KU Libraries

Welcome to our Tumblr, showcasing materials from the Kenneth Spencer Research Library and more! Spencer is home to KU's special collections, Kansas history materials and university archives. The University of Kansas Libraries provide the resources and expertise that advance teaching learning and research at KU and around the world.

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Throwback Thursday: Salute to James Naismith Edition

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

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Total Eclipse of the Heart(land)

In honor of today’s total solar eclipse, the Spencer Research Library staff was curious about our collection holdings related to this celestial phenomenon. We found two reports detailing previous solar eclipses, one from South America in 1889 and one from the United States in 1900. 

Discover more about these stellar items on the KSRL Blog.

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Throwback Thursday: Streetcar Edition

Streetcars once scaled Mt. Oread (1910-1933) carrying students and faculty ⬆️, ➡️, and ⬇️ campus.

The date of the first complete trip of the KU Loop was May 26, 1910, when the The University Daily Kansan reported, “The first car to complete the circuit on the Tennessee-Mississippi line carried a party of citizens and newspaper people over the Hill this afternoon.” Discover more about the history of the streetcar on the KSRL blog.

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Housing Quick Pics: The Right Fit 

Check out how KU Librarians create new methods to maximize storage for special collection items. 

“This year I spent some time upgrading the housings for Spencer’s N-size (very large!) items. I reviewed their current state with a curator and we identified those items that were most in need of housing improvement. Among these items was a very long and narrow broadside with a correspondingly long title: State procession from the Queen’s palace to the western door of Westminster Abbey, on the 28th of June, the day of Her Majesty’s coronation [1838?].” 

Discover more on KSRL blog: goo.gl/5GX8Ij

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Gegrindswile: KU’s Old English Word

Three Old English leaves call KU Libraries home, and one contains a one-and-only word!

Spencer Research Library holds three Old English leaves, each with its own fascinating story. The leaf shown above (in its recto and verso sides) is an early 11th century glossary giving brief definitions of difficult Latin words. Most of the glosses are also in Latin, but some are in Old English. The two sides of the leaf cover the Latin words interkalares to istingum.

Though rather weathered-looking, the leaf contains perhaps the sole surviving instance of an Old English word: gegrindswile. Like many words of Germanic origin, gegrindswile is a compound.  Its two parts —gegrind and swile– survive in other texts, but this leaf is the only instance recorded in the Dictionary of Old English Corpus of the two combined. Together they form a single word meaning “a swelling caused by friction, a chafing or galling (of the skin),” which glosses the Latin word intertrigenes.

Discover more about the leaf and the rare word it contains on the KSRL blog.

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Romeo and Juliet: Creative Reimaginings 

Fancy yourself a Shakespeare connoisseur? 

Spencer Research Library certainly has the staples for any Shakespeare-phile: a complete Second Folio, a partial First Folio, individual books, and works from his contemporaries Thomas Heywood, Ben Jonson, Philip Sidney, and others. Printed in ages past, these works demonstrate the long history and enduring fascination scholars and bibliophiles alike maintain concerning the works of the Bard and the many social issues he addresses in them. But more importantly, KSRL also possesses works that demonstrate Shakespeare’s lasting influence and application through creative reimaginings. Discover more on the KSRL blog.

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Throwback Thursday: World War II Jayhawk Edition

Our University Archives contain many examples and images of Jayhawks over the years. In honor of the 73rd anniversary of D-Day next Tuesday, this week’s photographs show variations of the combative 1929 and 1941 Jayhawks during World War II.

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“A Spin Down the Road”: Photographs of Kansas Cyclists

“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.” -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes stories, in Scientific American, 1896

May is National Bike Month, so this week we’re sharing some photographs from the Kansas Collection that show turn-of-the-century Kansans with their bicycles.

Be sure to also check out additional digitized photos of bicyclists in the Pennell Collection.

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Louie Chester Walbridge Photograph Collection

The Louie C. Walbridge Photograph Collection, housed in Kenneth Spencer Research Library, visually tells the life story of a man who made the decision to move to Russell County, Kansas shortly after turning 23. 

On October 24, 1882, Louie signed papers to form a partnership in a plot of land that would eventually grow to 3,000 acres and a herd of over 1,000 sheep. This would be the start of his life-long career as a sheep rancher and farmer. Discover more about Louie’s life on the KSRL Blog.

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President Eisenhower: Abilene’s Greatest Son

Happy President’s Day! 

Abilene, Kansas is a small city of under 7,000 people, but it managed to produce one of the most influential U.S. presidents. The only president to come from Kansas, Dwight D. Eisenhower served 8 years in the office from 1953-1961. Here he worked ceaselessly to deescalate the cold war and poured his energies into working towards world peace. But before he became the 34th President of the United States, Eisenhower served as the commanding general of the U.S. troops in Europe during World War II. After Victory in Europe Day on May 8, 1945, then General Eisenhower returned to his hometown of Abilene. Here at the Spencer Research Library, as a part of our Kansas Collection, we have General Eisenhower’s Homecoming train brochure signed by the man himself and the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle issue reporting on his historic return. If you’re interested in learning more about our nation’s only president from Kansas, check out this great entry in the Kansas Historical Soceity’s Kansapedia, book a trip to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home, or come visit us here at Spencer Research Library!

Discover more in the original post on the KSRL Blog.

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Goin’ Courtin’ at Spencer Research Library

Published in 1896 in Kansas City, Missouri, Social Life; or The Manners and Customs of Polite Society by Maud C. Cook is just one of several 19th and early 20th century etiquette books housed at Spencer. In addition to the etiquette of courtship and marriage, Social Life also details the proper etiquette for everything from correspondence to childcare and so much more. While some of the content may no longer be directly applicable in today’s society, many of the tenets regarding courtship and marriage are rather insightful.

“Intuition, our own selfhood, is nature’s highest teacher, and infallible; and tells all by her ‘still, small voice within,’ whether and just wherein they are making love right or wrong.”

Modern translation: Trust your instincts. No one knows you better than you know yourself. From choosing a partner to guiding the progression of your relationship, if something feels wrong, trust that feeling.

Explore more of our modern translations on the KSRL Blog.

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Happy Valentine’s Day. 

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Langston Hughes in Lawrence, Kansas

Yesterday, we celebrated Langston Hughes’s birthday by remembering his time in Lawrence, KS.

Langston Hughes spent his early boyhood in Lawrence, Kansas. In a presentation at the University of Kansas in 1965 he recalled: “The first place I remember is Lawrence, right here. And the specific street is Alabama Street. And then we moved north, we moved to New York Street shortly thereafter. The first church I remember is the A.M.E. Church on the corner of Ninth, I guess it is, and New York. That is where I went to Sunday School, where I almost became converted, which I tell about in The Big Sea, my autobiography.” 

Read more on the KSRL Bog.

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Collection Feature: Presidential Inauguration

Tickets to the Presidential Inauguration have likely changed over the decades, but you can view two from 1889 in the Spencer Research Library. 

The two tickets were for the inauguration of Benjamin Harrison, who was sworn in as the 22nd U.S. President on March 4, 1889. The tickets are from the collection of John J. Ingalls, who represented Kansas in the United States Senate for 18 years (1873-1891), and served as President pro tempore of the Senate during three congressional sessions. More: goo.gl/0mKQt9 

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Dancing Cheek to Cheek: A dos-à-dos binding

This book from Special Collections is really two volumes in one, in what is called a dos-à-dos binding, from the French, “back to back.” As the name implies, these two books share the same back covers, so that no matter how it is held, the reader opens to a front page of text. Geoffrey Glaister in The Encyclopedia of the Book (New Castle, DE: 1996) notes that this style was particularly popular in England in the period from 1600-1640.

Learn more about the binding technique and this book from Special Collections on the KSRL blog.

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Throwback Thursday: Memorial March Edition.

This week’s throwback features a student protest that took place at The University of Kansas on this date in 1972. 

An article about the Friday protest appeared in the University Daily Kansan the following Monday, December 4th. (Only a portion is included here.)

Two University of Kansas black student leaders urged blacks at a rally Friday to stand together against “white oppression and racism.”

Mickey Dean, Sandersville, Ga., junior and president of the Black Student Union (BSU), and Ron Washington, acting assistant director of the Supportive Educational Services (SES), spoke to the predominantly black crowd of 300 in front of Strong Hall.

The rally, a memorial for two black students killed at Southern University [in Baton Rouge] Nov. 17 [sic], followed a march from the Kansas Union. The rally and the march were sponsored by the BSU…

The rally, which was called at the request of black student groups at Southern U., would let people of Lawrence know what blacks are thinking, Dean said.

Check out the original post on the KSRL blog.

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Flashback Friday: Library Study Session Edition, Part II

It's hard to believe we are rounding out week 4 of classes at The University of Kansas! Jayhawks, are finding their home on the hill, including the perfect spots to study.

These students called Watson home for their 1959 study session. Where is your favorite place to hit the books?

More about this flashback on the KSRL Blog.