Here we see two Dental Hygiene students of 1970 in character as Baby Mollie Molar and Barney Bad preparing a skit for their Dental Hygiene Education class. The skit would later be performed at local elementary schools, aimed at teaching the kids proper dental care.
From the late 1940’s until the 1960’s the UMKC University Bookstore was located in the lower level of the original Student Union building – a temporary barracks building acquired from Camp Crowder military base in the aftermath of WW II. In this undated picture you can see the types of items available in the bookstore of old. Take special note of the felt, stuffed Kangaroos at the top of the picture. One of these mascots is currently on display in the window of the present Bookstore, courtesy of Christopher Wolff.
As classes start up for another year one might wonder what the very first students thought when they started their classes at UKC. Their campus consisted of only three buildings: a maintenance shop, a greenhouse, and the W.S. Dickey mansion (now Scofield Hall), and their entire student body, faculty, and Board of Trustees could fit in one photograph….
As the countdown to the start of a new semester keeps ticking down it is interesting to look back on all the difficulties students of the past had just registering for their classes…
Here we see Swinney gymnasium filled with lines of students trying to get all of their classes booked in the days when everything had to be filled in and checked by hand.
And here we see a group of students sitting outside the Student Center (now the Atterbury Student Success Center) filling in punch cards which were used with one of the university’s first computerized registration systems.
Anyone who has seen a move-in day on campus can never forget it. Students, parents, friends, and family members carrying in boxes, pieces of furniture, and clothes for the students’ new ‘home away from home’ at UMKC.
So this seems the perfect time to reflect on the first residence hall built on campus in 1955 – Cherry Hall. When it was first opened, however, Cherry Hall was known as the “Men’s’ Residence Hall” since the dorm was only to house men. Women did not even have a residence hall on campus at all!
And to give some idea of what amenities were like for residents in Cherry Hall in the 1950’s take a look:
As we begin gearing up for a new semester of classes here is a little flashback – the University Registrar’s Office in Scofield Hall, circa 1971.
As UMKC’s Robotics program grows here we see it’s start – UMKC’s 1st course in robotics – a summer program in 1982 led by Dr. Kenneth Blundell.
As new students begin plans for decorating their residence hall rooms for the coming year here is an example of a decoration from the past.
While we here in the archives do not (yet) know the date of this pennant we can say it is from before 1963 – when the independent UKC merged with the UM system becoming UMKC – and that it also bears the design of the original seal of UKC.
A little bit on the history of the house itself… It was originally the home of Dr. Herbert Tureman and his wife, Marie. It was bequeathed to UMKC in 1964 and was originally used as office space for alumni programs, community relations, fund-raising, and conference and meeting rooms for alumni and constituent groups before becoming the Toy and Miniature Museum…
In honor of the Toy and Miniature Museum’s upcoming reopening it seems a good time to feature some photos of the time when the museum was a residence: the Tureman House….
