UMKC School of Law

Clarence M. Kelley Diploma Collection
Clarence M. Kelley, a Kansas City native, was best known in his roles as Chief of Police in Kansas City, Missouri (1961) and Director of the FBI (1973 Nixon appointment). He graduated from Northeast High School, received a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas and earned the J.D. from the University of Kansas City Law School in 1940. The Leon E. Bloch Law Library was the recipient of six diplomas and two certificates awarded to Clarence Kelley.The collection was donated to the UMKC Law Library by Kelley’s widow, Shirley Dyckes, probably in 1997 following the death of her husband. The diplomas and certificates have been digitized and made available on the Internet.
Class Composites
This collection features the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law's class composite photographs.
Debates of the 1943-1944 Constitutional Convention of Missouri
This project is jointly sponsored by the Missouri Supreme Court Law Library, the University of Missouri Library Systems Office, and the Leon E. Bloch Law Library of the University of Missouri-Kansas City. At the suggestion of Professor David Achtenberg of the UMKC School of Law, the genesis of this project was to facilitate research of and citation to the Debates of the 1943-1944 Constitutional Convention of Missouri (the "Debates"). There are two versions of the transcripts for the Debates. One version was transcribed by the Missouri State Archives (8.5 x 14 inch paper and consists of 6,168 pages), and the other was separately transcribed by the Supreme Court Library (8.5 x 11 inch paper and has 7,763 pages). In the past, the existence of the two versions has led to considerable confusion among practicing attorneys who have attempted to follow Supreme Court citations to the Debates, especially since few are aware that two versions exist, and there is presently no concordance for cross-referencing between versions. The version digitized for this database is the 8.5 x 11 inch version held and cited by the Missouri Supreme Court. A copy is also held by the Missouri Attorney General's Office and is cited by them. The 8.5 x 14 inch version transcribed for the Missouri State Archives was copied to microfiche by the State Historical Society of Missouri. It is held by a few libraries. After consultation with the Missouri Supreme Court, its library's version was selected for digitization. The transcripts of the Debates are 24 vols. consisting of 7,751 pages, plus a 12 page index.. The Constitutional Convention began on Tuesday, September 21, 1943 and concluded on Friday, September 29, 1944. The Convention lasted for 215 days (actual days in session). This project is greatly indebted to the assistance of Missouri Supreme Court Archivist Joe Benson. Without his help in arranging for space for the scanning equipment and his help and advice during the scanning process we could not have accomplished the project.
Miscellaneous
UMKC’s Law Legacy Project is a collection of video interviews with alumni who have been out of the law school for fifty or more years sharing their memories before, during and after law school. https://archive.org/details/umkclawlegacy
The Charles D. Gould, Jr. Collection
Charles D. Gould, Jr. served as a photographer in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in the latter years of World War II, and was stationed in Nuremberg while the Nazi War Crimes Tribunal was in session. This collection of photographs and other items was discovered by Mr. Gould’s family after his death. It includes images of post-war Nuremberg, of the War Crimes Tribunal and Nazi defendants (including Ernst von Leyser, Oswald Pohl, Lothar Rendulic, Gerhard Rose and Siegfried Ruff), and many other scenes that captured Mr. Gould’s interest at the time. We encourage you to browse these images, and to learn more about the young photographer who made them available to us.