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!

One of the fun topics you can learn about in University Archives is the history of traditions at KU, especially those observed during the university’s early decades but no longer practiced today.

One contentious custom required all freshmen to wear tiny caps (beanies) and to tip it before the school flag, faculty members, and seniors. According to an article on the KU History website, the punishments for not doing so included “a severe paddling, an involuntary dip in Potter Lake, or having oneself tossed repeatedly into the air from huge canvas blankets, held by members of the Men’s Student Council and the K-Club, which was composed of lettermen from all University sports.”

Freshmen being tossed in the air after being caught without a cap, 1914.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 71/66/14 1914 Prints:
Student Activities: Sports: Football (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Both of the above photos were taken in 1914 during KU football games at McCook Field, located roughly where Memorial Stadium now stands. The opponents were the College of Emporia (October 10, top) and the University of Missouri (November 21, bottom).

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 34,800 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Welcome (back) to KU, new and returning Jayhawks! If you’re moving in to the residence halls today, we hope the process is going as smoothly as it apparently did for the family in this week’s picture.

Car packed with luggage, 1940s. Corbin Hall is in the background.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 71/0 1940s Negatives: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

If it’s August, then it must be time for school to resume!

The earliest settlers in what would become Lawrence, Kansas, also wanted school to begin, and as quickly as feasibly possible. The first immigrant party arrived at the town site in August 1854. It was made up of twenty-nine men, all members of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, the mission of which was to ensure that slavery would be illegal in Kansas when it became a state. Specifically written into their original petition was the provision that immigrants coming to Kansas Territory would be provided with public education. True to their word, Lawrence’s founders held the first public classes on January 15, 1855, just five months after their arrival. Edward P. Fitch of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, was the first teacher. Estimates of the number of students in that first class vary between eight and twenty.

Edward P. Fitch, the first teacher in Lawrence, undated. Photo courtesy
of the Douglas County Historical Society, Watkins Museum of History.
Used with permission from Roger Fitch. Click image to enlarge.

The second teacher was Kate Kellogg, and unfortunately no photo of her is available. Kate returned east after her marriage. She was followed by Lucy Wilder, who held a teaching position in Lawrence for many years. Lucy came to Kansas in 1855 with her father, Abram Wilder.

Lucy Wilder, the third teacher in Lawrence, undated. Lawrence Photo Collection.
Call Number: RH PH 18 K:140. Click image to enlarge.

The first public high school in Kansas was Quincy School, established in Lawrence in March 1857. The school building was constructed ten years later at 11th and Vermont Streets. It was possibly named in honor of Edmund Quincy, a benefactor of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. By 1876 this high school was one of four university-accredited schools in the state.

Quincy School, undated. Photo in Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas:
An Informal History by David Dary, page 272. Call Number: RH D9258.
Credited to the Kansas Historical Society. Click image to enlarge.

In addition to the schools located within the city limits of Lawrence, there have been as many as eighty-three rural schools located throughout Douglas County. With a few exceptions, most were one-room buildings that served as community centers and church meeting places as well as classrooms. The last rural school, Twin Mound No. 32, closed its doors in 1966, more than one hundred years after the first school opened.

Burnette School No. 62, undated. Lotta Watson, teacher. Shane-Thompson
Photo Collection. Call Number: RH PH 500.1:47. Click image to enlarge.

Crowder School No. 69, undated. Jesse Ady, teacher. Shane-Thompson
Photo Collection. Call Number: RH PH 500.1:60. Click image to enlarge.

Fairview School No. 21, undated. Shane-Thompson Photo Collection.
Call Number: RH PH 500.1:58. Click image to enlarge.

Kaw Valley School No. 12, undated. Maryane Brune, teacher. Shane-Thompson
Photo Collection. Call Number: RH PH 500.1:62. Click image to enlarge.

Undersheriff Charles Edmondson helps children cross Highway 40-59 near Teepee Junction,
White School, District 61, September 14, 1955. Lawrence Journal-World Photo Collection.
Call Number: RH PH LJW 9.14.55. Click image to enlarge.

Kathy Lafferty
Public Services

SOURCES CONSULTED:

Crafton, Allen. Free State Fortress: The First Ten Years of the History of Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence: The World Company, 1954. Call Number: UA C79.

Daniels, Goldie Piper. Rural Schools and Schoolhouses of Douglas County, Kansas. Baldwin City, Kansas: Telegraphics, 1975? Call Number: RH D5195.

Dary, David. Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas: An Informal History. Lawrence: Allen Books, 1982. Call Number: RH D9258.

Kansas Women Schoolteachers Project records. Call Number: RH MS 872. Kansas Collection, 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!

With the start of the fall semester right around the corner, there will be lots of activity on campus next week – including recruitment for KU’s sororities and fraternities.

Pi Beta Phi members during rush (now called recruitment), 1897. The chapter
was established in 1873, making it the first sorority at KU. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 67/160 1897: Student Organizations: Pi Beta Phi (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 34,800 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

In April we shared a photograph of KU students in front of Strong Hall honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. after his assassination in 1968. This week’s photograph commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of a second assassination: that of Senator Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968.

Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on March 16, 1968. He launched his campaign two days later with speeches at Kansas State University and KU.

Robert F. Kennedy speaking in Allen Fieldhouse, March 18, 1968. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/19 Robert F. Kennedy 1968: University General: Visitors (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Kennedy’s speech in Allen Fieldhouse began at 1:30pm, and KU classes scheduled at that time were cancelled. “I don’t know whether you’re going to like what I’m going to say today but I just want you to remember, as you look back upon this day, and when it comes to a question of who you’re going to support – that it was a Kennedy who got you out of class,” he joked. The University Daily Kansan reported that the speech lasted sixty-five minutes; Kennedy apparently spent half that time delivering prepared remarks and the other half answering questions from students, who submitted them in writing to ushers they entered the Fieldhouse.

According to the Kansan, an estimated 20,000 people attended the event. (Approximately 15,800 students were enrolled on the Lawrence campus in Fall 1967.)

Instead of going directly to the podium [when he arrived at the Fieldhouse] Kennedy wandered around the basketball court shaking hands and waving to the students. It was a full minute-and-a-half before the initial applause faded out and he took his seat…

Kennedy’s normally flat, laconic speaking tone raised and nearly broke at times, as he spoke of his convictions concerning America’s problems and tried to battle the surges of applause, foot-stamping and screaming…

His final words were drowned by roars from the crowd as students surged toward him…

“It was the largest crowd we’ve ever had in Allen Field House,” said James E. Gunn, administrative assistant to the chancellor.

Robert F. Kennedy with KU students outside Allen Fieldhouse, March 18, 1968.
Lawrence Journal-World Photo Collection, University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG LJW 0/19 Robert F. Kennedy 1968: University General:
Visitors (Photos). Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

The Kansan also described the scene as Kennedy departed.

By the time the senator tried to make his exit it seemed likely that KU’s enthusiasm would pull him apart. Throughout the speech the audience had crept closer to Kennedy like rising floodwater. Then, when he tried to make his exit, he discovered that he would haave to fight his way through 500 feet of human barricades…

East exits from the Field House were blocked by an estimated 20,000 people, as the Senator wedged his way through a screaming, solidly-packed mob.

Additional information about Kennedy’s KU visit are available online, including photographs (KU Libraries), a transcript of the speech (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum), and an audio recording of the speech (YouTube).

Film footage of the speech can also be viewed as part of the permanent exhibit in Spencer’s North Gallery.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services