download a PDF version - KU Endowment

past and present
Decades ago,
the American
Elms that
lined Jayhawk
Boulevard met
in the middle.
This spring,
students
planted 10
redbud trees
to replace
several lost in
recent years.
courtesy of spencer research library, ku libraries/inset: charles higginson
Made in the shade
On March 29, students and faculty honored a 134-year-old KU tradition
by planting 10 redbud trees along Jayhawk Boulevard. The trees
replaced others that were removed a few years ago to allow repairs to
underground steam tunnels.
On the same date in 1878, KU faculty and students planted more
than 300 evergreen, hackberry, elm and honey locust saplings on Mount
Oread. Chancellor James Marvin declared the day a holiday. The Class
of 1945, at the suggestion of Eleanor Malott, wife of Chancellor Deane
Malott, made a gift to purchase 1,200 redbud, plum and apple trees.
Unfortunately, like the canopy of elms that once arched over Jayhawk
Boulevard, many of these trees have been lost to age, storms or disease.
Now, student groups have partnered with the university to maintain our
beloved trees.
— Charles Higginson
YOU CAN HELP
Right now, there’s a bonus: Historic Mount
Oread Friends, a campus organization, has
made a challenge grant to continue the effort
to replant Mount Oread. Visit kuendowment.
org/replantmountoread —and plant a tree.
KUENDOWMENT.ORG 21