Some were simple laundry lists.

Others expressed a Kansas University student’s concerns after being called to serve his country.

And some reflected a young soldiers’ life in the U.S. Army and in Italy.

Archivists at the Dole Institute of Politics on Friday released several of about 300 recently recovered personal letters written by the young Bob Dole and his family, including some from Dole’s time at KU and in the Army.

“It’s probably the most significant archival find of my career,” said Richard Norton Smith, the institute’s director. The letters “trace the evolution of a fairly typical, callow college kid into a man and a leader.”

Smith is a former Dole speech writer and biographer.

The letters, 94 of which were penned by Dole, were discovered this past winter in the basement of the Dole family home in Russell. Archivists were searching for exhibit items for the institute, which will be dedicated Tuesday after three days of events meant to honor Dole and the generation that fought World War II. The letters were publicized as part of the dedication fanfare.

The letters that were released are reproduced on pages 10A and 11A of today’s Journal-World.

The Dole Institute archive will include Dole’s House and Senate papers, including collateral documents from hundreds of Dole workers and close associates involved in his career.

¢Letters from Dole¢More about Bob Dole

The archive is a record of Dole’s 36 years, spanning 1961 through 1996, on Capitol Hill. During those years he was a congressman, a senator and Senate majority leader, a candidate for vice president and president. The collection includes 4,000 boxes of papers and about 1,000 square feet of artifacts.

Institute officials call it the largest collection of one politician’s papers outside of presidential collections.

Dole wrote the first set of letters while he attended KU between September 1941 and December 1942. They often focused on grades and sports achievements, but sometimes accompanied loads of laundry, which Dole explained could be done less expensively in Russell than in Lawrence.

The early letters also addressed some of Dole’s concerns about being called away to war.

Dole was called to duty in December of that year. The next set of letters came to Russell from locations including Fort Leavenworth; Camp Barkeley, Texas; Brooklyn, N.Y.; Camp Polk, La.; and Fort Benning, Ga., where Dole attended officer candidate school.

When Dole arrived in Italy in late 1944, he first reported on the conditions before requesting candy, Vicks VapoRub, wool socks, liver and onions, fruit cocktail and Frank Sinatra.

“I guess you might as well send the whole house if you can get it in a 5-pound box,” he wrote.