Celebrating Bob Dole's Legacy

Funding from Humanities Kansas helped the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas create “Voices from the Big First, 1961–1968," an exhibition showcasing Kansas's political history through constituent mail. Image courtesy of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics. — Funding from Humanities Kansas helped the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas create “Voices from the Big First, 1961–1968,” an exhibition showcasing Kansas’s political history through constituent mail. Image courtesy of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics.

The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas promotes political and civic participation as well as civil discourse in a bipartisan, balanced manner. The institute provides a forum for discussion of political and economic issues, fostering public service leadership and encouraging participation in the political process. The institute offers programming and exhibitions related to the political lives of U.S. Senator from Kansas Bob Dole and his wife, Secretary of Transportation and U.S. Senator from North Carolina, Elizabeth Dole, and it also holds an archive of their papers. With funding from Humanities Kansas, the state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, in 2021 the Dole Institute created a temporary exhibition reflecting on Bob Dole’s early career in politics through the words of his constituents.

“Voices from the Big First, 1961-1968” showcased letters written to Dole in the years before he became a senator, when he was representing Kansas’s 6th district in the U.S. House of Representatives and later the consolidated “Big First” district. The exhibition was developed by a curatorial fellow with the institute and reflects through constituent mail the concerns of Kansas’s rural western half during the 1960s. The exhibition highlighted Kansans’ responses to the Great Society, as well as issues related to education, such as prayer in school, agriculture and nuances of farm policy, and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. At the same time, as several Kansas districts were consolidated due to population shifts, constituents also expressed concerns with the loss of power and representation for rural communities.

“Voices from the Big First, 1961-1968,” was on display from February through October 2021. In addition, the institute used student help to digitize and create an online version of the exhibition. This virtual presence helped bring the exhibition to a broader audience during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, including K-12 schools that were able to access the exhibition online. The virtual exhibition will continue to serve as an enduring resource for the Dole Institute.