.

Aztlán de Leavenworth, volume 1

First published May 5, 1970, Aztlán de Leavenworth was a bilingual Chicano prisoner newspaper edited and published at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas. It features poet and activist raúlrsalinas’ famous poem “A Trip Through the Mind Jail.” Other members of the publication team included Albert Mares, Ruben Estrella, Alfredo Arellanes, Ricardo Mena, and Beto Palomino. Inspired by Aztec history and iconography, the newspaper is named after Aztlán, the ancestral home of the Aztecs, and features images of Tizoc and designs inspired by Aztec art.

Left: The front cover of Aztlán de Leavenworth, 1970. Right: The page of Aztlán de Leavenworth featuring “A Trip Through the Mind Jail,” 1970. Call Number: RH H79, volume 1. Click images to enlarge.

KACMAA Special Report, 1981

This 1981 special report was created by Kansas’ Advisory Committee in Mexican American Affairs (KACMAA). As explained in the report’s introduction, it “optimistically highlights important accomplishments and measurable in Hispanic’s social, economic, and political life” but also “clarifies the work that remains to be done.” While the KACMAA originally concentrated on projects to promote people of Mexican heritage, the organization evolved to include all Hispanics and Latinos across the state and is now known as the Kansas Hispanic and Latino American Affairs Commission.

Music groups in Emporia

Taken some time in 1932, these photographic prints from the Oral History Project Regarding the Hispanic Community of Emporia, Kansas (Call Number: RH PH 182) allow us to see some of Emporia’s early musical groups. The first photo shows members of the Mexican band Orquesta de Leora posing with their instruments, while the second features the women who made up the Coro de Santa Catalina, or St. Catherine’s Choir. St. Catherine’s Catholic Church still exists to this day and continues to offer Catholic services to Spanish speakers in Emporia.

Left: Photograph of Orquesta de Leora, 1932. Right: Photograph of St. Catherine’s Choir, 1932. Oral History Project Regarding the Hispanic Community of Emporia, Kansas. Call Number: RH PH 182, Box 1, Folders 11 and 19. Click images to enlarge.

MEChA & HALO Pamphlets

Records of a Latina/o focused group at the University of Kansas have existed since the 1970s. However, before it was LASU (Latin American Student Union), KU’s Latino student group went by many names. It first went by the name AMAS (Association of Mexican American Students), and then it was MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán). The group took the name HALO (Hispanic American Leadership Organization) when it was re-established in the 1980s, and it finally became LASU to further expand its inclusion of all students of Latin American heritage or background.  

Rebekah Ramos
Curator of Latina/o Collections

Sources

“A Trip Through the Mind Jail: A Textual History of raúlrsalinas’ Magnum Opus” by Santiago Vidales Martínez in Textual Cultures 14.1 (2021): 208–229. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14434/tc.v14i1.32858

Kansas Hispanic & Latino American Affairs Commission website, “Our Mission and Our Origins from KACMAA to KHLAAC.”

KU Latin American Student Union website, “LASU History.”

*While many terms exist to identify people in the United States of Latin American origin and/or ancestry (i.e. Hispanic, Chicano, Latino, Latina/o, Latinx, Latine) at Spencer Research Library we chose to use “Latina/o” for the collection’s title. As the collection grows and evolves, the term used might change.

This is the latest installment in a recurring series of posts introducing readers to the staff of Kenneth Spencer Research Library. Today’s profile features Rebekah Ramos, who joined Spencer Research Library in August 2025 as the Curator of Latina/o Collections.

Where are you from?

I was born and raised in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico but I moved to Texas when I was sixteen. I jumped around the state quite a bit for school, living in cities like Frisco, Lubbock, Sherman, and most recently Austin.

What does your job at Spencer entail?

As curator of Latina/o Collections I’m in charge of collecting materials that document and preserve the history of Latina/o individuals, families, and organizations in Kansas. Latinos have been part of this state’s history for more than a hundred years, and I’m working to build a collection that reflects the many experiences and stories that exist within this community.

How did you come to work in libraries/archives/special collections?

During undergrad, in the midst of a new semester and trying to stay sane during Zoom classes, I applied for and was hired as a student assistant at the Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive’s Oral History Project. During my time there, I reviewed and cleaned up transcriptions of oral history interviews that were conducted with Vietnam War veterans. Then, while I was completing my degree in Information Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, I worked as a graduate student technician at the LLILAS Benson’s Digital Scholarship Lab, where I had the opportunity to work with Latin American and U.S. Latina/o archival materials.  

What part of your job do you like best?

I love getting to meet new people! As someone who is not originally from here, it’s been interesting getting to learn about the variety of nationalities, backgrounds, and stories that make up the Latino community in Kansas.

What do you have on your desk?

I have a bunch of sticky notes with reminders of things I need to look up or do, and a huge pile of books I’m trying to read, like What Kansas Means to Me, Who Owns Native Culture?, and Catching Stories: A Practical Guide to Oral History. There are also a couple of trinkets to remind me of home, like a Mexican rag doll I keep under my monitor.

What is one of the most interesting items you’ve come across in Spencer’s collections?

Some of the most interesting items I’ve come across were two photographs I found in the Bourquin Family Collection. Photographs in this collection were taken by a Swiss family that moved to Horton, Kansas, in the late 1800s. The collection’s finding aid showed that there are a couple of photographs that include the name “Little Mexico” in their title.

I was really surprised to find these photographs, since I hadn’t seen any record or evidence of Mexican immigrants in Horton in any of our other collections or online sources. Digitized newspaper clippings confirmed that during the 1920s there was an area of the town that housed many of the Mexican immigrants that had come to work at the local railroad center.

“High water at railroad dam and Little Mexico, May 8, 1921.” Bourquin Family Collection. Call Number: RH PH 30, Box 14, Folder 623. Click images to enlarge.

What are some of your favorite pastimes outside of work?

I am an avid reader and proud bookworm! But I also love going to the movie theater, getting food or coffee with friends, baking, and watching TV.

Rebekah Ramos
Curator of Latina/o Collections

Spencer Research Library will be closed from December 22nd through January 2nd and will reopen on January 5th. We look forward to seeing you in 2026 and sharing more stories about our collections, staff, and services.

Visit the KU Libraries website for more information on winter recess across the libraries.

Caitlin Klepper
Head of Public Services