Kenneth Spencer Research Library

To celebrate the Fourth of July, here are a selection of festive photographs from the Kansas Collection at Kenneth Spencer Research Library.

John S. Salmon (1867-1927), owner of Salmon Brothers Photography Studio, took these photographs of the 1898 Fourth of July Parade in Mount Hope, Kansas, located in the south-central part of the state between Wichita and Hutchinson. Operating his studio at the turn of the century, Salmon captured the town just as it was making the shift from horse transportation to the automobile.

Buggies decorated for the Fourth of July, Mount Hope, Kansas, 1898.
Salmon Brothers, Mt. Hope Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH 131.
Click images to enlarge.

Georgetown Band playing on the Fourth of July, Mount Hope, Kansas, 1898.
Salmon Brothers, Mt. Hope Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH 131.
Click image to enlarge.

Fourth of July parade, Mount Hope, Kansas, 1898.
Salmon Brothers, Mt. Hope Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH 131.
Click images to enlarge.

Additional records documenting the activities of the Salmon Brothers Photography Studio can be found at Wichita State University’s Special Collections and University Archives, which has made an inventory of the collection available online.

Kathy Lafferty
Public Services

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 5,300 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

With KU’s Stouffer Place apartments set to close at the end of June, this week we’re sharing some early pictures of the complex, which housed married students and students with children. It opened in 1957.

Ellis B. Stouffer (1884-1965), for whom the complex was named, with his wife Anna and
daughter Jean, 1950s. A mathematician, Stouffer also served KU as
Dean of the Graduate School (1922-1945) and Dean of the University (1945-1951).
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/22/86 1950s Negatives:
Campus: Buildings: Stouffer Place (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

Stouffer Place residents, 1950s. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/22/86 1950s Negatives: Campus: Buildings: Stouffer Place (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Aerial view of Stouffer Place looking north, 1950s. Nineteenth Street runs
across the bottom of the photograph; Iowa Street is shown on the left.
Daisy Hill is undeveloped, with only a couple of farm houses.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/22/86 1950s Prints:
Campus: Buildings: Stouffer Place (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

View of Stouffer Place from the east, 1959. The truck is likely heading down
Naismith Drive. Note the construction on Daisy Hill. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/22/86 1959 Prints: Campus: Buildings: Stouffer Place (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Daisy Hill residence halls behind Stouffer Place, 1960s.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/22/86 1950s Prints:
Campus: Buildings: Stouffer Place (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

Aerial photograph of Stouffer Place looking east towards campus, 1963-1964.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/24/A 1963/1964: University General:
Campus: Aerials (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Many archival collections at Spencer Research Library contain letters exchanged between fathers and their children. In honor of Father’s Day on Sunday, we’re sharing several items from our collection of Leo W. Zahner, Jr.’s World War II letters, housed in the Kansas Collection.

Leo W. Zahner, Jr. and other sailors at the College Inn, San Diego, California,
January 1946. Leo is the second from the right, seated in the front row.
Leo Zahner, Jr. World War II Letters. Call Number: RH MS-P 1079.
Click image to enlarge.

Zahner (1925-2007) was a lifelong resident of Kansas City, Missouri. He joined the Navy during World War II, receiving training from August to November 1943 at the U.S. Naval Training Station at Farragut, Idaho. In late November, he was transferred to the Navy’s metalsmith school at Great Lakes, Illinois, where he was hospitalized with scarlet fever in December 1943. In the summer of 1944, he shipped overseas, where he served on a tank landing ship at U.S. combat zones in New Guinea and the Philippines. He returned to the U.S. mainland in December 1945 and was discharged from service in March 1946.

The Zahner collection contains three items specifically related to Father’s Day. One is a letter he wrote to his father to celebrate the holiday in 1945; the other two items (a card and a souvenir handkerchief) are undated, and a cursory examination of the collection didn’t reveal when Leo sent them to his father.

Father’s Day card, circa 1940-1946. Leo Zahner, Jr. World War II Letters.
Call Number: RH MS 1079. Click images to enlarge.

Painted souvenir handkerchief from the South Pacific, circa 1944-1945.
Leo Zahner, Jr. World War II Letters. Call Number: RH MS Q270. Click image to enlarge.

Letter, Leo W. Zahner, Jr. to his father, June 17, 1945. Leo Zahner, Jr. World War II Letters.
Call Number: RH MS 1079. Click images to enlarge. Transcription below.

June 17, 1945
Fathers Day.

Dear Dad;
Well its Fathers Day again and I’m still over here. Hope every thing is going fine with you.

The war looks like it’s going pretty good in general and looks better at [our?] end too.

I wish you could get a letter off to me. its been a long time and you ought [owe] me a couple.

Mother keeps me pretty well up on the shop [the family business in Kansas City, A. Zahner Sheet Metal Company] lately. I hear Russell White is working for you Hows his friend Billy. There ought to be a lot of the old men come back

The 1st Lieutenant just call me up I’ve got to [go?] he wants me to fill out requestion for our supplies here in the C & R. He’s our offer of Deck [officer on deck?]. were under [illegible]. I’ve got them all made out now so I can finish this letter to you. I take care of every thing we need down here. Its a pretty good job thank goodness it don’t happen very often. He try to get me [illegible] but [i]s having lots of trouble. If I get 3/r [3rd?] in at most couple of months I have a good chance of getting 2/nd, but I settle for third. ha. ha. before going home. It would make a lot of difference after I get off this tub.

I’ve got all the gear to gather for Mellott to run off a batch of icecream. We had a pretty good snack last night Red and Ed did a little [illegible] for batch. So I had [break and the fire?] pot. The hot plates busted. I do the biggest part of the cooking.

We got turkey for chow today it was pretty good except the hide was about 1/2 thick with pen [illegible] like welding rod.

This is the first holiday weve had in three weeks. I sleep till noon. There was no church. It was felt good to sleep that late.

I’ve got a pretty nice job tomorrow a making a couple of brass covers for front of some big lights. [diagram] I like that kind of work.

Well Dad hope you had a happy fathers Day. Well write me soon now so Ill have something write back about.

Hope to see you before fathers Day again. About the end of this year. I hope I’ve counted my chickens right before the hatch.

Your Son
Junior.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

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 5,000 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Today’s image has been selected in honor of National Go Fishing Day (observed annually on June 18th). Fishing has a long history at Potter Lake. For example, in his KU History article “A Lake’s Progress,” Douglas Harvey writes that during the early 1990s “KU student John Trager, a Kansas City, Kansas, native and an avid fisherman, had good luck at the lake on a number of occasions. Fishing for bass one day, he reportedly landed 22 of them, on another occasion he caught a stringer of crappie – 17 in all. But Trager’s claim to KU fame came in September of 1992 when he landed a 25-pound, 41-inch flathead catfish at Potter Lake.”

Fishing at Potter Lake, 1970. Note Joseph R. Pearson Hall and Potter Bridge
faintly in the background. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/24/1 Potter Lake 1970 Prints:
Campus: Areas and Objects (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

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 5,000 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Strong Hall construction, 1917. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/22/87 1917 Prints: Campus: Buildings: Strong Hall (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Strong Hall construction, 1918. Note that the photograph
was taken almost exactly ninety-seven years ago.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/22/87 1918 Negatives:
Campus: Buildings: Strong Hall (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

Strong Hall construction, 1918. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/22/87 1918 Prints: Campus: Buildings: Strong Hall (Photos).
Click on image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants