seen from Singapore
seen from Netherlands
seen from Belgium
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Italy
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Italy
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Italy
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
