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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2012
FINAL BORDER SHOWDOWN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Jayhawks have the last laugh with the fans
Dressed as Civil War figure John Tigers fan passes by during Sati
ROCK CHALK
Jayhawk fans hold up many differnt tip off.
Words by Dana Meredith Photo by Max Mikulecky Originally published October 17,2011 Russian Jayhawk
The 1917 carving of the Russian Jayhawk is displayed in a glass case in Wescoe's Slavic Languages and Literatures department. The carving was presented to
the University of Kansas in 1921 from KU Professor Conrad Hoffman and was recently added to the Spencer Research Library archive.
He stands a mere four inches tall; his 94-year-old body covered in a fine layer of dirt.
He's traveled from Germany to Kansas, making his home first in the School of Journalism — where he sat, forgotten, until 2009 — and then in the University Archives.
On Wednesday evening, he made another journey, this time to Wescoe Hall, where he'll live for one year in a glass display case.
The "Russian Jayhawk," as the small carving has come to be known, was a gift from an unknown Russian prisoner of war to Conrad Hoffman, a Kansas alumnus working with the YMCA in Germany during World War I.
It's a symbol of the long-standing connection between the University and its students doing good in Russian and Eastern Europe, said Marc Greenberg, chairman of the Slavic department.
A GIFT OF GRATITUDE
In 1913, Conrad Hoffman became the secretary of the YMCA at the University.
The YMCA post was "an important non-governmental service performing a moral and social function during the First World War," Greenberg writes in his article "Hoffman's Hawk."
According to the article, the YMCA worked in prisoner-of-war camps in Germany, providing education and coordinating social and athletic activities for the prisoners. The YMCA also helped prisoners by giving them tools and arranging exhibitions and sales of their artwork.
Hoffman went to Germany in 1915, and it was common for him to receive presents, says the article, from the prisoners that he worked with.
According to a pencil inscription on his side, the Russian Jayhawk was given to Hoffman in 1917. He was probably carved by either a master Russian woodcarver, whom Hoffman describes meeting and aiding in his 1920 memoirs or one of his apprentices and based off of an unshod Jayhawk prototype.
A 1921 article in the Kansas City Star says that Hoffman then gave the Jayhawk to the University Daily Kansan to be put on display.
A REDISCOVERY
Someone had found the Russian Jayhawk — his legs snapped at the ankles — in Stauffer-Flint Hall and wondered if Schulte wanted to keep him in the archives in Spencer Research Library.
In July of 2009, University archivist Becky Schulte got an email from the School of Journalism.
"We placed him in a box and added him to our archive database," Schulte said.
A little more than a year later, Schulte brought the Russian Jayhawk out of storage to show him to a Kansan reporter who was writing an article on the archives.
Shortly after that, Greenberg saw a link on Facebook to the Kansan article.
He was struck both by the Jayhawk's history as a "symbol of appreciation" and his unique design.
"It's something that's typically
Russian in its technique and comes from a craftsman tradition, but it's also a typically American subject," Greenberg said.
He made an appointment with Schulte to see the carving and, after receiving permission from the School of Journalism, started making plans to display the Jayhawk.
A NEW HOME
Displaying the wasn't as simple moving him from the archives to Wescoe Hall, however.
First, the Jayhawk had to be repaired. Greenberg sent out an appeal to alumni and students, raising $200 for the work, and the
Spencer Research Library contributed the rest.
and context."
And the meaning of this object?
A CELEBRATION OF COMPASSION
Chancellor Bernadette Grav
little one. Said President.
Nearly a year after Greenberg first heard about the Russian Jayhawk, almost 40 people crammed into a small, book-lined room in the Slavic department offices, spilling out into the adjacent hallway.
Bittle came so and D. Anderson, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The tiny Russian Jayhawk brought them all together, a reminder, Greenberg said, that "objects aren't just objects. They have meanings
"He is a symbol of all that we are: Small, fragile, noble and able to bridge cultures if only we try," Greenberg said at the ceremony. "I dedicate our Russian Jayhawk to the next hundred years of KU students. May they continue to learn another language, another mindset and show the world the great things that Kansans bring to the world."
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