In 1879 and 1880, freedmen (former slaves) sent around 1,000 letters to Kansas Governor John St. John seeking information on migration to Kansas (the Exoduster movement). Governor St. John replied to many of these letters. This exchange between Kansas’ highest official and the freed people of the South documents the hardships, hopes, and misconceptions of southern blacks at the end of Reconstruction.

Community and religious leaders penned many letters on behalf of others, such as small communities or churches. Most of the letters seek to discern truth from fictions--as Benjamin "Pap" Singleton, "Father of the Exodus" advised--about settling in Kansas.

Though the envelopes have not survived, many letters were likely addressed to “John St. John” instead of the “Governor of Kansas.” Isaiah Montgomery explains: “note that I address you without prefixing title in order that the letter may not attract undue attention. Nothing is too hard to suspicion of this Country where it has been the custom for a century or more to ransack the mails to prevent the circulation of documents breathing the spirit of freedom.”

Upon receiving a letter, the Governor’s Office summarized its contents on a memo, noting the author’s name and date, and pasted the memo to the back of the letter. Staff filed the letters first by subject (i.e. “immigration – Negro exodus”) and then in chronological order. St. John or his secretary would then pen a response and “press” a copy of the reply into a letter press book. Pressing involved wetting copy paper (often referred to as “onion skin”) with water, interleaving letters between these wet pages, and applying pressure to the whole until ink from the letters transferred to the copy paper. Too much or too little water could result in a poor copy.

Since many correspondents wrote the governor back after receiving his letters, it is obvious that many of the governor’s letters reached their intended audience. But did the governor intentionally conceal his title/office on the envelope as some of the letters request? Again Isaiah Montgomery: “Please address an answer (as early as convenient) with no mark on the Envelope to denote that it comes from the Capital or any official.”

Here at the State Archives, we hold both the original letters sent to Governor St. John and copies of his responses “pressed” into letter press books. All correspondence received by the Governor has now been digitized and transcribed and is available on Kansas Memory.

Congratulations to this year's graduates, the Class of 2015!
In celebration, here are some vintage postcards of Kansas colleges. Click on a postcard for a full description.

Want to see more vintage photos of Kansas colleges? Click here, then look for your institution in the blue box in the upper left corner. Along with hundreds of photos you'll find film clips of 1940s KSU-ESU football games, a scrapbook of KU campus life, and a variety of college memorabilia.

Bird's-eye View, Baker University, Baldwin City, Kansas

Main Building, Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas

Davis Hall, Friends University, Wichita, Kansas

Haskell Indian Nations University Stadium Entrance, Lawrence, Kansas

Kansas Normal College, Fort Scott, Kansas

Cadets Drilling, Kansas State Agricultural College (now KSU), Manhattan, Kansas

Bird's-eye View, Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kansas

Lockwood Hall, Kansas Wesleyan University, Salina, Kansas

Main Building, Kansas Wesleyan University, Salina, Kansas

Marymount College, Salina, Kansas

Sharp Hall, McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas

McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas

Ottawa University, Ottawa, Kansas

Carney Hall, Manual Training Normal School (now Pitt State), Pittsburg, Kansas

Central School (now Pitt State), Pittsburg, Kansas

Russ Hall, Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas

St. Mary's Jesuit College Entrance, St. Mary's, Kansas

Fire at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas

Campus View, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas

Lincoln College (now Washburn University), Topeka, Kansas

Washburn School (now Washburn University), Topeka, Kansas

Washburn University Campus, Topeka, Kansas

Fairmont College (now WSU), Wichita, Kansas

University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

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Kansas Memory now boasts 500,000 images! Drawn from the diverse collections of the Kansas Historical Society, the photographs, records, memorabilia, and artifacts on Kansas Memory represent the history of all 105 Kansas counties.

The 500,000th image is not just one photo--it's actually 36 photos combined to create one rotating, 360° image of a 1000-year old vessel in the collections of the Kansas Historical Society. 

This vessel was discovered at an archeological excavation in Mitchell County, Kansas in 1980. On this Kansas Archeology Training Program (KATP) Field School excavation, forty-seven volunteers uncovered the remains of an earth lodge. An Upper Republican group (in the Central Plains tradition) occupied the lodge and created this vessel during the Middle Ceramic period (ca. A.D. 1000-1500). 

Visit KansasMemory.org to view the other 499,999 artifacts (out of millions) housed at the Kansas Historical Society. To learn how to become personally involved in preserving Kansas history, contact the Kansas Historical Society or stop by the Kansas History Museum, the State Archives, or one of 16 State Historic Sites across Kansas.

We are often asked at the Kansas Historical Society how people can contribute to KansasMemory.org or to the Kansas History Museum. There are many ways to get directly involved in Kansas history. 

Donate Kansas artifacts to the Kansas Museum of History or State Archives. Curators evaluate artifacts for possible inclusion in the Society's collections but cannot provide estimates.

Loan your items for digitization and preservation in Kansas Memory. Items will be evaluated for possible inclusion in Kansas Memory, and if selected, arrangements will be made to borrow, photograph, and return them.

Help your organization apply for a grant or become a contributing institution on Kansas Memory. Have ideas about connecting your community to Kansas history? Let us know.

Volunteer your time or expertise. Volunteers guide museum visitors, catalogue historic photos, write Kansapedia articles, transcribe handwritten manuscripts. Myriad projects are available depending on volunteer interest.

Become a member of the Kansas Historical Society. Get free admission to the Kansas History Museum and free or discounted admission to hundreds of other museums around the country.

Sound interesting? Get in touch by email at kansasmemory@kshs.org, connect with us on social media, or reach us by telephone at (785) 272-8681. 

This photograph of Private First Class Albert Thompson, Jr. was taken in a photography studio while he served in France during World War I. In October 1917 the National Army assigned Thompson to the 302nd Stevedore Regiment in Camp Hill, Virginia, but whether he was drafted or volunteered is unknown. The conditions in the camp were very poor--upon arrival they had no shelter, few blankets, three mess kits for every ten men, and nowhere to bathe. Two months later Thompson's unit set sail from Hoboken, New Jersey for France.

In Europe, Stevedore regiments--formed of African American men--provided every variety of manual labor. At the port of Bordeaux, Thompson's unit loaded and unloaded cargo from ships, reportedly 800,000 tons in one month or 25,000 tons on average per day.

In September 1918 the men of the 302nd were transferred to the 813th Stevedore Battallion of the Transportation Corps, part of the Service of Supply or SOS. Their new duties in "Graves Registration" made light work of their previous stint as dockworkers. The 813th, along with two other black regiments, removed 23,000 decomposing bodies from the battlefields of Romagne, France into the future Argonne National Cemetery.

Military and community leaders back home likened the black troops' labor to Simon of Cyrene, the African who carried Jesus' cross to Golgotha. White American soldiers in France, however, spread word that the African American regiments were assigned to remove the dead because they were diseased. By the end of the war it was evident that the latter sentiment, which dismissed the black contribution to the Allied cause, largely prevailed. Black American soldiers were excluded from marching in the Allied victory parade in Paris, although black soliders from France and England took part. Fearing that black soliders would return to the U.S. with radical ideas of equality, military leaders restricted the movements of black soldiers in France. Upon their return home, especially in the south, African American soldiers were stripped of their uniforms, excluded from service organizations, and labeled cowards.

In 1919 Private First Class Albert Thompson, Jr. returned from France to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he died on July 16th of an unknown illness at age 23. He wasn't commended for his service until after he returned home to Topeka, Kansas, where he was buried on the 21st of July. In a large ceremony on July 30, 1919, Kansas Governor Arthur Capper, Topeka city officials, and African American community leaders honored Thompson and other African American servicemen, particularly of the 92nd Division, including Colonel Charles Young, a black West Point graduate. In her 1922 letter to the Kansas Historical Society, Thompson's mother, Alice, mentions that her son also received a diploma from France honoring his service and an unspecified memorial from Washington, D.C. 

Further reading:

Topeka Daily Capital, Wednesday, July 30, 1919 "Colored Fighters of 92nd Division Honored by City" accessed via Newspapers.com February 4, 2017. (Please click here to login first). 

The Unknown Soldiers: African American Troops in World War I by Arthur E. Barbeau and Florette Henri, New York : Da Capo Press, 1996.

Willing Patriots: Men of Color in the First World War by Robert J. Dalessandro and Gerald Torrence.

Four months into Walter Huxman's first and only term as governor, the Kansas Legislature passed the Human Retailers' Sales Tax Act in April of 1937. Like many states, Kansas' traditional streams of revenue were in jeopardy as property lost value during the Great Depression. Huxman preferred indirect taxation, but he failed to persuade lawmakers of indirect methods of generating revenue. For Huxman, sales tax was a last resort, but necessary to avoid bankruptcy and to fund social security.

Most Kansans did not agree. Governor Huxman's records in the State Archives* reveal the incovenience, frustration, and outrage the sales tax and token system caused Kansans, even Huxman's supporters. Unlike Oklahoma, which offered a one-mill token, Kansas only issued a two-mill sales tax token. This token represented two tenths of one cent. It allowed a child buying a 10-cent, double-scoop ice cream cone to pay exact sales tax. Without tokens, any tax less than a penny would have to be paid with a penny. Paying a whole penny tax on a 10-cent cone would be a 10% tax rate instead of a 2% rate. With the two-mill token, the child could pay the exact 2% tax or 0.002 cents. For a single-scoop, five-cent cone, however, a child would pay twice the required tax. It wasn't possible to pay the exact amount (1/1000th of a cent) because there was no one-mill token.

Confused? Concerned? So were many consumers in the 1930s. And what kinds of items were taxed? Definitely ice cream, but what about boy and girl scout badges? The badges were not taxed because the Scouts were an educational organization. Newspapers were taxable, but advertising, a service, was not, as the publisher of the Mound City Republic found out only after writing directly to the Governor. Could coal miners' supplies be exempt from sales tax? No, Governor Huxman had to tell United Mine Workers of America there was nothing to be done. Another letter writer declared the tax "a fine law for rich doctors, half-witted lawyers." A heating and plumbing business couldn't afford to hire the new bookkeeper needed to stay on top of all the new work the law created. Another business owner, Lawrence Photo Supply Co., cited evidence that their profits had actually decreased since the sales tax and tokens were instated. A self-described lifelong Democrat advised the Governor not to seek re-election by "adding blood suckers by the thousands" to the state's payroll. Two other writers asked for additional taxes for old age pensions, one requested an additional tax on cigarettes and beer.

It might come as no surprise, then, that during the elections of 1938, Republican nominee Payne Ratner promised to put an end to "Huxies" if elected. Ratner was elected, winning by about 52,000 votes, and upon inauguration in 1939 eliminated sales tax tokens. The tokens could be redeemed for cash for two years and were subsequently melted down. This made Kansas the first state in the country to eliminate sales tax tokens. With the exception of Missouri most other states followed suit, putting tokens out of circulation by the start of World War II. Governor Huxman's career did not end there. Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Huxman to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth District in April of 1939.

*When viewing Governor Huxman's correspondence records in Kansas Memory, the Governor's typewritten response appears before the correspondent's original letter to the Governor. This is because they were originally stapled together with the Governor's response on top.

School class photographs document the lives of children as well as the schools built to educate them. This is a late 19th-century portrait of students at the Glenn School, a one-room schoolhouse that still sits approximately two miles west of Lecompton, Kansas. Built by Swedish stonemason Chris Christenson, the native limestone school serves as the backdrop to the three rows of students. Here, siblings, childhood friends, and future spouses all appear together in one photo.

This photograph is part of the Lecompton Territorial Capital Museum's large school photograph collection, now available on KansasMemory.org, which tells the story of a historic Kansas community across generations. To learn more about the people in this photo and their descendants, see Treasures of the Township by Monica Davis at the Lecompton Territorial Capital Museum.

Funding for this project was made possible by a Kansas Digital Access to Historical Records (KDAHR) grant from the Kansas State Historical Records Advisory Board. 

The following is a post by guest writer Greg Hoots.

In May of 2016 the Wabaunsee County Historical Society (WCHS) was awarded a grant from the Kansas State Historic Records Advisory Board (KSHRAB) which allowed our organization to digitize and preserve over 400 photographs and manuscripts of Kansas landscape photographer, Louis Palenske.Additionally, the grant provided funding for the development of a website for our organization.

The digitization and long-term storage of the Palenske collection was a significant addition to the WCHS digital archives, which was founded in 2014. The Palenske collection was important not only because of the number of images and documents which were included in the group, but because the collection of Western landscapes are of significant cultural and historical importance.

The second element of the grant project, the creation of a WCHS website, has been extremely successful in achieving its initial goal of making records and photographs in our collection accessible to the public.  Even more significantly, the new website has an incredible potential for in allowing our organization to achieve its mission as a historical society and museum.

Accessibility to our museum in Alma has always been shortcoming of our organization, in that we are only open 25-hours a week during most of the year, and 10-hours each week during the winter months.  Our abbreviated hours of operation, coupled with a very rural location, made accessibility to our photos, records and exhibits a challenge for many visitors.

The new website has allowed us to bring our museum to everyone with internet access, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. The results have been impressive. In the first three months of service our website has seen 3,900 visitors who have viewed 38,000 different photos, articles, and documents.

Historically, our museum has only received about 1,300 visitors annually, and we are able to reach that many individuals monthly with our website.  The potential for the future of our website is limited only by our imaginations and our willingness to embrace the use of the internet to provide our services to the public.

The Wabaunsee County Historical Society website can be accessed at the url: https://wabaunseecomuseum.org/

Born a slave in Maryland, Frederick Douglass became one of the most famous intellectuals of his time. Douglass, like his colleague John Brown, was a leader in the antislavery movement, and the two worked together in 1858, as this letter shows. Douglass also advocated for public schools to be free and open to all children. As a child, he was only literate because he had furtively taught himself to read. Sometimes, when his owners weren't looking, he asked free children if they would stop playing for a minute to help him decipher words. Douglass believed that his education had led to his own freedom, and likewise, it was essential to the freedom of African American people. Despite the successful abolition of slavery--traditionally celebrated on June 19th or Juneteenth--within his lifetime, injustice toward African Americans has persisted after his death.

A 1902 Kansas Supreme Court case pivoted on a school presumably named for him in Topeka. Lowman Hill School had served both black and white children until a fire destroyed it in 1900 (and its temporary location again in 1901).* When Lowman Hill was rebuilt, African American children were instead sent to Douglass (or Douglas) School, a two-room building without running water, while white children attended the new brick school (with running water) so spacious that its second story went unused.

More than fifty years after Lowman Hill School was segregated, in 1954, Brown v. Board of Education legally required all schools to be integrated. During that trial, the Board of Education's arguments cited Frederick Douglass. They maintained that because African Americans like Frederick Douglass had been resilient--emerging from segregation and many other obstacles as great Americans--segregated schools did not harm children. This did not persuade the Supreme Court, which ultimately decided that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and that the children had been "deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment."

Integration was not a total victory. African American schoolteachers in Topeka were not integrated into white schools along with the students. Instead they lost their jobs (see also here). Such inequality continued to play out well into the 1980s and 1990s, when the Brown v. Board case was reopened. Witnesses during the trial reported that African American teachers were discouraged from promoting black viewpoints, even in school plays; one was "permanently suspended" for his persistence in trying. Although high schools had been integrated for many years, some, like Topeka High School, were internally segregated with separate teams and activities for white and black students. Black teachers were also still being placed in black schools, actively separated from white schools and white teachers. Although the city of Topeka had become much more residentially integrated, especially by the late 1980s, the schools had not; in the early 1990s new west side schools had a 5% population of African American students, while on the other side of town schools like Belvoir had a 70% population of black students. Other factors such as attendance boundaries, school construction, school closing, bussing, administrative policies, test schools, and community perceptions of Topeka Schools were presented by the plaintiff as supporting evidence of ongoing segregation.

This case, known as "Brown III" went all the way to the Supreme Court. Ultimately an appeals court ruled in 1992 that the Topeka School District had never fully achieved desegregation. In order to comply with the ruling, the Topeka Schools built three magnet schools to increase racial diversity in the district. One of these, Scott Dual Language Magnet, now delivers a bilingual eduation. In 1992 Monroe Elementary School, the segregated school at the center of the Brown v. Board case, was designated a national park.

Never having been to school, Frederick Douglass did not know what it was to have his education taken from him by fire, although his own house was destroyed by arson in 1872, or what it was like to attend an integrated school. What Frederick Douglass would make of the 122 years of history since his death, or the discussions on equality and education today, is impossible to know. Douglass did, however, record his own legacy in his own words, which still resonate powerfully today. In a speech preserved as "What the Black Man Wants" in the pamphlet "The Equality of All Men before the Law," Douglass himself said, "What I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice."

*Kansas residents can access Newspapers.com for free here - please click here to log in, then return to this page and click on the links for access.

By: Haley Suby, Digital archivist 

Emigrating from Russia to Kansas in the late nineteenth century, Volga Germans brought their culture and language to the United States and sought to preserve them. One example of Volga German culture in Kansas is Turnvereins, commonly referred to as Turner Halls. Turner Halls were the epicenters of socializing and athleticism in these communities and often centered around the production and consumption of beer. Soon after establishing their communities and breweries Volga Germans fought to preserve their right to brew and drink beer against new state laws on the prohibition of alcohol. 

 Figure 1: Turner Hall

Kansans were early adopters of prohibition forming the first temperance organization in 1850, passing a prohibitory amendment to the state constitution in 1880 and bringing prohibition to the national stage in 1884 when Kansas Governor John St. John ran as a presidential candidate for the Prohibition Party. To influence legislation that would allow Turner Halls to continue providing beer for their communities, Volga Germans promoted their moderate approach to consumption, rejecting the over-indulgence often exhibited by some Americans, and provided samples of beer to government officials. Volga Germans along with other immigrants and brewers were successful enough for a time that some Kansans hoping to preserve their own right to indulge even sought their help. In one letter from a Mr. L.W. Clay of Lawrence to John Walruff , Prussian brewer, in 1882, Clay asks Walruff for his advice of how to purchase beer for the City Council without facing the legal backlash of prohibition in Kansas.

 Figure 2: John Walruff Brewery

To continue providing beer for their communities and preserve their culture, Turner Halls could purchase and be awarded lemonade licenses by the State. The origin of the name “lemonade license” is unclear but it may have come from a refinement method to produce beer that contained less alcohol and aroma of traditional brewing methods. The Denton and Doniphan County Turnverein was a well-known source of bottled beer for both Volga Germans and non-Volga Germans (Topeka State Journal, 1895) But as prohibition laws continued  to tighten their grip on all communities serving liquor, Turner Halls “(…) forced a compromise allowing Germans to buy beer on Sundays except during church service hours” (Higgins, 1992, p. 15) . 

For some Turner Halls this was not enough and they continued selling beer during operating hours illegally and paid fines. To maintain operating costs, such as paying fines and purchasing lemonade licenses, Turner Halls began charging memberships fees and beer coin fees. Their open rebellion to prohibition came from their “(…) German subculture’s resistance to assimilate and reluctance to abandon the past” (Higgins, 1993, p. 6). This should not have come as a surprise to Kansans, as Volga Germans firm belief in preserving their lifestyle and culture led them to emigrate from Germany to Russia and finally to Kansas.

Figure 3: Turner Society

In the end, Turner Halls lost their right to sell beer. The prohibitory amendment proposed by state legislature was passed in 1879 by voters reflecting Kansans disapproving attitudes toward drinking and unruly behavior. The amendment faced rebellion by breweries as they continued to serve alcohol through the end of the nineteenth-century, but as penalties became more severe, breweries were forced to accept the law by the early 1900s. In response to closing breweries and prohibition, Kansans as well as other states turned to new sources for their liquor, one such instance being a physician’s prescription card to purchase liquor at a pharmacy. By the beginning of the twenthieth-century, Turner Halls turned their attention to promoting athletic endeavors for young men in their community.'

 Further reading:

 Higgins, C. “Kansas Breweries, 1854-1911,” Kansas History 16, no. 1 (1993): 2-21.

Higgins, C. Kansas Breweries & Beer, 1854-1911. Kansas: Ad Astra Press, 1992.

“From Far Away Russia,” Kansas Museum of History (online exhibit), accessed April 2018, https://www.kshs.org/p/from-far-away-russia-introduction/10679

Kansas State Historical Society. “Brewers Clogs,” Kansapedia (blog), last modified December 2014, https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/brewers-clogs/10187

Kansas State Historical Society, Brewery Album, https://www.kshs.org/dart/units/subunits/209348

Kansas State Historical Society. “Germans from Russia in Kansas,” Kansapedia (blog), last modified December 2017, https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/germans-from-russia-in-kansas/12231

Kansas State Historical Society. “Lewelling, Lorenzo, D.,” Kansapedia (blog), last modified February 2017, https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/lorenzo-d-lewelling/17109

Kansas State Historical Society. “Prohibition,” Kansapedia (blog), last modified March 2014, https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/prohibition/14523

By: Haley Suby, Digital Archivist

Over the past eleven months, the Kansas Historical Society has been working hard to bring you digitized images that represent the past, present and future of Kansas and Kansans. Featured in this post are highlights from each month, different collections and counties. Read further to see what we have found to digitize for you.

January:

One of the first items to be digitized in 2018 comes from the home town of the Society's new Acquisitions Archivist. Gracing us from Pittsburg, Crawford County, Kansas, this booklet uses black and white photographs with accompanying captions to represent street scenes, churches, businesses, aerial views and residences. The Acquisitions Archivist may not have been in Pittsburg in 1902 but some of the buildings may still be around for your delight today.

February:

February was the cold month the current Digital Archivist joined the team. This 360-degree photograph of a container from the Shawnee Methodist Mission in Johnson County, Kansas, was shot by the Society's photographer. Through shooting the container thirty-six times incrementally by ten degrees around the container, a full 360-degree view is achieved giving the viewer a better perspective of a 3D object.

March:

March brought more cold weather to Kansas, but it also brought this digitized map of the Kansas Territory. Today we have more convenient modern technology to help us stay warm while outside working compared to when the land was surveyed for this map. George N. Propper surveyed the land to create this map to identify county boundaries, Indian boundaries, rail roads, emigrant routes and many more.

April:

The Kansas History Museum is constantly surprising us with exhibits and interpretations of collections, but if you haven't made it to the Museum they are bringing their collections to you. This digitized cartoon brought Christmas to April for some. A Christmas list is written on the cartoon, does your wish list look similar?

May:

In May the weather was beginning to warm up in Kansas and the bitterly cold winds were staying away. This set of photographs shows the welcome arch to the Neosho Falls Fair Grounds in Woodson County, Kansas. Summer farmer's markets and fairs are just beginning to open for the season and this arch would certainly make someone excited to attend.

June:

From Miller, South Dakota, Nelson Antrim Crawford (1888-1963) made his name as an educator and journalist in Topeka, Kansas. He is best known for his publication “Your Child Faces War” which provided guidelines for parents to educate their children on peace and international affairs. His house stands near Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. These drawings were digitized in June to show interior and exterior details and designs of this journalist’s home.  

 July:

This year our archeology training program traveled to Council Grove in Morris County, Kansas, to work on the Last Chance Store. While the archeologists were excavating the Last Chance Store the Archives held a Scan and Share event. Local residents brought historic materials to be digitized for publication on Kansas Memory. One of the items brought during the visit is the only known portrait to exist of the Indian Agent Seth Hays (1811-1873).  Hays traveled to Council Grove, Kansas, by the Santa Fe Trail in the spring of 1847 where he chose to stay to open and operate a trading post.

August:

Taken in Riley County, this photograph shows the shift from taking a casual swim to taking in the sun to get the highly desired tanned look. On the left, Miss 1880 is modeling a traditional wool bathing costume outfitted with full pants and dress to accommodate the wearing of a corset underneath to maintain her figure. Beauty pageant contestants are sporting vogue rayon swimsuits which were becoming popular for young ladies. Many more United States women were pushing the limits of bathing suit laws with fitted and sleeveless suits popularized by Australian Annette Kellerman in 1907.

September:

The Goddard Woman's Club in Sedgewick County and the Kansas Historical Society worked together to digitize the Club's scrapbooks. This scrapbook highlights the Club's community service to provide educational programs about the Shell Oil Company that at the time had forty-five producing wells and 60,000 acres of land in and around Wichita, Kansas.

October:

This Depression-era letter from progressive journalist William Allen White to Dorothea Gufler demonstrates the high unemployment rate in the United States. In his response to Dorothea Gufler's letter on behalf of her friend Mr. Brayshaw, White’s sarcastic tone makes it evident that he has received many of these requests the past four years.

November:

Hailing from South Dakota, which is most likely colder than we are here in Kansas, is the Society's newest Government Records Archivist. During his work, he transcribed a written statement by John Brown, abolitionist, on the Battle of Osawatomie where he gained notoriety on the national stage for his skill at guerilla warfare. Brown’s chilling account of the battle highlights the difficulties men and women may have encountered settling in Kansas at this time.

Returning in 2019, the Kansas Historical Society will be working hard to bring you more items to you to view at your own convenience.

By: Haley Suby, Digital Archivist

In the United States eighty years ago, the Wizard of Oz, "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale" graced the silver screens. MGM based the film on the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum which was published in 1900. (1) Baum's story, in which the infamous cyclone carries Dorothy and Toto from "grey Kansas" to the "queer land of Oz" introduces readers to Dorothy's travel companions, both good and evil.(2)

While traveling the yellow brick road toward the Emerald City, Dorothy begins collecting fellow travelers. First she saves the Scarecrow from his tedious work of scaring the crows from the field night and day. 

Then she rescues the Tinman from resting by putting oil into his joints. Finally, she knocks sense into the Cowardly Lion after he tries to bite Toto.

In 1939 MGM brought Baum's story to life in Technicolor to be shown in theaters across the United States. Dorothy, played by Judy Garland, took audiences on her adventure from Kansas to Oz and home to Kansas again.

Over the past one-hundred and nineteen years, Kansas has celebrated the novel, musical and film The Wizard of Oz. In Wamego, Kansas, the Oztober Fest pays tribute to the film. Shown here is a scene from one of their many productions of the musical.

Even the villain of the story, the Wicked Witch of the West, is honored for her part in the story.

Adapting the novel to theater and film has led to several changes over the decades. One thing that has remained constant: it is one of the greatest films penetrating "straight to the deepest insecurities of childhood" (3) and bringing children home with three clicks of their heels.

 1. Evina, Frank J. The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale. May 2000, Library of Congress.

2. Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Chicago: Geo. M. Hill Co., 1900.

 3. Ebert, Roger. "Great Movies: The Wizard of Oz. RogerEbert.com, 22 December 1996. Web. Accessed: 16 February 2019.

 Further reading:

https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/wizard-of-oz/12240

https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/wicked-drawing/16349

https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/wiz-albums/17177

Visit:

https://ozmuseum.com/

By: Megan Rohleder, Senior Archivist

As part of 19th Amendment centennial commemorations, staff members at the Kansas Historical Society have been working to create a digital program that will highlight the words of one Kansan who worked tirelessly to earn the right to vote for women. Martha Farnsworth was a Kansan who documented life pre and post suffrage in Kansas. The Kansas State Archives is home to a collection of diaries written by her over a span of nearly 40 years.

Martha was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa on April 26th, 1867.  When Martha was three, her mother died while giving birth to the youngest Farnsworth daughter, Belle. Her father, James, remarried and together the family moved to Winfield, Kansas when Martha was five.

 
In 1883, when Martha turned 16, she moved in with a neighboring family due to problems with her stepmother.  After five years of virtually independent living, Martha moved to Topeka, Kansas where she lived the rest of her life. 

It was in Topeka where Martha met her first husband, Johnny Shaw. The courtship and marriage were tumultuous and Martha often commented in her diaries that she was unhappy. 

 
During their four-year marriage, Martha suffered multiple miscarriages which added to her unhappiness. On January 24th, 1892, though, much to Martha's happiness and Johnny's displeasure, Martha gave birth to a baby girl, Mabel Inez Belle. It took just a couple months for Martha to realize that her baby girl was very sick and on June 27th, 1892, Mabel succumbed to her illness.

Martha lived with Johnny for two more years before consumption took his life in October of 1893. Her diary entries during this time were less about his emotional abuse and drinking and more about her unhappiness. This unhappiness was short-lived, though, as she cautiously started a relationship with Fred Farnsworth, a co-worker of Johnny's at the Topeka Post Office. 

After their marriage in 1894, Martha wrote of her many community engagements. She was passionate about social reform movements, including campaigning for women's suffrage. In 1905 Martha was voted into the Good Government Club, a group crucial to the success of equal suffrage in Kansas in 1912. 

Martha's diaries not only highlight one ordinary Kansan's extraordinary contributions to many social reform movements, they also highlight the social and political climates of the state during those times. To highlight the story of this special woman, our Senior Archivist, Megan Rohleder, will be tweeting words from Martha's 1912 diary in a new Twitter account starting April 1st. Followers will be able to read what was happening on this day (OTD) over 100 years ago as Kansans fought for equal suffrage.Follow along at @MFarnsworthKSHS to see history through the words of someone who lived it.

Between 1896 and 1900, the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association (KESA) published four poems and one article by writer and women’s rights advocate Charlotte Perkins Stetson (later Gilman) in their official paper, the Kansas Suffrage Reveille. While Gilman has achieved an exalted position in the cannon of American literature, many of her poems and articles survive today only because libraries and archives preserved copies of obscure little papers like the Reveille. The Kansas Suffrage Reveille is now available on Kansas Memory.  

Born in New England in 1860 and descended from the influential Beecher family, Charlotte Perkins married Charles Stetson in 1884. In 1888, after a nervous breakdown, Charlotte took her daughter and moved to California. She published “The Yellow Wall-Paper” in 1892 and a book of poems a year later. In 1900, she married Houghton Gilman.

Gilman’s visit to Kansas in 1896 coincided with the publication of KESAs new monthly paper, which promoted Gilman regularly. Gilman spent most of June in Kansas speaking in Kansas City, Topeka, Holton, Madison, Eureka, Howard, Winfield, Concordia, and Yates Center. From Kansas she traveled to Montreal where she sailed for Liverpool.

In the January 1897 issue of the Reveille, editor Katie Addison noted “Every suffrage club in the state should have Charlotte Perkins Stetson’s book of poems. They are constantly kept at headquarters. 50 cents per copy.” Indeed, the new organ for the KESA regularly featured reports on Gilman (as Charlotte Perkins Stetson) and promoted her publications which could be purchased from the KESA headquarters.

In 1897, the Kansas Agricultural College in Manhattan (now Kansas State University), offered Gilman a position as a teacher in economics. In her autobiography, Gilman recounts how flattered she was to receive the offer since she had never been to college herself. But she declined the position due to poor health.

A list of Gilman’s writings published in the Kansas Suffrage Reveille under the name Charlotte Perkins Stetson follows:

A woman – in so far as she beholdeth , Vol. I, No. 6, August 1896

Woman Suffrage and the West , Vol. II, No. 4, June 1897

A Prejudice , Vol. III, No. 10, October 1898

Feminine vanity! O ye gods! , Vol. IV, No. 8, August 1899

O, sister woman! You were created man’s equal , Vol. IV, No. 10, September 1899

Edmund Ross was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Governor Samuel Crawford after the suicide of Senator James Lane in July 1866. A newspaper editor and Civil War officer, Ross’s lack of political experience or prominence made his selection rather surprising.[2] Once in office, he was a consistent Republican vote, but did little to distinguish himself. Throughout the impeachment of President Johnson, including hours before casting his vote, Ross frequently and publicly declared his intention to convict. But when the final roll call was made, Ross voted not guilty. The effort to impeach Johnson failed to obtain the two-thirds majority necessary to convict by a single vote: 35-19.[3]

Kansans, who had made their desire for conviction clear, were furious with Ross’s sudden reversal. The Pottawatomie Gazette declared, “Compared with [Ross], Judas was a saint and Benedict Arnold a patriot.” Former members of the 11^th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, Ross’s Civil War regiment, burned him in effigy outside the Topeka Capitol. Judge Bailey of Lawrence sent Ross a succinct telegram: “The rope with which Judas hung himself is undoubtedly lost. But the pistol with which Jim Lane blew out his brains can possibly be found.” It seemed clear to all that Ross’s change of heart had been motivated not by principle but by money.[4]

Despite the widespread belief that Ross was bribed for his vote, solid evidence of a cash payment does not exist. However, Ross did act swiftly to capitalize on his vote. Within weeks, he was requesting, “in consequence of my action on the Impeachment,” numerous political favors of President Johnson, ranging from a treaty with the Osage Tribe to lucrative political appointments for friends, family, and political benefactors. Johnson agreed to all of them. Nevertheless, these political favors failed to save Ross’s career. He lost his reelection bid in 1871, switched political parties, and was later appointed territorial governor of New Mexico. Rather than a martyr for justice, Ross should be remembered, to quote historian Brenda Wineapple, “As a weak person. As a profile in cowardice. He should be forgotten.”[5]

Sources:
1. John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage (New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006), 115.  
2. Charles A. Jellison, “The Ross Impeachment Vote: A Need for Reappraisal,” Southwestern Social Science Quarterly 41, no. 2 (September 1960), 151-152. Ross greatly benefitted from the fact that more prominent state officials were uninterested in the interim position. His selection was also likely the result of crooked financial dealings led by Perry Fuller. Brenda Wineapple, The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation (New York: Random House, 2019), 351. For more on Ross’s service in the Civil War, including photographs, correspondence, and the muster out roll of the 11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, see UIDs 209087, 225859, and 227786.
3. The importance of Ross’s vote is overblown. At least four other senators were prepared to vote against Johnson’s conviction had their votes been needed. David Greenberg, “Andrew Johnson: Saved by a Scoundrel,” Slate, January 21, 1999, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/1999/01/andrew-johnson-saved-by-a-scoundrel.html (accessed May 26, 2020)
4. “Senator Ross,” Pottawatomie Gazette (Louisville), May 27, 1868, 2; “Ross Burned in Effigy at Topeka!!!—The Elevennth Boys Do It,” Weekly Free Press (Atchison), May 30, 1868, 1; Weekly Free Press (Atchison), May 23, 1868, 3; “Senator Ross,” Weekly Free Press (Atchison), May 23, 1868, 2; “Edmund G. Ross, The Traitor,” Oskaloosa Independent, May 23, 1868, 2; “Judas Ross,” Weekly News-Democrat (Emporia), May 29, 1868, 2; “Anthony to Ross,” Atchison Daily Free Press, May 18, 1868, 1. 
5. Mark J. Stern, “Mike Pence’s Impeachment Hero is a Corrupt 19th Century Politician,” Slate, January 17, 2020, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/mike-pence-johnson-impeachment-ross-wineapple.html (accessed May 27, 2020).

By: Ethan Anderson, Government Records Archivist

As communities across the country grapple with the legacy of the Civil War and the memorialization of Confederate leaders, we decided to research that legacy here in Kansas. Currently, there are no monuments, memorials, or other public symbols of the Confederacy in the state.[1] Until recently, however, this was not the case. For nearly 40 years, the City of Wichita included the Confederate flag in the Bicentennial Flag Pavilion in Veterans Memorial Park. The flag was removed in 2015 following the murder of nine African Americans at Charleston, South Carolina’s Emanuel A.M.E. Church.[2]

The memorialization of Confederate leaders and sympathizers is nevertheless widespread in Kansas. Of the state’s 105 counties, approximately eighteen are named after slaveowners, prominent Southerners, or Southern sympathizers: Anderson, Atchison, Brown, Butler, Clay, Doniphan, Douglas, Grant, Greenwood, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Linn, Marion, Marshall, Washington, and Wilson.[3] Ten now-defunct Kansas counties were also named for slaveowners or prominent Southerners: Breckenridge, Calhoun, Davis, Dorn, Hunter, Lykins, Madison, McGee, Richardson, and Wise. This latter group includes President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis, Confederate Secretary of State Robert M. T. Hunter, Confederate Secretary of War and Major General John C. Breckinridge, and Virginia Governor and later Confederate Brigadier General Henry Wise.[4]

How did this memorialization occur, especially considering Kansas’s reputation as a free state?

Twelve of the eighteen counties, as well as all ten defunct counties, were named by the First Territorial Legislature in 1855. This so-called “Bogus Legislature” was created after thousands of Missourians illegally voted in the 1854 election, skewing the results in favor of those who supported slavery. Not surprisingly, these pro-slavery men decided to name newly formed counties after prominent Southerners. Two of the most vociferous backers of slavery to receive namesake counties were Mississippi Senator Albert Brown and Missouri Senator David Atchison. Brown’s desire to spread slavery didn’t stop with Kansas. He argued for extending slavery to Central America as well, stating, “I would spread the blessings of slavery, like the religion of our Divine Master, to the uttermost ends of the earth.”[5] David Atchison played a prominent role in efforts to make Kansas a slave state. In 1856, he led an attack on Lawrence, in which he called on his companions “never to slacken or stop until every spark of free-state, free-speech, free-n******, or free in any shape is quenched out of Kansaz [sic]!”

In the years after 1855, as free state forces gained control of the territorial and then state legislature, they “inaugurated the work of effacing the names of traitors from the map of Kansas.” By the end of the Civil War in 1865, the number of counties bearing the names of prominent Southerners had been whittled down to 17. Davis County, named after Jefferson Davis, was the last to be renamed. In 1889, the Kansas legislature passed House Bill 678, changing Davis County to Geary County in honor of John W. Geary, Union Major General and third Governor of Kansas Territory. Most Kansans approved of this change. The Sabetha Herald called the move “a triumph of justice” and the Holton Recorder declared it “a shame that the stigma was not removed years ago.” However, some local residents were not as fond of the name change. In 1890, they unsuccessfully lobbied to have the name changed back to Davis, this time in honor of Judge David Davis of Illinois.[6]

Although 18 Kansas counties continue to be named after slaveowners, prominent Southerners, or Southern sympathizers, they are outnumbered by the approximately 37 counties named after Union officers and soldiers, many of whom died in combat during the Civil War. These include Stafford County, named for Captain Lewis Stafford of the 1^st Kansas Infantry, Russell County, named for Captain Avra Russell of the 2^nd Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, and Trego County, named after Captain Edgar Trego of the 8^th Kansas Volunteer Infantry. 

Sources:

[1] “Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 1, 2019, https://www.splcenter.org/20190201/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy (accessed August 4, 2020).

[2] In 2016, the City of Wichita replaced the Confederate flag with the Reconciliation Memorial, an obelisk honoring all Union and Confederate veterans of “the War Between the States.” As of June 2020, there had been no official action to remove the marker. The Southern Poverty Law Center does not currently include the obelisk in its list of public symbols of the Confederacy. Nadya Faulx, “As Confederate Monuments Come Down Across U.S., Wichita Memorial Comes into Question,” KMUW, June 25, 2020, https://www.kmuw.org/post/confederate-monuments-come-down-across-us-wichita-memorial-comes-question (accessed August 4, 2020).

[3] Perhaps no other man worked harder to defeat the institution of slavery and protect the rights of African Americans than Ulysses S. Grant. Grant did however, briefly own a slave prior to the Civil War and is therefore included in this list. Nick Sacco, “The Mystery of William Jones, an Enslaved man Owned by Ulysses S. Grant,” Journal of the Civil War Era, December 7, 2018, https://www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2018/12/the-mystery-of-william-jones-an-enslaved-man-owned-by-ulysses-s-grant/ (accessed June 26, 2020).

[4] Earl Van Dorn was a major general in the Confederate States Army. It is unclear whether now defunct Dorn County was named after him or Andrew Jackson Dorn, who served as a colonel in the CSA. Most likely, Calhoun County was named for slave-owning Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. It may also have been named for the first Surveyor General of Kansas John Calhoun.

[5] Tony Horwitz, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2011), 38.

[6] Sol Miller, Kansas Chief (Troy), February 28, 1889, 2; “Geary County,” Kansas City Daily Gazette, February 28, 1889, 2; Flora P. Hogbin, Sabetha Herald, March 7, 1889, 4; M. M. Beck, Holton Recorder, March 7, 1889; 1; “Good Suggestions,” Junction City Tribune, January 9, 1890, 3.

By: Lauren Gray, Head of Reference

Humor is universal, yet constantly evolving – from the well-honed satire of Jonathan Swift to the sprightly dancing sausage of Snapchat, every generation embraces its own unique comedic language. Cartoons and poppets, witty one-liners and knock-down slap-stick, these are the building blocks of humor, the grammar of our shared understanding. Humor helps us communicate; it also acts as a balm in times of uncertainty.

In the spirit of these extraordinary and trying times, we combed through our digital archive to find the funniest, the most absurd, and the most surreal images our side of the rainbow. We’ve compiled pieces from our collections that help us crack a smile. Some of the images below are surprisingly modern in their approach – you might recognize people behaving similarly today; as for some of the others, well…we won’t ask too many questions (that Chewbacca doll might haunt us, though).

Social distancing obviously wasn’t on Captain Hughes’ mind in this photograph, but they sure knew how to dress for a party!

Missing fast food while you’re stuck in lockdown? You probably don’t want these chickens on the menu:

William Mitchell clearly had a lot of time on his hands when he doodled this map of Kansas. Also, grasshoppers have beards?

Chewbacca has obviously been doing his own at-home haircuts.

Abraham “Bullet Hole” Ellis – extra on The Walking Dead or Territorial Representative? You decide…

 Mr. G. Hopper looks like he’s dragging himself out of his own lockdown in this cartoon. (We can only hope we look slightly better.)

Click on each image to learn more about its *actual* historical context. Also, give us your best one-liners or captions in the comments below!