University Daily Kansan, August 18, 1983
Page 13
Archives enhances KU's research value
By CHRIS McMENEMY Staff Reporter
Organizing history may seem like an impossible task, but that's exactly what the University Archives staff has to do. They have plenty of information to put in order.
"WE HAVE TAKEN in more than 14,000 cubic feet of records since we began," said John Nugent, the University Archivist.
The Archives, located on the fourth floor of the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, collects non-current records, such as office files of departments and schools or anything from campus offices that process information about University activities; photographs, films and sound recordings; as well as any tangible items created by school organizations.
Artifacts of sentimental value also are kept. Beanies worn by freshmen from the early 1900s until the 1940s, a surveyor's tripod that belonged to a former dean of engineering, medals received by faculty members and a slightly deflated football from 1913 are a few of the artifacts.
The Archives started collecting these items in 1868 when the office was given permission to collect them.
BEFORE 1969 THE Kansas Collection had tried to preserve publications and had made scrapbooks out of the information, but they had neither the time nor the expertise to care of the official records. Nugent said.
"We had a difficult time educating people about what we were and what we could do for them," Nugent said. "We spent a lot of time in attics, closets and basements, pulling out files that were sometimes 50 years old."
Even now, educating people is sometimes difficult, according to Nu-
"Not everybody is aware of what we do." Nugent said. "One of the problems is the continual turnover in offices. We may go talk to them, but if they leave, it might be awhile before we contact the office again."
STUDENTS PROBABLY ARE not making enough use of the Archives either, Nugent said. "They probably don't know what we've got.
"It's hard to explain. When we say University records, that doesn't tell it a lot."
Although student use may be infrequent, two graduate research studies have been done using material from the Archives, and four staff members are involved in this project. University using thousands of photographs from the Archives collection.
Nugent said he had also helped a production company from Canada that
was making a movie on Billy Mills, a KU track star in the early 1960s and gold medal winner in the 1964 Olympics. The company wanted photos that would show what the University looked like then.
MOST OF THE INFORMATION is available to the public, except for office files. Those who want to use office files must get permission from the office.
One volunteer who has been working in the Archives for 12 years has helped keep this 14,000 cubic feet of material readily accessible.
Thomas Ryther, emeritus professor of journalism, has compiled a file of information for every building on campus and at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He has also made an index for five of the schools on campus and one of all the athletes who have ever participated in a sport at KU. In addition, he processed letters of Kate Hansen, a 1905 graduate of KU who taught music as a missionary in Japan.
"He does special projects that we would provide, never get around to."
Rythe said that he enjoyed the work and that it kept him fit mentally and physically.
"THE THRILLS COME when I've been working with records of people, a lot of whom I knew down through the years," Ryther said. "It gives me a sort
of satisfaction that I'm preserving the memory of their fields, that it wouldn't hurt them.
Rythe said that one time his work was especially useful to Bob Timmons, track coach, who needed the names of everyone who had ever participated in track and field at KU as well as their events and whether they lettered.
After running into several dead ends, Timmons tried the Archives, and Rythe was able to give him all the names and information he needed.
Ryther is the only volunteer working in the Archives, Nugent said. "It's hard to use a volunteer unless they know KU because that what's its all about."
Nugent said that the work going on in the Archives was important.
THE HISTORY OF THE University can't be told unless records are preserved, and that history includes students, faculty, staff, organizations and the contribution of each of them," Nugent said.
"Some have said that the archives of a university are just as important as the archives of the federal government. Any business or any religious group.
"I't hard to say what part the University plays in the history of this region society and politically, and the role it has played in these records kept by faculty and students."
John Nugent, archivist at the University Archives in Kenneth Spencer Research Library, examines a sword that belonged to Chancellor John Fraser when he was a brigadier general in the Civil War.
Stephen Phillips/KANSAN
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