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University Daily Kansan
Friday, Nov. 9, 1962
DYCHE HALL - The Museum of Natural History has been housed in Dyche Hall since early in the century except for a nine year
Art, Natural History Museums Advance KU Cultural Atmosphere
By Stephen Sells
Dyche Museum of Natural History and the KU Museum of Art have faced each other across Jayhawk Blvd. for 36 years.
period when foundation settling necessitated the replacement of the inside of the building during the years 1932-41.
Dyche Museum was named for Professor Lewis L. Dyche after his death in 1915. Prof. Dyche's collecting, hunting and expeditioning gave him a reputation which helped KU obtain a $75,000 appropriation in 1901 to build the museum.
THE MUSEUM'S PANORAMA of North American animals, the largest such exhibit in the world, was originated by Prof. Dyche, who displayed it at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.
The panorama includes a realistic, 500 foot-long background painting, more than 200 mammals mounted and placed in "life-zone" surroundings and a complicated scenic background.
The museum was closed from 1932 to 1941 to allow replacement of the entire inner structure, necessitated by foundation settling. The repairs were done under a $55,000 appropriation.
IN 1949 A FIRE of unknown cause caused an estimated $3,500 damage to museum supplies in the tower room of Dyche Hall.
The construction now going on next to Dyche is for its 350,000 square foot, six-story addition, to be used for teaching and research.
The addition, in planning for 12 years, will cost about $800,000, 10 times the original building's cost, and will be ready for use by spring, 1963.
ADDITIONAL STUDY and labora- tority space will be provided for natural history students as well as functional space for the scientific
Engineering Students Work Under Crowded Conditions
Dr. E. Raymond Hall, museum director, said that the displays and exhibits are a sideline to the principal purpose of the museum. He said the main functions are:
collections and special literature. Dyche Museum's collection includes more than 250,000 specimens.
Hidden from view behind Marvin Hall are a quonset hut and two massive native stone buildings—the present engineering laboratories
The electrical engineering laboratory illustrates the plight of all the others. Kenneth J. Butler, instructor of electrical engineering in charge of the laboratory, said he is faced with a critical shortage of space.
collections and special literature.
Equipment in the electrical engineering laboratory originally cost approximately $200,000. This includes such special equipment as Logic Trainers, analog computers and digital computer given to the school by Westinghouse.
These facilities will be moved upon completion of the engineering building now under construction. The new building will double existing laboratory space.
A new analog computer, presently housed in the Nuclear Reactor building, will be moved into the engineering building upon its completion.
"There is virtually no space available for graduate students' projects." Butler said. He also said storage must be accommodated through the use of hall and lab space.
Cramped space and multi-purpose use of all available rooms characterize the buildings. Some rooms are storage facilities, classrooms, laboratories, and offices—all at the same time.
By Ralph Gage
- To preserve safely and acces-sibly materials already acquired.
- To obtain new materials from critical geographical areas or strata.
Butler said the equipment is good and reasonably up-to-date. He said there are special items he would like to have available, but which are not urgently needed. He added he had no bone to pick with the university concerning equipment procurement.
- To use the materials in advanced teaching and research that aim to present generalizations not before made.
- To train biological and anthropological scientists as advanced students and as junior staff members, and
- To distribute and apply the results of museum studies.
THE MUSEUM OF ART building began as the University's Spooner Library. When the books were moved to Watson Library, an extensive art collection offered KU in 1917 by W. B. Thayer of Kansas City was accepted and housed in Spooner. In the spring of 1926, the building re-opened as the Spooner-Thayer Art Museum.
"Our success and opportunity to be effective is in considerable part due to the interest and financial support of friends of the museum," said Mr. Hall.
During and after World War II the basement was used as a men's dormitory. Before the Little Theater was constructed in Green Hall, the speech and drama department used the basement as a theater.
Between 1949 and 1951 the structure was remodeled, allowing the staff to use the entire building for the first time in ten years.
An alumnus who has not been on the KU campus since last year or even since early this year, may find a change in the campus' appearance since his last visit.
IN 1955 A FIRE caused about $5,000 damage to the building, but the art objects were not damaged.
The museum's acting director, Marilyn Stokstad, spent last summer in Central American collecting and arranging for an exhibit of Central American contemporary painting.
The KU campus is changing, and it will change with greater rapidity as work on the 10-year master building plan begins.
PRESENTLY, CONSTRUCTION activity is concentrated at four sites. Two of these projects are well on their way towards completion. The four sites are the new engineering building, the museum addition, the library addition and the new dormitory.
By Roy Miller
More than 50 works will be for sale to the public at prices within reach of KU students. The exhibit opens Dec. 2.
The new engineering building, now 65 per cent completed, according to Keith Lawton, vice chancellor for operations, is directly east of the Nuclear Reactor.
Alumni Will View Campus Facelifting
The structure is expected to be ready for students by the fall semester of 1963.
ARCHITECTURE students will move into the present Marvin Hall following construction of the new engineering building and a minor remodeling of Marvin Hall.
The installation of a two-floor modern gallery and the reinstallation of the medieval collection in the Rennaissance gallery are in the planning stages.
A major remodeling of the present Marvin Hall and the elimination of the Lindley Annexes area, are parts of the 10-year building plan.
The addition to Dyche Hall (the Museum of Natural History) is also 65 per cent complete. The addition is expected to be completed by April. It will be for ornithology laboratories.
EXPECTED TOTAL COST of the new museum wing is $758,000. The funds will come from the National Science Foundation, the United States Public Health Service, some private gifts, and the state.
The addition to Watson Library, now in the preliminary excavation stages, is expected to be completed by January, 1964. The addition will provide space for 800,000 additional books. Appropriations for the addition, to be located in the area of the old journalism building, total $1.8 million.
The new Ellsworth Hall under construction, south of the present Temple, Lewis and Hashinger Halls, is 10 stories and will house 850 students when opened in the fall of next year. The hall has been named for Fred Ellsworth, who recently retired as alumni secretary.
FUTURE BUILDING PLANS on the campus include another dormitory, a 10-story structure, to be built in the Daisy Field tract on the campus' west edge. The proposed structure will be south of Ellsworth Hall.
The demolition of Blake Hall may
begin before the end of the school year. A $750,000 appropriation has been allotted for Blake's replacement.
Other plans call for the demolition of Robinson Gymnasium, Haworth Hall and Fraser Hall. Demolition of Robinson and Haworth cannot begin until a new gymnasium, proposed for the intramural field area, is constructed.
CLASSROOM COMPLEX will replace the gymnasium and Haworth. A request of funds for a replacement for Fraser, the oldest structure on campus, will be part of the 1963 legislative budget. If the funds are appropriated, the new Fraser, to be located in the area around the Pioneer Statue, would be ready, possibly, in three years, following one year of preliminary plans and two years of construction.
The present Fraser, however, will not be destroyed for several years. The new and old Fraser may stand side-by-side for several years. Fraser classroom space must be used until the new classroom complex is constructed.
Computers See All. Tell All
COLUMBUS, Ohio — (UPI) — A state liquor department employ had some interesting information in explaining to a board which controls state finances how his department uses computers to keep tab on liquor sales.
Among the miscellaneous bits of information he gave the board: liquor sales usually double during the first two weeks in an area where there is a strike: gin sales are highest in summer; gallon size bottles of whiskey sell like mad around Ohio State University during the fraternity rushing season, and five women in the computer section of his department are pregnant.
"You learn the darnest things in this business." mused House Speaker Roger Cloud, a member of the board.
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