Collection Valued At $75,000
ONE OF THE COLLECTION—Joseph Rubinstein, special collections librarian, thumbs through one of the books received Saturday by KU. (Daily Kansan photo)
KU Gets Rare Books
The 25th annual Cervantes Day celebration Saturday was highlighted by the announcement of the acquisition of more than 2,000 original volumes of 16th and 17th century books valued at approximately $75,000.
The collection, which is to be added to KU's rare book collection, is "the most significant addition to the KU collection in the field of humanities." Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy said in announcing the acquisition.
Chancellor Murphy told The Daily Kansan Sunday night that $50,000 of the $75,000 paid for the books came from a fund set up by the Summerfield Foundation three years ago as part of a 10-year plan to bring rare book collections to the University. The remainder of the money came from individual contributions.
Chancellor Murphy termed the books a "major collection of scholarly works both for learning and teaching."
"There have been other additions in the fields of science," Chancellor Murphy said. "However, this is certainly the most significant of all addition in the
field of Humanities."
Students Can See Books
Robert Vosper, library director, said the collection was "probably the most important purchase acquisition the library at KU has ever made."
Mr. Vosper said students could now see the books in the rare book room at the library. Because of the value of the books, students wouldn't be allowed to take them from the library, he said. A selection of the books is now on display in the lobby of the Kansas Union.
The decision was made to purchase the books in February, Mr. Vosper said. He added that once the purchase was made, it was decided to hold the announcement of the acquisition until Cervantes Day since many of the books are Cervantes' works.
The books were once part of the famous Sir William Stirling-Maxwell collection and had been stored in Keir Castle in Scotland from
1878 until last year when they were acquired by a New York book distributor.
Subject Matter Differs
The collection consists of two main parts—the Cervantes section and a group of 16th and 17th century writings.
The books vary in size as well as subject matter. The smallest books are only 2 or 3 inches in length and $1^{1 / 2}$ inches wide. The largest is about 3 feet long and weighs about 15 pounds.
The collection contains such books as a travel guidebook to Italy, a book on monsters and their characteristics, one of the first law books of the Holy Roman Empire, books with genealogies of famous families and important early German books.
Joseph Rubinstein, special collector for the library, learned of the purchase of the Stirling-Maxwell collection by the New York firm while touring Europe last summer.
Books Sell As High As $700
Derby Day Is A Dashing Success
It was then that preliminary negotiations began. Mr.Rubenstein returned to KU and notified officials of the books and began work to raise the money needed.
About 450 spectators watched Saturday as 60 women from 14 organized houses chased greased pigs, threw eggs at each other, and engaged in similar horseplay. The occasion was the fifth annual Sigma Chi Derby Day track meet for women in organized houses.
Several women cheerfully received bangs, cuts and bruises as "battle scars." Those who won events received certificates and trophies.
Daily hansan
KU Woman Named Contest Winner
Organized houses taking part were Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Phi, Chi Omega, North-Corbin halls, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Gertrude Sellards Pearson, Kanpa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Pi Beta Phi, and Sigma Kappa.
Events in the meet were an egg throw, and sack, fishpole, balloon, leap frog, grapefruit, and pony express races; musical buckets, and the pig chase. The pig, incidentally, came out second best, for several girls pounced on him about 30 seconds after the race started.
An Olympic flavor was seen at the meet in the lighting of the "eternal smudge pot" before things got under way. The Derby Day Symphonettes, a marching band led by a conductor whose "baton" was a plunger, added to the festivities.
"We were all happy to see the turnout that the houses gave us and we enjoyed every bloody minute of it." George (Buz) Hunt, Chicago, Ill. sophomore and member of the Derby Day committee, told a Daily Kansan reporter.
Arden Janice Weston, Blue Springs. Mo. junior has been named winner of a college beauty queen contest, part of a national beauty contest sponsored by an advertising firm.
Miss Weston will represent KU among a group of 78 schools in one of three regional college beauty contests.
Weather
Clear to partly cloudy and cooler tonight. Increasing northerly winds this afternoon and evening. Tuesday mostly fair and cool. Low tonight middle 20s northwest, upper 30s southeast. High Tuesday 48 to 58.
55th Year, No. 134
SOME DERBY DAMAGE—John Jeffrey, Bartlesville, Okla. sophomore, treats Anne Miller, Dodge City senior, Kappa Alpha Theta, for minor injuries suffered while participating in the Sigma Chi Derby Day. (Daily Kansan photo)
KU-Y Names New Members At Banquet
the producer and business manager for the 1959 Rock Chalk Review received their appointments Friday while this year's review staff was being honored at a recognition dinner in the Kansas Union.
Lynn H. Miller, Dodge City, was named producer and Richard I. Barr, Ottawa was named business manager. Both are juniors.
About 40 persons including the
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
KU-Y president and treasurer, the review staff, organized house directors, and committee advisers were present.
Seniors Shirley Andrish, Topeka and James Tierney, Wichita, were this year's producer and business manager. David C. Skaggs, Pratt junior, is Rock Chalk co-ordinator for next year.
Monday, April 28, 1958
Public Will Want Educational TV'
"As American and English standards of education continue to rise in the next 20 or 30 years the public will demand more cultural and educational television and radio programs and fewer of the entertainment type."
These are the words of Dr. Maurice Ashley, noted English historian and journalist, who will present a Humanities Lecture, "Cromwell's Place in History," at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Fraser Theater.
In a Daily Kansan interview this morning Dr. Ashley said that the British Broadcasting Corp. is able to give more cultural and educational programs because it is a public service corporation and does not have the commercial compulsion to reach the widest audience possible.
Dr. Ashley is deputy editor of the BBC publication, The Listener, and was recently notified that he will become editor of the magazine in August.
"Your facilities are excellent, especially your libraries, and you have absolutely first-class professors," he said. "Any student should be able to get an education of the highest quality."
He said that Americans justify having a lower average level of instruction in the universities because more people are able to become educated. In order to raise the level, enrollment would have to be selective and limited to only the better qualified students, he said.
Listener Performs 2 Jobs
Dr. Ashley said that the BBC magazine, The Listener, of which he is now deputy editor, performs the two-fold job of publishing texts of programs which have been presented on the network and at the same time making an interesting weekly cultural journal.
Slipping Sod:Ch.2
Chapter two in the "Case of the Slipping Sod" was written recently when Geology I students investigated the cracked and bulging soil on the hillside northeast of Malott Hall.
The students of Wakefield Dort Jr., associate professor of geology, were asked to study the area and tell what had happened, and why, what would remedy the slide, and what damage would result if no action is taken.
The students agreed that the hill, known as the Wakarusa Valley Overlook, may be destroyed by landsliding unless proper methods of surface and subsurface drainage are used at once.
Prof. Dort said that the downward movement of soil and fill material is very common during wet seasons.
"The processes active in this small slide near Malott are analogous to those causing the recent large slides in California which caused so much damage," he said.
Stabilization of the mass could be best obtained through proper drainage, they concluded from their examination.