Special Collections and Archives Finding Aids

Scope and Contents

The Catalog Collection is an artificial collection comprised of various catalogs grouped by topic and spans from 1881-2006. The majority of items in this collection deal with film, books, and music. Other types of catalogs include but are not limited to toys, clothing, home furniture, electronics, collectibles, and theatre.

Scope and Contents The David Morantz Collection contains items relating to Judaic Studies. It has been organized into six series contained in three boxes. Inclusive dates range from 1907 to 1959, with bulk dates being 1934 to 1943. Included are some correspondence, primarily relating to Morantz’s syndicated column, Talmudic Tales. There is much focus on religious studies and Morantz’s involvement with Sunday school education in local synagogues. Of particular interest are the local church newsletters which...

Scope and Contents The Dorothy Johnson Collection was donated to LaBudde Special Collections in February of 2017 by Tara Johnson. It includes newspapers and clippings, memoranda, correspondence, certificates, photographs, research and reference materials, memorabilia, photographs, and other materials related to Johnson’s life, family history, work, research, political and organization involvement, and activism. Of note are materials related to the 1959 protests for desegregation of Kansas City department...

Scope and Contents The Felicia Londré Collection was a gift of Felicia Londré in Fall 2012. Contained within is a large collection of scripts, in typed, printed, and published (photocopied) manuscript form, almost all in either English or in English translation. American, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, and Swedish playwrights are represented, offering a wide range of styles and aesthetics. Also contained in the collection is an assortment of correspondence,...

Scope and Contents The Freda Mendez-Smith Collection was donated to LaBudde Special Collections in October 2015 by Mendez-Smith herself. It contains materials dating from the early 1980s to 2010s and covers the inner workings and proceedings of several organizations and events that Mendez-Smith was involved in. The collection is divided into four series: Organizations and Events, both divided into sub-series by name of the organization or event. These documents reveal a great deal about the specific kind of...

Scope and Contents The Gaylord Marr Collection was a gift of Olga Marr in the summer of 2011. The expansive nature of this collection is a reflection of Professor Marr’s long and prestigious career in academia. A series of personal documents feature Marr’s private diaries and many manuscripts of his own writings, as well as material from his college years and other items related to his day to day life and career. Marr’s teaching life is represented here by many documents and course materials related to his...

Scope and Contents The collection consists of KCUR radio broadcast on analog and digital tapes, dating from 1953 to 2005, as well as CD-Rs and digital files, dating from 2002 to 2017. The materials document the social, cultural, and political history of Kansas City and the Midwest, providing researchers with context and insights into midwesterners’ viewpoints on national issues. The broadcasts contain interviews, recorded events, and news coverage on issues of race, abortion, education standards, crime,...

Scope and Contents The audiovisual materials contain a vast amount of audio interviews of poets and authors that were created and broadcast on radio by New Letters on the Air. The majority of the collection resides on analog audiotape, created between 1977 and 2006. The poets and authors interviewed by New Letters on the Air were numerous, extensive, and diverse. Some prominent literary figures in the collection include Amiri Baraka, Moshe Dor, Rita Dove, Nuruddin Farah, Betty Friedan, Allen Ginsberg, Nikki...

Scope and Contents

The collection is made up of oral history recordings from UMKC history professor, Rebecca Davis', 5585 graduate history class. The majority of the oral histories were conducted by Davis' students in the Fall of 2016 and 2019. The recordings are of individuals who were activists and much of the content in the recordings relates to their activism. Activists topics include civil rights, LGBTQ, Native Americans, Latinx, Jews, labor, and health care.

Scope and Contents

The Rosemary Nevin/Sidney Tremble Collection was a ift of Barbara Molinaro in July 2020. It consists of letters, telegrams, and other correspondence during World War II primarily between Rosemary Nevin and Sidney Tremble. The collection also includes correspondence from other Nevin and Tremble relatives and friends before and during the War as well as a small number of photographs and military ephemera.

Scope and Contents Sheet Music Collection Finding Aid (PDF).Sheet music from the Kansas City, World War I and World War II imprint collections is temporarily unavailable through Digital Special Collections. If you'd like to request any titles, please contact SpecialCollections@umkc.edu. The Sheet Music...

Scope and Contents

The Zine Collection was established with the first donation to LaBudde Special Collections in December 2015, after the Kansas City Zine Convention 2015. Comprising multiple individually-named series, the Zine Collection contains hundreds of magazines representing local and national underground/DIY culture, dating 1970s-2020s.