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 1,700 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

We’re sharing a bonus set of photographs this week, in honor of tomorrow’s holiday. Happy Valentine’s Day to all our readers, researchers, visitors, and friends!

Giving a Valentine’s Day heart, 1950s. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0 1950s Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click images 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 1,700 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

We join others around the country in remembering legendary University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, who passed away at his home in Chapel Hill on February 7.

Portrait of Dean Smith as a member of the “Cage Team” (basketball
squad) in the Jayhawker yearbook, Winter 1953. University Archives.
Call Number: UA Ser 69/1 1953 Winter. Click image to enlarge.

Smith was an Emporia, Kansas, native who graduated from Topeka High School before attending the University of Kansas from 1949 to 1953, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Education. During his time on KU’s varsity basketball squad, Smith played under Coach Phog Allen and was part of a team that won the national championship in 1952 and was an NCAA tournament finalist in 1953. Smith also played freshman football and varsity baseball while at KU, was a member of the Air Force ROTC detachment and the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and participated in K-Club and Sasnak.

Dean Smith (#22, far right) in a game against Nebraska State, 1952-1953. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/13 Dean Smith: Athletic Department: Basketball: Players (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Portrait of the basketball team after a game, 1953. Dean Smith is in the middle,
at Coach Phog Allen’s right shoulder. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/13 Dean Smith: Athletic Department: Basketball: Players (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

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 1,700 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

This week we’re highlighting photographs of an historic KU organization found within Spencer’s African American Experience Collections. Additional materials about Alpha Kappa Alpha – primarily donated by former members – can be found in Spencer’s Kansas Collection by searching our online finding aids. Records and photographs documenting the Delta’s Chapter’s history at KU can also be found in University Archives at call number RG 67/128. 

Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Chapter, 1930. Dorothy Hodge Johnson Collection.
Call Number: RH MS-P 549. Click image to enlarge.

The Delta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated celebrates its first 100 years at the University of Kansas during the weekend of February 13-15, 2015. It is the first African American Greek-letter organization chartered at KU.

Their national organization, Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), which began in 1908 at Howard University, is our nation’s first sorority organized by African American college and university women. Today AKA includes members from diverse racial and ethnic identities.

On Friday, February 13, 2015, from 1p.m. to 3p.m., Spencer Research Library will present a display of the Delta Chapter’s archives at the Oread Hotel. It will include these historical photographs (and the one above) from the Kansas Collection’s African American Experience Collections:

AKA Delta Chapter house at 1101 Indiana in Lawrence, circa 1940-1949.
Dorothy Hodge Johnson Collection. Call Number: RH MS-P 549. Click image to enlarge.

AKA Delta Chapter Ivy Leaf Pledge Club, 1944. Photograph by Duke D’Ambra.
Julia V. (Richards) Harris Collection. Call Number: RH MS-P 1179. Click image to enlarge.

AKA Delta Chapter Ivy Leaf Pledge Club, 1945. Photograph by Duke D’Ambra.
Julia V. (Richards) Harris Collection. Call Number: RH MS-P 1179. Click image to enlarge.

Deborah Dandridge
Field Archivist and Curator
African American Experience Collections

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 1,700 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Groundhog Day is next Monday. What type of weather will we face on Mount Oread over the next six weeks?

Students walking along Jayhawk Boulevard in the snow, 1936-1937.
Duke D’Ambra, photographer. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/24/1 Snow 1936-1937 Prints: Campus:
Areas and Objects (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

Flowers along Jayhawk Boulevard, 1930s.
Old Fraser Hall, located approximately where “New” Fraser Hall
stands today, is in the background. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/24/1 Flowers 1930s Prints: Campus:
Areas and Objects (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

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 1,700 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

President Obama’s speech at KU today has generated much excitement on campus and in Lawrence, so we’re taking a look back at some past presidential visits to the area.

President Theodore Roosevelt visited Lawrence, but not the university, in May 1903.
The Kansas University Weekly noted that “the students made a good showing Friday afternoon when
President Roosevelt visited Lawrence. The old ‘Rock Chalk, Jay Hawk, K. U.’ could be heard
above all the other shouting.” University Archives Photos. Call Number: Taft Filmstrips:
Theodore Roosevelt, 10,596/10,597. Click images to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Former President Harry S Truman gave a speech before KU’s model UN in 1960.
During this visit he also examined historical Kansas materials at Watson Library (top),
the precursor to Spencer’s Kansas Collection. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/19 Harry S Truman: Visitors (Photos).
Click images to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Former President Gerald Ford at the dedication of Green Hall, which houses
KU’s School of Law, February 1978. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/19 Gerald Ford Prints: Visitors (Photos).
Click images to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Former President Jimmy Carter at the dedication of the
Dole Institute of Politics, 2003. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 0/19 Jimmy Carter: Visitors (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Future President George H. W. Bush visited KU in April 1972, during the time he was the
United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Lawrence Journal-World Photo Collection,
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG LJW 0/19 George H. W. Bush: Visitors (Photos).
Click images to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Former President Bill Clinton talking with former Senator Bob Dole (and KU Chancellor
Robert Hemenway) and examining exhibits at KU’s Dole Institute of Politics, 2004.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 0/19 Bill Clinton: Visitors (Photos).
Click images to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services