Candid Vintage Photographs Capture Daily Life of Kansas Girls at Their State University in 1939

Kappa Alpha Theta House boasts classic pillars.

The girls who go to the University of Kansas are as different in their looks and backgrounds as the buildings in which they live. The buildings are sometimes classic, sometimes Tudor, sometimes Georgian. Some of the girls are dull and some bright, some pretty and some plain, some grinds and some “jivers.”
Their State University is at Lawrence, perched on the highest hill in eastern Kansas. It is a surprising town to find in the most middle of the Midwestern States. Settled by New Englanders, it is very much like New England except that the wind blows all the time. The streets are lined with spreading elms and some of the houses have captain’s walks.

In regular session, 1,500 girls attend the University, which is co-educational. For the most part they have a very good time at college, often living better than they do at home. A fourth of them occupy sorority houses; less than a third, dormitories. The rest board out around town. Their college life is heartier, more social and much more frankly concerned with boys than it is at an Eastern women’s college.