In 1877, Charles S. Gleed was a young man in his early twenties living in Lawrence, Kansas. He was a student at the University of Kansas and an employee of various newspapers.  In January of that year he wrote the secretary of the recently founded Kansas Historical Society (est. 1875), Franklin G. Adams. Gleed stated that he worked for the Kansas Collegiate and was the Kansas correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. He asked Adams to keep him informed of the Society’s activities and new acquisitions so he could report on them in his news articles.

Then, the following May, Gleed wrote an astounding letter:

Franklin G. Adams Esq.

Dear Sir –

I forward to you by to-day’s mail what I suppose to be the original draft of the “Leavenworth Constitution.”  I procured it of Mr. J. G. Schmucker of this city who found it in a house once occupied as a residence by Martin F. Conway [president of the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention], corner of New York and Berkeley streets, East Lawrence. This document (as compared with Wilder’s Annals [Annals of Kansas, 1875]) is complete down to the Article on Banks and Currency.  The remainder – one article, the Schedule, and the signatures – is torn off.

Mr Schmucker rented the Conway house in 1867, and found at that time a large number of “Pub. Docs,” manuscripts, papers etc., etc., most of which he distributed to persons whom he judged to be most nearly the rightful possessors. He has since kept the Constitution until turning it over to me for the benefit of the State Society.

You will observe by reference to the “Annals”, even if you should have forgotten it yourself, that your own name comes next to Mr. Conway’s [as signatories of the constitution] and that further down the list appears such names as P. B. Plumb, C. H. Branscomb, T. D. Thatcher, S. N. Wood, J. K. Goodin, I. T. Goodnow, Thomas Ewing Jr., James H. Lane, and many others most of whom are unknown to me except by reputation. Possibly you will be able to recognize the chirography [penmanship/handwriting] of some of the articles. If so it will add interest to the scroll.

Hoping to have helped a little in the work of the Society, I remain Very Respctfully,

Charles S. Gleed.

Adams, obviously elated to have received the document, replied on June 16:

Chas. S. Gleed, Esq.,

My Dear Sir:

I have now in the possession of the State Historical Society the original enrolled copy of the Leavenworth Constitution found by you and so considerately and disinterestedly forwarded by you to the Society, some time since, through Hon. Sidney Clarke. Mr. Clarke on reaching Topeka was taken sick, and on recovery was suddenly called away to Washington, which accounts for your not having received acknowledgement sooner. I went last evening and found the document. It is undoubtedly the original enrolled constitution, and a very valuable relic. The grateful thanks of the Society are most certainly due to you for your kindness in placing it among the collections of early Kansas history now being gathered up.

Yours very truly,

F. G. Adams.

At the time of its creation, the separate pages of the Leavenworth Constitution were pasted together and rolled into one long scroll – and it still exists in this state today. And the last two articles, schedule, and signatures are still missing from the original  – just as Gleed described in his letter. The original Leavenworth Constitution is now available on Kansas Memory, including a complete transcription. To see all four constitutions drafted for Kansas, select the category Type of Material - Unpublished documents - Government records – Constitutions.

The Leavenworth Constitution was the most radical of the four constitutions drafted for Kansas. It prohibited slavery, allowed black men to vote, and provided for some protection of the rights of women. Kansas voters ratified the Leavenworth Constitution on May 18, 1858 but the U.S. Senate did not act to approve the document. For more information on the Kansas constitutions, see the online exhibit “Willing to Die for Freedom.”  

Silent film footage of the 1951 flood of the Kansas River basin in Topeka is now available on Kansas Memory. With 28 deaths and over $1 billion in damages, the '51 flood was one of the most devastating natural disasters to strike the Midwest. The flood lent support to a series of large dams and levees on rivers in the Missouri River basin.

For additional materials on floods in Kansas, select the category Environment - Weather - Floods.  

Hear the phrase “cowboy band” and you might think of singing cowboys like Gene Autry or maybe a western string band beating out jigs and reels on fiddles and guitars for a country dance. But in Dodge City in the 1880s the cowboy band was a whole different animal. Sporting cornets, tubas and other horns, the Dodge City Cowboy Band brought cow culture to the brass band craze of the late 19th century and drew both praise and criticism for its popularity. In its promotion of Kansas cattle interests, the band spread new myths about cowboys' genteel respectability and perpetuated old myths of cowboys as desperadoes. Selected materials on cowboy bands are now available on Kansas Memory.

This 1889 roster shows the band with twenty-three members and standard brass/wind instrumentation for the period, including many horns we would hardly recognize today.

This 1886 group photo shows the band flanked by its management with two young boys in the foreground. Notice how prominently members display their guns.

This photo shows some members of the Dodge City Cowboy Band on a round-up in Indian Territory, possibly in the 1890s. The photo may have been a publicity stunt meant to prove that band members were "real" cowboys.

Additional materials on cowboy bands are available by searching "cowboy band." See Community Life - Arts and Entertainment - Music - Musicians - Bands for more materials on bands in Kansas. See Business and Industry - Occupations/Professions - Cowboys for more materials on cowboys in Kansas.

For more information on the Dodge City Cowboy Band see Clifford Westermeier's article "The Dodge City Cowboy Band." Kansas Historical Quarterly v19 n1 (February 1951) : 1-11.

One hundred and twenty-one years ago this month, in July of 1890, a small group of Kansas trade union leaders adopted a constitution for a new, centralized state labor organization. With the decline of the Knights of Labor in the 1880s, Kansas lacked a unifying organization for its many craft unions. Topeka printers, barbers, plumbers, carpenters, and others had recently established a successful central union representing their common interests. This increased the desire for a statewide organization. Meeting in Topeka in July of 1890, this group created the Kansas State Federation of Labor (KSFL).

The constitution of the KSFL outlines the group’s purpose, operations, and resolutions. Among their common interests included 1) demanding an eight hour workday, 2) recognizing a “Labor Day”, 3) encouraging the patronage of “union shops”, 4) and condemning the employment of children under fifteen years old.

The strength of the KSFL fluctuated dramatically over the next sixty years in response to economic booms, busts, and the two world wars. But many of its reforms were eventually adopted. Kansas Governor Lyman Humphrey established a statewide “Labor Day” in 1890. In 1901 Kansas passed an eight hour work day for state workers. And in 1905, Kansas began restricting the employment of children in manufacturing and heavy industry.

Marc Karson’s A History of Trade Unions in Kansas provides a brief history of the KSFL up to 1956, including its opposition to “right to work” legislation, which Kansas ultimately adopted in 1958.

For additional sources documenting labor unions in Kansas, visit Kansas Memory and select the category Government and Politics - Reform and Protest - Labor movement.

In 1919, A. M. Fury managed the Robinson Grain Company in Palco, a small town in northwest Kansas. On December 18, he wrote Kansas governor Henry Allen of Topeka to say that his threshing operation would cease if he did not receive a shipment of coal soon. Many such letters reached the governor’s office that December from city mayors, teachers, and other residents all across the state. Just weeks before, 10,000 coal miners in southeast Kansas went on strike seeking better working conditions. Failed negotiations led the state to seize the mines and raise an army of volunteers and National Guardsmen to operate them. While the strike underscored the state’s dependence on coal and the mostly foreign-born labor force that mined it, it also led to the creation of an arbitration board that enraged labor organizations across the country and drew opposition from the US Supreme Court. Additional sources on the southeast Kansas coal strike of 1919 are available on Kansas Memory by selecting the category Business and Industry--Mining and quarying--Coal.

In this letter, Kansas governor Henry Allen of Topeka writes Adjutant General Charles Martin instructing him to take whatever means necessary to operate the coal mines in southeast Kansas with voluntary labor.

This document includes the names of some of the men reporting to work in the southeast Kansas coal fields during the state takeover of the mines.

In this letter, Colonel Hoisington, of the 4th Infantry, Kansas National Guard, informs the Kansas Adjutant General of supplies and costs related to the use of volunteers during the 1919 coal strike in southeast Kansas.

This photograph shows a national guardsman patrolling a southeast Kansas coal mine during the coal strike of 1919.

A.M. Fury of the Robinson Grain Company in Palco, Kansas, writes to Governor Henry Allen, of Topeka, requesting a car of threshing coal.

J. J. Bulger, counselor for the Wichita Trades and Labor Assembly, writes state senator O. W. Sparks, of Galena, Kansas, concerning pending legislation that would create an industrial court to mediate relations between labor and industry.

See Business and Industry--Mining and quarying--Coal for additional sources on the 1919 southeast Kansas coal strike and coal mining in Kansas generally. See Business and Industry--Labor or Government and Politics--Reform and Protest--Labor movement for additional sources on labor history in Kansas.

No matter where you live in Kansas, from the High Plains to the Ozark Plateau, from the Flint Hills to the Arkansas River lowlands, Kansas Memory hosts unique historic photos and documents on your county or region.

From the Kansas county map on the home page (kansasmemory.org) click on a county to see the current related materials.

The following are materials we have recently added to Kansas Memory that represent many Kansas counties:

1.    County atlases or plat books (1900-1913) representing 80 counties

 
2.    County organization records (1861-1912) representing 72 counties

3.    Fair posters (1870s-1920s) representing 50 counties

4.    Railroad depots (1860s - 1970s) representing 75 counties

We have also added significant photograph collections for the following counties:

1.    Gray (Gray County and photographs - 287 images) 

2.    McPherson (G. C. Dresher Collection - 326 images)

3.    Russell (L. W. Halbe Collection - 1531 images) 

4.    Sherman (Richard Gannon Collection - 87 images)

5.    Wyandotte (Urbin I. Rudell Collection - 111 images)

We are currently working on photograph collections representing Douglas, Franklin, and Marshall counties.

In 1908, the Wyandotte [Kansas] city court arrested and convicted the state’s Assistant Attorney General C. W. Trickett for unlawfully receiving fees in exchange for services. Many believed Kansas breweries and saloonkeepers conspired against Mr. Trickett in this case for his enforcement of the prohibitory law on intoxicating liquor. Attorney General Fred Jackson agreed. By overturning the conviction, Jackson signaled the beginning of a new, though temporary, chapter in the ongoing struggle for prohibition in which laws long ignored would be enforced and the “blind tigers” (illegal saloons) once allowed to flourish would be closed. A prohibition era Brewery Album is now available on Kansas Memory. 

Fred Jackson’s crackdown on illegal liquor marked a clear break from the past. Although Kansas was the first state to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors in 1880, the law was only loosely enforced. Carry Nation’s infamous hatchet crusades beginning in 1900 sought greater enforcement of the laws and contributed to a growing intolerance of saloon culture that led to additional state regulations and national prohibition by 1920.

The Brewery Album held by the Kansas Historical Society provides a rare look at some of these "blind tigers" and the liquor and beer culture in northeast Kansas during prohibition under state law. W. R. Lafferty of Oakland, California, donated the album in 1970.

An interior view (upstairs) of the Hall of Fame in Topeka with "Fritz" Durien and Bob Hensler.

Front view of the Hall of Fame after Fritz [Durien] went to Germany and a pop stand was started, Topeka.

Fritz Durien and his warehouse treasury in his Hall of Fame, Topeka. 

Returning empty kegs was an every day scene when the joints were open.

The John Walruf Brewery at Lawrence was the last of the big brewery interests in Kansas to fight prohibition.

For more sources on the prohibition era in Kansas, select the category Government and Politics - Reform and Protest - Prohibition and Temperance. 

In mid-December, 1905, a Professor E. H. S. Bailey of Lawrence, Kansas, received an express shipment from Topeka. The bundle contained two bottles of vanilla extract, multiple packages of ham sausage, Vienna sausage, Bologna sausage, corned beef, dried chipped beef, potted ham, potted tongue, veal loaf, beef loaf, and one bottle of water. A letter explaining the shipment jokingly noted “These I trust will arrive in time for your Christmas dinner. Of course we desire to have you make a careful analysis of them before proceeding with your dinner party… [Very truly yours], S. J. Crumbine, Secretary [Kansas Board of Health].” This and other letters by Samuel Crumbine are now available on Kansas Memory.

A pioneer in the field of public health, Dr. Samuel Crumbine of Dodge City, Kansas, used equal doses of humor and pragmatism to halt the spread of communicable diseases. His public health campaigns often used humorous illustrations, verses, and slogans to warn against unhealthy practices, but thier message was deadly serious. His campaign against houseflies urged screening windows and doors and used the slogan, "Swat the Fly."

Other targets of his campaigns were the common drinking cup or dipper and the exposed roller towel, often used on railroad trains and in other public areas. His success in this area was illustrated by the adoption of disposable paper cups and towels. Crumbine also warned against misleading labels on food and drugs. He became secretary of the Kansas Board of Health in 1904 and served approximately twenty years.

Selected letters by Samuel Crumbine are now available on Kansas Memory. For additional Crumbine materials on Kansas Memory go to People--Notable Kansans--Crumbine, Samuel Jay, 1862-1954.

One of the great things about a digital repository like Kansas Memory is that it gives us the opportunity to feature materials that might not be noticed otherwise. A letter written by a poor farmer around 1900 just does not command the kind of interest and attention that letters by John Brown or Carry Nation do. Materials that reflect the lives of regular, everyday folk can be easily overlooked or under appreciated. Here are a few letters of regular people from different walks of life. They come from various collections but all of them reveal people coping with some type of hardship or difficulty.

This 1938 letter from tenant farmer Edna Heim describes the total loss of 125 acres of crops after a hailstorm. The farm was located in Smith County, Kansas, near Kensington. Mrs. Heim is writing farm owner Clarice Snoddy of Topeka. The letter comes from the Manuscripts Collection, Clarice Snoddy Papers, which includes many letters from the Heims describing daily farm operations and the environmental and economic hardships they faced.

This 1916 petition by Mexican railroad workers in Hutchinson, Kansas, appeals to the Mexican Consul for protection from threats of violence by local Americans. The threats followed the killing of sixteen Americans by Pancho Villa at Santa Isabel, Mexico. This letter is part of the State Archives, Records of Governor Arthur Capper, General Correspondence.

In this 1880 letter, from freedman Richard West in Barton Station, Alabama, West pleads with Kansas Governor John St. John to help him and others migrate to Kansas. West describes the hardships he faces as a black farmer and his, and others’, desire to leave the South. This letter is one of many letters Governor St. John received from potential Exodusters and is included in the State Archives, Records of Governor John St. John, Correspondence Received, Immigration – Negro Exodus.

In this 1914 letter, Legless Andrews, a self described “legless airnaut” from Kansas City, Missouri, writes the Kansas Department of the Grand Army of the Republic at Topeka, Kansas, offering to perform balloon accessions and parachute leaps for an upcoming celebration. This letter comes from the Manuscripts Collection, Kansas Grand Army of the Republic, Administrative Records, Correspondence.

Mrs. Isabella Barnes of Liberal, Kansas, writes this 1906 letter to Governor Edward Hoch concerning her wish to wear men's clothing. Mrs. Barnes describes being abandoned by her husband and the hardships she has faced since that time. She says she would like to wear men's clothing to help her obtain suitable employment and avoid unwanted insults from men. This letter comes from the State Archives, Records of Governor Edward Hoch, Correspondence Received.

For access to more letters on Kansas Memory, select the Objects and Artifacts - Communication artifacts - Documentary artifact - Letter category, then click additional categories to further refine those results. See Guides and Finding Aids for more information on our various document collections, including Governor's Records.

In 1912, Effie Frost was living in Verdi, Kansas, a rural village in southeast Ottawa County. Her home was in Junction City but she stayed in Verdi as a missionary to local residents who favored pool halls over churches. She even organized a Sunday school for the children to improve church attendance. Despite her efforts, the pool hall thrived and church attendance suffered. Then Kansans approved a proposition to give women the vote. Like many women, Effie understood that winning the vote was more than an accomplishment; it was an opportunity. Documents on women’s suffrage in Kansas are now available on Kansas Memory.

On November 6, Effie wrote Lucy B. Johnston, president of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association, about the recent election. “Now that we have the weapon,” Effie wrote, “I pray that we may… use it in destroying all vice breeding places… [like] Pool Halls and such things.” Effie understood that what she could not change by Christian influence alone women could change together if they applied their values at the ballot box.

Echoing these sentiments, Genevieve Chalkley of Lawrence declared “women are now a factor” at the Women’s Kansas Day Club meeting, on January 30, 1913. Her speech “After the Ballot – What Next?” implored women to use their vote to “humanize our people” and push for “progressive laws” that would soften the impact of an increasingly urban and industrial America on the family. Women’s clubs, like this one, played a vital role in achieving women’s suffrage in Kansas and they would prove equally important in determining how women used the vote.

By 1914, the Kansas Good Citizenship League (successor to the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association) endorsed a series of measures calling for greater attention to childhood and adult education, health care for women and children, and community and financial support for women and children in need. Women did not achieve national suffrage until 1920 with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Selected documents on women’s suffrage in Kansas are now available on Kansas Memory.

Samuel J. Reader arrived in Indianola, Shawnee County, Kansas in 1855. As an adult, his occupation was farming but he was a man of many talents and interesting hobbies. He was an avid diarist, drawer and painter until his death at the age of 78. Among his collection available at the Kansas Historical Society are his lantern slides.

Each slide is made from hand-painted glass cased in a handmade wooden frame. The slides depict a variety of subjects including ghastly creatures, like Satan and the Grim Reaper, flowers, people and animals.

Reader used a type of image projector commonly known as the magic lantern to showcase his works of art for members of the community. Lantern slides were first introduced in 1849. By the time Reader began creating his own slides in 1866, they would have been a popular form of entertainment.   

The Kansas Historical Society has partnered with Ancestry.com to make thousands of pages of records available for free to Kansans with a valid driver’s license.  While Ancestry’s primary interest is genealogical, the records that have been added to date can be used to study local communities, farming, and military service in the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I as well as numerous other topics.

Through this partnership, Ancestry has digitized the Kansas State Census records taken every ten years from 1865-1925 in years ending in 5.  This state census provides coverage for the entire state by listing all members of families, their ages, sex, and often other information about where they were born, where they lived before coming to Kansas, and if they served in the military during the Civil War.  Because this census was taken by the Kansas Board of Agriculture, there is also a section that provides information on agricultural production farm by farm.

Ancestry has also digitized these records series and other record series will be added as they are available:

Civil War Enlistment Papers of Kansas Volunteer Regiments, 1862, 1863, 1868

Russell County Vital and Probate Records (J. C. Ruppenthal Collection)

World War I, Kansas Veterans, Manuscript Collection no. 49

United Spanish-American War Veterans, Reports of Deaths, 1945-1970 (TAPS)

If you are a Kansan with a valid driver’s license, check out the Kansas Historical Society records now available through our Ancestry partnership.  This page also lists additional records series the Ancestry plans to digitize and make available via this portal.

This partnership allows us to make significantly more records available to Kansas via the internet than what we could accomplish with in-house digitization.  The Kansas Historical Society is committed to providing easy access to as many of our research holdings as possible.  The partnership with Ancestry, Kansas Memory, and Chronicling America are the three ways Kansans can access thousands of documents from their homes or anyplace where they have internet access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Herschel C. Logan (1901-1987) was a woodcut artist and printmaker raised in Winfield, Kansas. His depictions of the Kansas landscape, including the Flint Hills, dust storms, tornadoes, and farmhouses earned him the nickname "The Prairie Woodcutter."

Logan studied commericial art at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and worked as the art director of Consolidated Printing and Stationery in Salina for 36 years. He was a member of the Prairie Print Makers. In addition to making woodcuts, Logan enjoyed firearms and ammunition, being a historian and author on the subject, as well as a member of the American Society of Arms Collectors.  To each print he added his monogram - "L" inside a square. Between 1921 and 1938, Logan created 140 prints. In addition to the Kansas Museum of History, Logan's prints have been displayed at the Spencer Museum of Art. You can view a collection of Logan's woodcuts on Kansas Memory by clicking here. 

The Kansas State Penitentiary, now known as the Lansing Correctional Facility, was built in the 1860s. Since then, thousands of inmates have passed through it's doors, most notably, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, whose crime was retold in Truman Capote's novel, In Cold Blood. Recent additions to Kansas Memory include the images of several dozen inmates from the Kansas State Penitentiary captured on glass plate negatives, all taken in 1901.

More inmate photographs are currently being digitized, but in the meantime, other items of interest relating to the Kansas State Penitentiary include correspondence and artifacts. You can also learn how to preserve any collodion negatives you might have at home, or browse all the glass plate negatives we've put on Kansas Memory thus far.

Congratulations are in order to the visitors, volunteers, and staff who support and work to improve digital access to the collections of the Kansas Historical Society. We now have over 250,000 digital images available on Kansas Memory, which continues to expand since it was created in 2007. Just in the past two months we've added over 26,000 images! The 250,000th image is...

Brookdale Rice Co Kansas

Jany 1st 1871

Governor Harvey

Dear Sir

Enclosed please find petition for the general distribution of arms among the citizens of Rice Co. necessary for their defence against any raid or raids by the Cheyenne Indians.

Most of the settlers located in this vicinity are unable to purchase the arms and ammunition necessary, hence the petition.

Should you not decree it advisable to send the arms, a small detachment of troops sent here would allay all anxiety on the part of the people located in this vicinity. 

Trusting that you will give this matter your careful

[Page 2]

consideration I have the honor to be very truly yours

D.H. Bowdoin

Address.

Brookdale P.O.

Rice County

By way of Ellsworth  

This letter is part of the Kansas Adjutant General's correspondence collection, containing 50 years of letters from 1861-1910, now available on Kansas Memory. Events highlighted in this collection include the militia companies involved in the Civil War, including colored units, and Price’s Raid claims for compensation for lost property and militia service rendered during Price’s Missouri Expedition. Reports of Indian conflicts continued well into the 1880s, as the presence of the reorganized Kansas National Guard expanded across the state and beyond, including the Spanish-American War in 1898. The Kansas Adjutant General’s correspondence collection is one of many found in the State Archives which preserves the records of all three branches of state government, including the official records of nearly every Kansas governor.

With the November 6^th election just around the corner, you're likely to see electronic ballots widely used at polling locations. While paper ballots are still used, they do not resemble the scratch paper ballots from the past. Below are examples of ballots for the first referendum of the Lecompton Constitution on December 21, 1857. Voters were choosing between the Constitution with slavery or without slavery.

The Constitution with slavery won 6,226 to 569, although the December 21st vote was boycotted by free-state supporters. A second voting occurred on January 4, 1858 with an Anti-Usurpation Ticket. Names listed on this ticket include George W. Smith, William Y. Roberts, Philip C. Schuyler, Andrew J. Mead, Joel K. Goodin, and Marcus J. Parrott. In the example to the left, the voter has indicated Henry H. Williams as his selection for Senator, D. B. Jackman as his selection for Representative, and that he is "against the Constitution." The Lecompton Constitution was rejected by a vote of 10,226 to 138. Other election materials of interest on Kansas Memory include a ballot box swept away by a tornado, voter instructions, and a campaign truck.

In 2005, the Kansas Legislature awarded the Kansas Historical Society $150,000 to issue grants to nonprofit groups charged with collecting oral histories from WWII veterans. Each grant awardee focused on a unique scope or approach to capturing this information, for example, the Doniphan County Historical Society focused on the experiences of Pottawatomie, Kickapoo, and Sac and Fox tribal members.

Grant recipients were the Greater Barber County Historical Action Association and Barber County Veterans Memorial in Medicine Lodge, the Doniphan County Historical Society in Troy, the Center for Learning Tree Institute in Girard, the Ellis County Historical Society in Hays, the Department of Social Sciences at Emporia State University, the Frank Stull American Legion #152 in Ness City, the Gray County Veterans Memorial & Archives in Cimarron, the Rice County Historical Society in Lyons, and Watkins Community Museum of History in Lawrence. Original copies of the audio or video tapes are housed in safekeeping at the contributing institutions and at the Kansas Historical Society.

Over 500 interview transcriptions relating to experiences during WWII can be found here.