Civil War newspapers
You can now search (for free) a few Civil War-era Kansas newspapers online at the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America website, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. The Kansas Historical Society digitized...
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Finding the Leavenworth Constitution
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...
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Longren aviation photographs
On September 2, 1911, A. K. Longren successfully flew an airplane in a field southeast of Topeka, Kansas. Longren built the aircraft himself in Topeka making him the first person to manufacture within...
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Kansas Suffrage Reveille
The Kansas Equal Suffrage Association (KESA) helped win voting rights for women in Kansas municipal elections in 1887 and an equal suffrage amendment to the state constitution in 1912, making Kansas...
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Dust Storm Scrapbook
The magnitude of the dust storms sweeping across southwest Kansas in the mid 1930s was truely unbelievable. In Ness City, Kansas, in 1935, Lillian Foster wrote: "The idea of a dust scrap book occurred...
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The B-B-Blizzard
The B-B-Blizzard, a single-issue newspaper out of Kinsley, Kansas, was a collaborative effort of stranded train passengers caught in a blizzard in January 1886. Editor F. Weber Benton, with the help of...
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The Kansas State Journal
The year 1861 was an eventful time for the state of Kansas and the nation. The April 18th issue of the Kansas State Journal proclaimed the start of the Civil War, and at that time, Kansas had been a...
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Smith Automobile Company
One day in October of 1908, Dr. L. Anton Smith was discussing matters automotive with his friends at the Denver Auto Club in Denver, Colorado. They were debating whether an ascent of Pike’s Peak was...
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Spirit of Washington film
Washington Elementary School was one of four Black elementary schools in Topeka, Kansas, prior to the U. S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. The Board of Education (1954) that called for the...
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Over There: World War I Soldiers' Letters
A number of World War I Kansas soldiers' letters and photographs have recently been added to Kansas Memory. The letters were from returning veterans (primarily members of the 35th and 89th Infantry...
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Tuttle Creek Story film
The people of the Blue River Valley in Kansas produced this short film as part of their campaign against the construction of the Tuttle Creek dam on the Big Blue River in the Flint Hills of Northeast...
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Over There: World War I Soldiers' Letters
A number of World War I Kansas soldiers' letters and photographs have recently been added to Kansas Memory. The letters are from returning veterans (primarily members of the 35th and 89th Infantry...
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Kansas Woodstock?
When 10,000 or more youth converged on a farmer’s field in southeast Kansas in 1970, they came to enjoy live rock music and protest the ongoing war in Vietnam. The three-day event near Pittsburg,...
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Kansas Tornado Footage
Three silent films showing footage of the June 8, 1966 tornado in Topeka, Kansas, and its aftermath are now available on Kansas Memory. The storm cut a swath of ruin through the capital city,...
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Kaw Valley Flood film
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...
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Topeka is a People Place film
When a talking Mynah bird escapes from a local pet shop in Topeka, Kansas, an otherwise beautiful day in Midway USA goes topsy-turvy as a young truant defies his school and his parents to search for...
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Decoration Day Newspapers
Memorial Day, previously referred to as Decoration Day, is a federal holiday that has been observed on the last Monday of May each year since 1868 in remembrance of those who have died in military...
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Bill Nye
No, not "the Science Guy." Born Edgar Wilson Nye in 1850, he used the pseudonym "Bill Nye" long before the Bill Nye we know today (YouTube). Edgar Wilson Nye was a well-known American journalist and...
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Iron Shirt
In 2007, a small photo (a carte-de-visite) of a Cheyenne chief named Iron Shirt was donated to the Kansas Historical Society as part of a collection of photos and documents belonging to Colonel John...
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Sheldon Edition, The Topeka Daily Capital
If Jesus were publisher and editor of a daily, twentieth-century newspaper, what would that paper look like? In March of 1900 in Topeka, Kansas, congregational minister Charles Sheldon decided to find...
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