Search

The Loren W. Elliott papers consist of documents pertaining to the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi Fraternity, and Phi Kappa Phi, during the time Elliott was a student at Kansas State Agricultural College in the late 1920s and 1930s. Included are Laboratory Outlines and Elliott's class notes for General Botany I, General Botany II, and Laboratory Experiments of Elementary Organic Chemistry. Elliott was also a member of the President's Club (1981-1982 and 1987). A vinyl record (33 1/2 rpm) titled "Purple Pride 1971-72" is included in the collection.

Records relating to the history of Cooperative Extension work in Sedgwick County Kansas and focusing particularly on the Prairie Gem unit of which Lou Herndon and her mother, Ruth Wilkins, were charter/lifetime members.

The Louis H. Douglas papers document the career of Douglas and the lecture series that was named after him at Kansas State University. Included are photographs of Douglas and speakers at the lecture series, as well as additional documentation regarding his time as a political science professor at Kansas State University from 1949–1977 and the Lou Douglas Lecture Series that began in 1980.

The Louis S. Meyer papers reflect the varied consumer interests and activities Louis S. Meyer participated in from 1969-1986. His involvement in the consumer movement began as a successful businessman. With a degree in political science, he pursued a political life as a state campaign coordinator and became an expert in government and community interrelationships. With this latter expertise, Meyer became the consumer advisor and moderator for conferences held on the deregulation of the telecommunications industry.

The first series of the collection demonstrates Meyer's concern with various consumer and legislative issues, such as medical malpractice reports, health and nutrition pamphlets, transcribed lectures on children's television advertising, pamphlets on the national use of the metric system, and the Universal Product Code for pricing. His interest in rural and utility legislation led to a close contact with Senator Lee Metcalf of Montana who pursued such legislative acts as the Family Farm Development Act, the National Electrical Energy Conservation Act, and the Consumer Representation Plan of 1975-1976. This close contact is seen by the correspondence in the series with the Senator and the numerous Congressional Records found in the collection. In 1975, Meyer became an active member of COCO and later held numerous administrative positions with the organization.

The second series contain organizational files from COCO which includes annual and financial reports, memberships lists, and minutes from the Steering Committee from 1976-1985. In this series, there is extensive conference material the donor collected and filed in notebooks. The conference material has been removed from the notebooks and filed in folders and boxes according to its original order.

The third series contains the bulk of the collection and documents the important role COCO and Meyer played in advising AT&T on consumer/community relations during the deregulation of 1979-1986. This series is divided into five sub-series; 1) conferences on deregulation, 2) Joint Consumer Advisory Panel Meetings, 3) reports and transcribed lectures concerning telecommunications, 4) information from other telecommunications companies, 5) judicial information and government documents. Community impact conferences were held on deregulation throughout the United States in 1982-1983. Meyer monitored the conferences and compiled material from each of these conferences. This material has been kept intact and is largely made up of pamphlets, agendas and reports. COCO and AT&T organized a Joint Consumer Advisory Panel in 1975 which met on a regular basis until 1985. All correspondence, minutes, and agendas have been placed in chronological order and maintained as Meyer had compiled it. The collection contains numerous reports and transcribed lectures on telecommunication legislation and deregulation from 1979-1986. The processor placed these within the third sub-series due to related content. COCO advised other telecommunication companies.

The fourth sub-series documents the advisory meetings between companies including ATTIX, NACAA, and API, Southern New England Telephone, and PCC from 1980-1984. The agendas and minutes of these meetings are within this sub-series. The final sub-series contains various judicial and government documents. The judicial information describes court cases of Western Electric (1982) and the New England Telephone and Telegraph (1983). There are Federal Communication Commission hearings concerning different telecommunication topics such as customer equipment and services, AT&T regulation of domestic and interstate services, and the MTS and WATS structure inquiry. This sub-series also contains legislative acts and bills including the Communications Act of 1978, Telecommunications/ Deregulations Act of 1981 and 1982 with their respective amendments, the Disabled Act of 1982, and various unnamed bills H.R. 13015, H.R. 4102 and 4103, H.R. 5421, and H.R. 6121.

The fourth series is audio-visual material and contains recordings of audio and video cassettes. The audio cassettes are 60- and 90- minute tapes of various speakers at the Food and Education Conference (1974), Erie Consumer Credit (1976), COCO Internship Conference (1976), Utility and Energy Conference (1976), the Legislative and Regulatory Process Workshops (1976), and the Consumer Protection Conference (1977). There are also recorded lectures by Meyer on subjects such as the future of rural America, the food industry, and consumer protection. The video cassettes' are primarily concerned with the telecommunications industry. Some deal with public relations, others are recorded interviews, still, others are speakers at a utility conference. A 30 minute 16mm film, produced by COCO, called "Keeping Up With Technology" is also found in this series.

The collection includes annual reports, club and secretary reports, and operational documentation.

These materials are records documenting the development and history of McCain Auditorium, the campus cultural center for the live performing arts since 1970. The bulk of the collection consists of programs, broadsides, contracts, newspaper articles, administrative files, and photographs. Of note, are programs from the first performance in the auditorium and early performance broadsides.
The McCain Performance Series includes handbills, programs, and season brochures of performances between the years of 1970 and 2010.
The Internal Records includes advertisements of McCain performances, contracts with performers, correspondence between McCain and the performers, financial reports on the cost of events, grants that were written to help pay for various events, and press kits made available to newspapers, television, and radio stations to advertise events. There are also 105 3.5" floppy disks and 62 5.25" floppy disks with internal documents. The 3.5" floppy disks include material such as advertisements, brochures, database files, events, and Friends of McCain mailing list. The 5.25" floppy disks include material such as advertisements, brochures, budgets, calendar events, fonts, lighting information, mailing lists, newsletters, photographs, postcards, posters, press releases, programs, sponsors information, surveys, system disks, and workshop information. There are two boxes that are oversized that house advertisement mock-ups of performances and events.
Photographs and Slides include some of the artists participating in the McCain Performance Series and the Other McCain Performance and Events Series. Box 59 houses oversize photographs that include photographs of McCain Auditorium and the Philharmonic of China.
Other McCain Performances and Events include Kansas State University (KSU) organizations such as KSU Bands, KSU Chamber Music Series, Department of Music, Theater, and Dance, K-State Orchestra, K-State Players, K-State Singers, Men and Women's Glee Clubs, and Spring Dance.
The Friends of McCain includes advertising and promotion of Friends events, list of board of directors, monthly board minutes, yearly budgets, correspondence between the board of directors and members of Friends, financial reports of funds raised and spent on events, reports from the KSU Foundation Center of donors designating their donations to Friends of McCain, fundraising brochures and campaigns such as the Yearly Holiday Home Tours, membership lists of Friends of McCain, Friends of McCain newsletters, and season campaign brochures.
Media: CDs, Audio Cassettes, and Reel-to-Reel Tapes are made up of one box. It contains two CDs, 24 audio cassettes, three reel-to-reel tapes. The two CDs are titled McCain Movie and are not dated. The audio cassettes titles include Women Light 21, Women Heavy 40, Men Light 10 and 5, Men Heavy 13, 16 and 22 Dolby, Men Heavy 28 and 40, McCain Auditorium with Tag, Frances Mayes Lecture, Posing Music, Cathy Hougland, and Women Light 25, David and Cathy Hougland "Cool the Exgines," Big River "Running to the River," and Reduced Shakespeare Company, "The Bible." The titles of the Reel-to-Reel tapes are New York City Opera National Company "Figaro" and La Boheme Radio Ads and Gypsy Radio Ad.
Newspaper articles about McCain Performance Series and Events are from the K-State Collegian and The Manhattan Mercury as they covered performances and events.
Oversize is made up of McCain Performance Series and Other McCain Performance and Events Broadsides and Blueprints of McCain Auditorium. The broadsides are extra large posters advertising the date and time of a particular performance. The broadsides include performances such as ballets, plays and musical plays, operas, and concerts. Some ballets performed were The Nutcracker by Ballet Oklahoma, Kyiv Ballet and the Tulsa Ballet, Swan Lake by the Russian National Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty by Houston Ballet, and Romeo & Juliet by Ballet West and The St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre. Plays and musical plays performed include Winnie the Pooh, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by the Montana Repertory Theatre, Sweeney Todd, Cats, Hairspray, Babes in Toyland, Fiddler on the Roof, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Diary of Anne Frank by the Montana Repertory Theatre, The Sound of Music, John Amos in Halley's Comet and Ted Neely in Jesus Christ Superstar. Some operas performed include La Boheme by the Texas Opera Theatre, Rigoletto and Madame Butterfly by the New York City Opera National Touring Company, The Barber of Seville by the Western Opera Theatre, Die Fledermaus by the Kansas State University Opera Theatre, The Merry Widow by the London City Opera and Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) presented by Mozart Festival Opera. Concerts performed include Vienna Choir Boys, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, National Philharmonic of Russia, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, The Uptown String Quartet, Canadian Brass, Venice Baroque Orchestra, and the Kronos Quartet.
The Blueprints of McCain Auditorium are of when the auditorium was first being built. These blueprints are of the lighting systems throughout the auditorium.

McPherson collection includes a multitude of documents pertaining the McPherson extension office as well as the 4-H program. Documents range from executive files such as financial records, meeting minutes, membership lists, and construction plans to documents such as photographs, slides, and program guides.

The majority of this collection is a compilation of Motor Voters’ correspondence to and from state and federal agencies, individual consumers, auto industry magnates, and other consumer and safety groups. Also included is an audiovisual series which contains news and press conferences as well as general TV coverage of Motor Voters’ accomplishments and goals.

The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) Records (1968-2015) consists primarily of administrative files, case files, research material, and inter-office memoranda in defense of individuals and small groups against unfair corporate practices and inefficient government oversight. Covering many aspects of twentieth-century consumer movement history, these records shed light on the role of a non-profit organization in advocating fairness on behalf of low-income individuals against corporate practices, the development of the protective consumer-oriented state and federal legislation, and their assistance in providing research, analysis, and experience to other non-profit entities working across the nation.
The Original Files Series, spanning ten boxes in the original collection and an additional one in the addition making eleven in total, gathers into an assortment of NCLC internal memoranda, staff reports, manuals, organizational policy statements, testimonies before state and federal congressional houses and consumer print matter bibliographies. The series also contains material from outside sources, including class action suits, banking, housing, lending and layaway plans of various institutions, debt collection credit rates, laws and individual practices, proposed federal trade regulations, and scams involving vocational schools, and various Universal Consumer Credit Code reports.
Likewise, some individual files contain published articles on subjects of on-going interest to the organization, including Gary Klein’s “Consumer Bankruptcy in the balance: The National Bankruptcy Review Commission’s Recommendations Tilt Toward Creditors” and William Willier’s “If Credit Reporting Agencies are Doing Their Jobs, Is There Really Any need for Collecting Agencies.” Where possible, the original organizational file structure of numerical case files has been retained as a contiguous unit.
The Standing and Advisory Committee Files Series is comprised of two boxes of material arranged in chronological order, which contain internal reports on regularly scheduled committee meetings (beginning in December 1998 and running into the twenty-first century) to address issues affecting the staff of NCLC, including budgetary allocations as well as office and personnel issues. The documents also cover issues relating to the Social and Unity Committees, changes to the internal database, and the role of a staff ombudsperson.
The General Files (Washington, D.C. Office) Series consists of one box, collecting in chronological order documentation on consumer affairs lobbying efforts at the organization’s Washington office, including correspondence, public statements, and newsletters. Some of the issues covered in the files include state oil overcharge allocation decisions involving Exxon, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the Coalition on Human Needs, and the proposed re-regulation of interest rates.
The Advocacy and Conference Files (Massachusetts Office) Series spans seven boxes (five are from the original collection while two are from the addition) of material arranged in chronological order and by subject pertaining to material used in NCLC’s annual consumer affairs conferences, including reports on consumer fraud laws, advocacy highlight reports, market failures and predatory lenders, specialist training in consumer affairs as well as consumer manuals and several issues of the Legal Service Corporation Quarterly Report.
The Research Materials Series covers nine boxes of primary source and reference material amassed by NCLC as background for several on-going projects. Some items include different versions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, correspondence with the Federal Trade Commission, VHS tapes of news segments on family loan programs and predatory mortgage lending, bank creditor surveys, savings and loan, and insurance packing cases, reports on changes to credit rates and regulations in the 1970s and 1980s, analyses of different Truth-in-Lending Act iterations, court files relating to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and comments on different drafts of the Uniform Consumer Credit Code. Where possible, the original organizational file structure of numerical case files has been retained as a contiguous unit. Those segments of the series which do not possess case numbers have been arranged chronologically by subject.
The NCLC Reports series, added for the purposes of the 2015 addition, consists of one box containing numerous reports officially published by the NCLC on a variety of topics (such as consumer credit, usury, bankruptcy, debt collection, foreclosure, and others of NCLC interest). The dates of these reports range from 1982 to 2013. These reports cover cases that fall in the realm of consumer law and provide teaching tips for consumer rights advocates.
The Media Series, added for the purposes of the 2015 addition, spans one box and covers the chronological span of 1983 to 2016. This series consists of press releases and articles from various media sources (such as journals, newspapers, magazines, and online sources) that make mention of the NCLC and its work, often commenting on cases undertaken by the organization or its publications. These clippings include sources such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and local news sources. They cover a large variety of topics such as student debt, foreclosure, credit card debt, credit unions, and others.
The Printed Materials Series is in one box and contains materials that are published and bound, consisting of publications that span numerous topics and include law journals, Congressional hearings, and bound publications by the NCLC and staff.
The Digital Files Series, added to the collection in 2017, contains 10 digital folders of information pertaining to NCLC. The first two folders include HTML data files from the NCLC website from 2002 and 2016 including many records, and published material for consumers. The third folder contains PDF and Word documents of amicus briefings and the sixth folder contains information from the fair debt collection practices act. Several folders, 4, 5, 8, and 9, contain information in regards to NCLC conferences, press releases, reports, and brochures. Folder seven pertains to mortgage conferences held in 2012, 2014, and 2015 and folder ten includes documentation from webinars given by NCLC staff and personnel from 2009-2015.