Robinson-Clapp family archives

The collection includes a wide variety of textual and photographic materials related to the Robinson-Clapp family of Wichita, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. It contains materials related to Betty Clapp Robinson's gardening activities, including both the Westport Garden Club of Kansas City, Missouri and the Garden Club of America, as well as her volunteer and board work with Kenmore (the home of George Washington's sister Betty and Fielding Lewis in Fredericksburg, Virginia), the Visiting Nurse Association, the Kansas City Junior League, and other organizations.

Also in the collection are records from Dr. Ernest Franklin Robinson's medical practice during the Spanish American War, as well as material from Dr. Kip Robinson's military medical service and, later, his practice in Kansas City, Missouri. Medical materials may include information about individually identified individuals, but these materials all date prior to World War II.

Materials from other Clapp and Robinson family members is included. The collection contains a notable number of scrapbooks, many compiled by Betty Clapp Robinson from 1949-2000 either annually or for specific trips and other special occasions, and family photographs.

Judy Robinson donated her materials to the archive. She contributed more of her mother, Betty Clapp Robinson’s scrapbooks, as did her brother Marc Robinson, along with older scrapbooks from the Clapp family. Judy Robinson donated her own photo albums of travel and friends, and many personal photos, negatives, and slides of travel to Russia, Cuba, South America, and Europe in the 1970s. Among Robinson’s papers are personal correspondence with family and friends, including a few letters from Timothy Leary, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and cousins Bill and Fred Koch.

Robinson also donated articles she wrote throughout her career in journalism, working for United Press International, in Portland, Maine and The Examiner in San Francisco, along with papers from her time as legislative assistant to Senator Gaylord Nelson in Washington, D.C. She went on to write biographies about the Hearst family, Congressman Phillip Burton, Senator Alan Cranston, and Florence S. Mahoney, who advocated for the expansion of the National Institute of Health and the creation of the National Institute on Aging. Research and drafts of these books are included in the collection in the Judy Robinson's writings section.

Judy Robinson conducted extensive genealogy research to write three family history volumes following the Clapp, Ingraham, Kip, and Robinson family lines, among others. Her great grandfather, William Ingraham Kip, was the first Episcopal Bishop in California, while another great grandfather, Lewis William Clapp was a developer, mayor, and founder of the park system in Wichita, Kansas. Her paternal great grandfather, David Robinson was the first Latin Professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Many of Judy Robinson’s books have been separated from the collection and can be found in the Spencer Library catalog, including her memoir. The collection contains her research and drafts of her books in the family history section of her papers.

The collection remains, for the most part, organized as it was when it arrived at Spencer Research Library. Additions have been incorporated into the collection over time. The first donations were mainly Betty Clapp Robinson's materials. Some groupings in this portion of the collection appear as "from box labeled...," reflecting the donor's original labels. A new series was created for Judy Robinson's materials, though some of her mother's correspondence, scrapbooks, and other papers were in this donation. Judy Robinson included extensive labeling in her later donations, thus titles in the Judy Robinson series are all her own unless they are [in brackets], indicating that Spencer staff created the title or inserted words for clarification.

While photographs may be found in any series; photos, negatives and slides donated in their orignal envelopes have been physically separated for preservation purposes and have their own series. Oversize materials have frequently been physically separated from the main collection for preservation purposes, as have the audio visual materials, featuring 1930s-1940s family home movies of the Robinsons, Clapps, and Kochs; Fred R. Koch’s 2022 memorial service; oral family histories; and recordings of Judy Robinson’s lectures and interviews on her various books.