Selected Topics

The 2026 National History Day theme is "Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History." Below are some topics that are related to this theme and can be researched using materials - especially primary sources - at Spencer Research Library.

Marchers on Jayhawk Boulevard at the University of Kansas on National Vietnam Moratorium Day, October 15, 1969. Call Number: RG 71/18.

Overview

The following list isn't comprehensive. There are many, many other topics and collections you can explore and access at Spencer! You can get other ideas for topics by exploring other sections of Spencer's website – including collection overviews and online exhibitions – and KU Libraries digital collections. Spencer librarians can also help you locate additional primary sources and interpret specific documents.

The topics below are generally too broad to be a History Day project. If you're interested in one of these topics, you'll probably need to focus on a specific event or individual, with the broader topic serving as crucial contextual and background information.

These topics were researched and compiled by Public Services student assistants Nile Russo and Lleyton Gill, with input from Reference Coordinator Shelby Schellenger and Head of Public Services Caitlin Klepper.

Student Protests at KU

During the 190s and 1970s, the University of Kansas experienced a huge wave of criticism and activism from students on campus. KU students protested the Vietnam War and racial discrimination against African Americans at KU and in Lawrence, done through a variety of sit-ins, protests, and more.

Significant Spencer collections on this topic:

Publications like the Graduate Magazine, the Jayhawker yearbook, the University Daily Kansan student newspaper, and other student publications
Records of KU student organizations such as the Black Student Union; Kansas University Students for a Democratic Society; and the February Sisters, a women’s rights advocacy group at KU that staged a protest in 1972 as a “means of obtaining the resources to meet the pressing needs of women.”
Records of Chancellors W. Clarke Wescoe and E. Laurence Chalmers, who led KU during the 1960s and 1970s (Call Numbers: RG 2/12 and RG 2/13)
KU photographs, many of which have been digitized and made available online
Papers of Kansas Governor Robert B. Docking, who served from 1967 to 1974 (Call Number: RH MS 167); see the "Regents," "Kansas Highway Patrol," and "Civil Disorders" files within General Correspondence.

See also:

LibGuide: African American Rights Activities and Movements: University Archives
Spencer blog entry "We’re all going to jail, to jail”: The University and Civil Rights in 1965"
Spencer blog entry "Smoke and Fire: Political and Civil Unrest at the University"
Two general histories of KU, both available at Spencer: The University of Kansas: A History (Clifford S. Griffin, 1974) and Transforming the University of Kansas: A History, 1965-2015 (edited by John L. Rury and Kim Cary Warren, 2015).

Brown v. Board of Education

In this 1954 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. It signaled the end of legalized racial segregation in the schools of the United States, overruling the "separate but equal" principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case.

Significant Spencer collections on this topic:

Papers of Charles S. Scott, a lead attorney in the local case representing the Kansas plaintiffs (Call Number: RH MS 1145)
Paul Wilson papers, which includes research materials Wilson used to write about his experience as the attorney for the Kansas defendants in his book The Time to Lose (Call Number: RH MS 746)
Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence, and Research records (Call Number: RH MS 876)

See also:

Geology & the Oil Industry

Kansans Hollis Hedberg and Wallace E. Pratt revolutionized the way geology was handled in the oil industry. Hedberg divided the stratigraphic classification of rocks into units and categories, setting a standard for future generations of geologists. Pratt showed the importance of geology to the oil industry and helped Humble Oil & Refining Co. (now known as Exxon) become one of the largest oil providers in the world.

Significant Spencer collections on this topic:

Hollis Hedberg Papers (Call Number: RH MS 546)
Wallace E. Pratt Papers (Call Number: RH MS 870)

Women’s Suffrage in the U. S.

The ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment prohibited the federal government and each state from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of sex. This victory for women’s rights came after decades of debates, protests, demonstrations, and legislative attempts of varying degrees of success. Spencer's holdings include perspectives and campaign materials from both the national pro- and anti-suffrage movements. These materials showcase the reasons for and against suffrage and how the two sides countered one another’s various arguments. The library's collections also document the history of women's suffrage in Kansas, the first state to hold a referendum (when citizens directly vote on an issue) on women’s suffrage in 1867.

See also:

LibGuide: Women's Suffrage Resource Guide

The Beat Generation

The Beat Generation was a reformative movement within poetry after World War II that rejected several notions put forth by society and embraced others. Beat literature spoke about embracing psychedelic drugs, exploring sexuality, and rejecting values of economic materialism. Additionally, the Beat Generation is attributed to being one of the main influences on the creation of hippie culture in the 1960s.

Significant Spencer collections on this topic:

James Grauerholz collection of journals and papers by William S. Burroughs, a primary figure of the Beat Generation (Call Number: MS 319)
William S. Burroughs Collection (Call Number: MS 63)
Revolutionary Writings of Diane Di Prima, one of the most influential female authors of the Beat movement (Call Number: MS D201)
Diane Di Prima Collection (Call Number: MS 71)
Poems by Charles Plymell, an author whose works were widely circulated within Beat spaces (Call Number: MS 137)
Charles Plymell Papers (Call Number: MS 53)

See also:

Overview of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literary Collections at Spencer

Science Fiction's New Wave

Lasting between the 1960s and 1970s, the New Wave was a period of reaction and potential reform within the science fiction literary space. Authors were tired of the ways science fiction had been written beforehand, which revolved around hard facts and the physical sciences, and instead focused on writing about the social sciences.

Significant Spencer collections on this topic:

Papers of Theodore Sturgeon, one of the proponents of the New Wave (Call Numbers: MS 303, MS 254, MS 300, MS 321, MS 320, MS 351)
Corporate Papers of the Robert Mills Literary Agency, one of the main agents that handled many New Wave authors (Call Number: MS 307)
Issues of the British science fiction magazine New Worlds (Years: 1946-1953, 1953-1964, 1964-1967)

British Rule, Irish Rebellion

Since the 16th century, there has been a series of uprisings against British rule in Ireland. Spencer Research Library is home to one of the most significant and sizable collections of materials about Irish history, literature, culture, and politics held outside of Ireland. The bulk of the collection dates from approximately 1700 to 1950.

See also:

The Protestant Reformation

In the sixteenth century, many people began to raise questions and concerns about the teachings and actions of the Roman Catholic Church – most notably Martin Luther with the publication of his Ninety-five Theses in 1517. Several factions of Christians broke away from Catholicism and the authority of the Papacy over these debates concerning Church doctrine. The rise of Protestantism was met with acceptance by some countries and their leadership but resistance and outright hostility by others – setting off a series of events and conflicts known as the Protestant Reformation and European Wars of Religion.

Spencer's collections include a sizable number of materials related to the people, debates, and conflict associated with the Protestant Reformation. While many of the library's items are not printed in English, the value of these holdings is in their connection to this chaotic time in history and how the Reformation shaped the future of Europe and Christianity. Items include published writings by Martin Luther as well as writings and sermons in defense of both Protestantism and Catholicism.

Carl Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus created the system of biological classification known and used today by the majority of the world. The concepts of animal and plant “kingdoms” came from the works of Linnaeus, as well as the idea of binomial nomenclature, which is the combination of a common name with a second term to produce a name for each species of animal and plants.

See also: