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!

KU’s volleyball team will begin its sixth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance tomorrow night with a first-round match against Missouri. Good luck, Jayhawks! Rock Chalk!

KU volleyball player Julie Woodruff, 1989-1990.
University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/20/32 Julie Woodruff 1989/1990 Prints:
Athletic Department: Women’s Volleyball (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 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!

In honor of Women’s History Month, we, earlier this month, shared a photograph of Mary Evelyn Ransom Strong, who was active in the women’s suffrage movement. This week’s post highlights another history-making KU woman: eminent scientist and professor Cora Downs (1893-1987). In 1924, Downs became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, in bacteriology. Through her research, Downs developed disease diagnosis techniques that revolutionized doctors’ abilities to identify and quickly combat viral and bacterial infections.

Cora Downs on graduation day, 1924.
On that day she became the first woman to
receive a Ph.D. from KU, in bacteriology.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 41/ Faculty:
Downs, Cora (Photos). Click image to enlarge
(redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Cora Downs in a laboratory, 1956. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 41/ Faculty: Downs, Cora (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

You can learn more about Cora Downs by accessing additional digitized photographs of her, an oral history interview she gave in 1984, and an article about her from KU’s Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity.

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!

This week’s photograph was selected in honor of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.

Mary Evelyn Ransom Strong, sitting in the back seat with a dark coat,
campaigning for women’s suffrage in Lawrence, 1912.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 2/8 Family 1912 Prints:
Chancellors: Frank Strong: Family (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

Throughout her life, Mary Strong (1870-1953), the wife of KU Chancellor Frank Strong, was active in the suffrage movement, especially in Kansas. She was “integral” to Kansas voters approving the Equal Suffrage Amendment to the state constitution on November 5, 1912, making Kansas the eighth state to grant full suffrage to women.

Preliminary evidence suggests that the photograph was taken on Vermont Street just north of Tenth, looking east toward Massachusetts Street. According to notation on the back of the print, the “Methodist Church [is] at right and back of car.” In his book Across the Years on Mount Oread, Robert Taft captioned the image by noting that “the photograph was taken on Vermont street and looks towards Massachusetts” (124). These two pieces of information, checked against the 1912 Lawrence Sanborn fire insurance map, suggest that the church in the background is the First Methodist Episcopal Church, now the First United Methodist Church.

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!

Good luck to the KU softball team as it kicks off the 2017 season next week. Rock Chalk!

Women’s Athletic Association softball players, 1925. The women are in the
vicinity of where Haworth Hall now stands. In the background is the
power plant (now the Facilities Administration Building) and, behind it,
Watson Library, which opened in 1924. KU News Bureau photo.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 66/20/12 1925 Prints:
Athletic Department: Women’s Athletic Association: Softball (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Women’s Athletic Association softball players, 1927.
Note the wooden base. KU News Bureau photo.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 66/20/12 1927 Prints:
Athletic Department: Women’s Athletic Association: Softball (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants