Kenneth Spencer Research Library

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!

Happy birthday, James Naismith! The basketball legend was born in Canada on November 6, 1861.

A fencing class with James Naismith, 1926. The group appears to be standing
at a side entrance of the old Robinson Gymnasium, located where
Wescoe Hall now stands. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/20/28 1926: Athletic Department: Women’s Fencing (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

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 34,500 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

The KU men’s basketball team practicing at Robinson Gymnasium, 1907.
KU’s first freestanding gym had just opened in May of that year.
Robinson was torn down in 1967 to make way for Wescoe Hall.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 66/13 1907 Practice:
Athletic Department: Basketball (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Reporting on the 1907-1908 basketball season and the importance of Robinson Gymnasium, the 1908 Jayhawker yearbook stated the following.

For the first time in the annals of Basket-ball at the University of Kansas did the Jayhawker quintet carry off the undisputed championship honors of the Missouri Valley; for such was the brilliant record made by Captain George McCune’s Basket-ball squad this winter, under the efficient coaching of “Phog” Allen. The season was in every respect the most satisfactory ever experienced here. The splendid new Gymnasium gave the boys a satisfactory court to practice on, while as a place for holding match games it has no equal in the West. For the first time the entire student body of the University really got behind the Team and pulled with it for victory. The crowds ranged everywhere from two hundred up to a thousand, while for enthusiasm even the most exciting Foot-ball contests could hardly have equalled [sic] the rooting and yelling at the spectacular Basket-ball contests this winter.

The KU men’s basketball team, 1907-1908.
Coach Phog Allen is standing in the back on the left,
with the dark sweater. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/13 1907/1908 Team:
Athletic Department: Basketball (Photos). Click image to
enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt 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 34,500 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

It’s a snowy day on Mount Oread, so this week’s photo shows what a snow-covered KU looked like roughly one hundred years ago.

View of campus, covered in snow, looking south, 1915.
From left to right are Spooner Hall (then Spooner Library), Dyche Hall,
Green (now Lippincott) Hall, Old Fraser Hall, Chemistry Hall, Old Snow Hall,
Bailey Hall, Strong Hall, Robinson Gymnasium, Old Haworth Hall, and
Marvin Hall. Potter Lake is also visible. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/24/1 Snow 1915 Prints: Campus: Areas and Objects (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants