Kenneth Spencer Research Library Archival Collections

This collection consists of two typescripts: Legislación sobre el monopolio de Licores y la fábrica Nacional (a history of legislation on the liquor monopoly) (1940) and Estudio Histórico sobre la producción y el monopolio de licores en Costa Rica (a study on the historical production and monopoly of liquors in Costa Rica) (1941).

This collection contains letters and photographs of John S. and Dan Dillon Casement while they were engaged in construction in Central America. Many of the photographs relate to the building of the Costa Rican Pacific Railroad.

The Larry K. Laird collection contains articles and correspondence relating to his work as a Foreign Service Officer with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), documents relating to his family history, and photographs. Some of the materials in this collection have been addressed to Eileen and Earl Laird, Larry's parents.

Miscellaneous unbound manuscripts removed from the William J. Griffith collection of printed Guatemalan source material. Contains some records of the University of San Carlos and the Protomedicato; the Guatemalan government; letters by Rafael Carrera; and some papers relating to the Rojas family. Although most of the manuscripts are Guatemalan in origin, some are Costa Rican or Honduran, and there is one document each from Peru, Cuba, San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Spain.

Albert E. Palmerlee was a 1961 graduate of the University of Kansas. His father was Albert S. Palmerlee, who became Assistant Dean of the KU School of Engineering. This collection contains four papers on the geography and anthropology of Mexico and Costa Rica and some of his notes and photographs on the archaeology of Costa Rica.

An album of photographs documenting the funeral of former Costa Rican President Bernardo Soto Alfaro, which took place on January 31, 1931 at the Catedral Metropolitana in San José. The album originates from the Manuel Gómez Miralles Studio in San José, Costa Rica.

Shelley Miller was a long-time Kansas resident, both attending the University of Kansas as a student and serving as head of the Department for Spain, Portugal and Latin America at the KU Libraries. Throughout her life, Shelley participated in social activism on the local and national level. This collection reflects her professional and personal efforts through newspaper clippings, informational pamphlets, scrapbooks, and personal correspondence.