Kansas 150 SLK

Kansas Music and Musicians

2011-06-21T06:24:00.001-07:00

The Plains are alive with the sounds of music!

From opera houses to opry houses Kansans have graced the world with music covering a large swath of styles and genres.

Below are links to resources on Kansas born and/or bred musicians as well as music festivals, concerts and events held in the Sunflower State. Keep in mind that this list barely scratches the surface

GENERAL RESOURCES

Kansas Folk Music and Dance Resource Center
http://www.kansasfolk.org/

Kansas Music Educators Association
http://www.ksmea.org/home/index.php

Kansas Music Hall of Fame
http://www.ksmusichalloffame.org/

Kansas State Picking and Fiddling Championship
http://www.kansasfiddlingandpicking.org/

Messiah Festival of Music & Art (Lindsborg, Kansas)
http://www.bethanylb.edu/messiahfestivalofthearts.html

Arts and Entertainment, Topeka
http://cjonline.com/life/arts-entertainment
(provided by the Topeka Capital Journal)

Country Stampede
http://www.countrystampede.com/
(Country music concert held at Manhattan, Kansas, each summer)

Sunflower Music Festival
http://www.sunflowermusicfestival.org/
("The Sunflower Music Festival presents an annual series of orchestra concerts, chamber music evenings, educational projects and other artistic events of the highest level. These events occur throughout a two week period each June in White Concert Hall on the Washburn University campus")

The Winfield Music Home Page
http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott/music/
(Winfield is famous for its Blue Grass Festival)

Walnut Valley Music Festival (Winfield, Kansas)
http://wvfest.com/
Some Kansas bands and singers listed on the site (check under performers): Last Kansas Exit, Spontaneous Combustion, The Plaid Family, Bluegrass Country Boys, Prairie Rose Wranglers, Connie Dover, Live Bait with Mackie Redd,

"They're Playing Our Song: Community Bands in Kansas"
http://www.kshs.org/p/online-exhibits-they-re-playing-our-song-introduction/10555
(A great online exhibit provided by the Kansas State Historical Society of the various bands that have entertained Kansans through the years)
The Society also has a transcription of an article online, "The First Kansas Band" at:
http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly-the-first-kansas-band/12683

MUSICIANS, BANDS, CHORUSES, ETC.

Ann Zimmerman (guitarist, singer and composer)
http://www.annzimmerman.com/

Arnold Moore (blues singer - 1914-2004)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Moore

Brian Lewis (violinist)
http://www.music.utexas.edu/directory/details.aspx?id=147

Byron Berline (fiddler - born in Wichita, Kansas)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Berline

Buck Clayton (jazz musician - 1911-1991)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Clayton

Carson J. Robison (cowboy musician - 1890-1959)
http://www.kansasfolk.org/stories/sp00307.htm
http://library.pittstate.edu/spcoll/ndxrobison.html

Charles L. Johnson (composer of ragtime and popular music - 1876-1950)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_L._Johnson

Charlie Parker (jazz musician and composer - 1920-1955)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Parker
http://www.kshs.org/portraits/parker_charlie.htm

Chely Wright (country music)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chely_Wright
http://chely.com/

Chester Allen Thomas (jazz musician - born: 1957)
http://www.smooth-jazz.de/Artists4/Thomas.htm

Chuck Mead (country music, member of BR5-49 band)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BR549
http://www.lawrence.com/news/2004/jun/15/chuck_mead/

Coleman Hawkins (jazz musician - 1904-1969)
http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/coleman-hawkins/12083
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_Hawkins

Dodge City Cowboy Band
http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/dodge-city-cow-boy-band/12037
http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly-the-dodge-city-cowboy-band/13097

Eva Jessye (choral conductor/director - 1895-1992)
http://library.pittstate.edu/spcoll/ndxjessye.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Jessye

Freedy Johnston (singer and song writer)
http://www.freedyjohnston.com/

Gail Kubik (1914-1984)
http://www.nhptv.org/kn/itv/mcd/kubik.htm

Howard Haskin (operatic tenor)
http://www.howardhaskin.com/

James A. King (operatic tenor - born: 1925)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_King_%28tenor%29

Janelle Monáe (indie pop and soul singer, songwriter)
http://www.jmonae.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janelle_Mon%C3%A1e

Jennifer Knapp (Christian Folk-Rock musician - born: 1980)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Knapp
http://www.jenniferknapp.com/

Joe Walsh (guitarist and rock musician - 1947- )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Walsh

John Joseph (J.J.) Richards (band music)
http://www.marineband.usmc.mil/learning_tools/hall_of_composers/richards.htm

Judy Coder (Western/Cowgirl musician)
http://www.judycoder.com/

Kansas (rock band with members from Kansas)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_%28band%29
Band member: Kerry Livgren
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Livgren
(Other bands which came out of this group, Kansas II and Proto-Kaw are mentioned in this article too)
Article on Kansas from Kansas 150 SLK blog
http://kansas150slk.blogspot.com/2010/05/rock-band-kansas.html

Karen Mueller (autoharpist)
http://www.karenmueller.com/
http://www.karenmueller.com/showrelease.html?id=6

Kaw Valley Shape Note Singing Association
http://www.kawshapenote.org/
("Shape note singing is a very community-oriented, inclusive form of singing. No experience is necessary, and we charge no admission fee or dues. While most of the tunes in the book we sing from ...which dates back to the 1840's... are hymns and anthems, we are a cultural, not religion-based organization.")

Kelley Hunt (singer and song writer)
http://www.kelleyhunt.com/biography.html

Kelly Wertz (folk musician)
http://www.wertsmusic.com/

Louis T. "Moondog" Hardin (musician and beat poet - 1916-1999)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moondog

Mark Schultz (contemporary Christian musician)
http://markschultzmusic.com/home/

Marshall's Civic Band (Topeka, Kansas)
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/mcb/

Martina McBride (country musician - born: 1966)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martina_McBride

Melissa Etheridge (singer - born 1961)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Etheridge
http://www.melissaetheridge.com/

Central States District Men's Barbershop Choruses
https://www.centralstatesdistrict.com/district_choruses.html
---Orphans (1954 SPEBSQSA Quartet Champions)

Merle Evans (Ringling Bros. Circus band leader/composer - 1892-1987)
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/cherokee/library2/biography/MEvans.html

Ottawa Suzuki Strings
http://www.ottawasuzukistrings.org/

Pleasant Valley Gang
http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/pleasant-valley-gang/12171

Queen Bey (jazz musician)
http://www.queenbey.com/

Samuel Ramey (opera singer - born: 1942)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Ramey

Stan Kenton (jazz pianist, and bandleader - 1911-1979)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Kenton

Sweet Adelines Midwest Plains, Region 7 (Women's Barbershop)
http://www.sweetadelinesregion7.com/
---Zing! (2010 International Sweet Adelines Quartet Champions)
---Classic Edition (1998 Sweet Adelines International Quartet Champions)
---Shondells (1977 Sweet Adelines International Quartet Champions)

Thurlow Lieurance (1978-1963)
http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/thurlow-lieurance/12131

Topeka Festival Singers
http://topekafestivalsingers.org/main/

OTHER PLACES TO LOOK: Kansas State Historical Society web site
http://www.kshs.org
(Try searches in the search box at the top of the page for terms like: musicians and music)

If you have correction, additions or comments contact Bill Sowers at the State Library of Kansas
ksdocs@kslib.info

Mary White

2011-05-16T06:36:00.000-07:00

She died on Friday the thirteenth. This year, May 13 again fell on a Friday. 90 years later, in the midst of our state’s sesquicentennial celebration, the death—and life—of this Kansas girl are still remarkable.

Mary White did not lead the life of a typical Kansas girl, but she embodied the spirit of her state—fierce in the defense of individual freedoms, full of wild beauty, alternately sunny or stormy but wide-ranging and free. She died engaged in one of her favorite activities and lived as much for others as for herself.

Perhaps it was both these things which allowed her father, world-renown journalist and author William Allen White, to gracefully release his daughter on that May day in 1921 and to write an enduring editorial celebrating her life a few days later.

Mary lived on horseback. Her brother once teased their mother that she would someday be the grandmother of a horse. The afternoon of her death found Mary on her usual ride headed out into what her father later called, “…the radiant green fields of the spring”. Her accident, occurring while she turned to wave at a friend, stood in stark contrast to the prairie town in bloom around it. Kansas springs still are marred by the arbitrary deaths of its children experiencing the freedom of youth. Like a sprig of lilac or the catalpa trees her father celebrated later that May in his newspaper, a young life is sometimes sheared—but its bloom can be preserved.

Mary’s bloom has been preserved in her father’s editorial of May 17, 1921. He fondly remembered her love of practical jokes, her friendly nature, and her growing awareness of injustices in her hometown. She read books intended for those well above her sixteen years and her thoughts equaled and were inspired by them. Is it any wonder that, in a 1914 letter to the editor of the New York Tribune, author and family friend Edna Ferber proposed Mary as a future presidential candidate?

Mary would have brought honor to our state, as did her father and her brother, had she lived beyond the accident on that Friday the thirteenth May afternoon. Instead, her death comforts others in their loss and the life she did live epitomized the spirit of Kansas. It’s good to remember her among other hardy Kansans of our past as our state turns 150.

Read her father’s editorial here: http://www.journalism.ku.edu/school/waw/writings/waw/newspaper/editorials/marywhite.html

Article by Beverley Buller

ADDITIONAL LINKS

William Allen White House (Emporia)
http://www.kshs.org/portal_william_allen_white
("Visit the showplace home of William Allen White, nationally known newspaperman and author. From the 1890s through World War II White influenced state and national politics through his writings from the heartland town of Emporia")

William Allen White Emporia Gazette and Museum
http://www.kansastravel.org/emporiagazette.htm

Mary White of Kansas: Emporia's Immortal Peter Pan
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49926591234
(Facebook fan page for Mary White)

William Allen White, Emporiahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
http://www.kansassampler.org/8wonders/people.php?id=20
(Kansas Sampler Foundation)

Mary White
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076371/
(Information on the 1977 TV movie about Mary)

MATERIAL LISTED IN THE ATLAS CATALOG
White Mary 1904 1921
White, William Allen, 1868-1944

Santa Fe Trail

2011-04-27T13:30:00.001-07:00

Stretching from northeast Kansas to the southwest corner of the state the Santa Fe Trail traversed much of the Kansas landscape. From the rolling wooded hills around what is now Kansas City it moved southwest through prairie grasslands into the arid High Plains where its different branches crossed over into Colorado or Oklahoma taking travellers to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Opened in the early 1820s by the "Father of the Santa Fe Trail," William Becknell, the Trail played a vital role in developing and settling areas through which it passed. Forts, trading points and small settlements grew up along the route providing stopping places and protection for commerce and settlers moving from the eastern United States into what would eventually become the Southwest. Textiles and hardware were traded west. Silver and mules were traded east.

As use of the Trail increased so did conflicts along its routes. Native Americans, merchants, settlers and Mexican, American and Republic of Texas troops fought along the trail or used it as a means of invasion or defense. Forts were established and troops patrolled to keep the peace.

Use of the Santa Fe Trail dwindled with arrival of the first railroad in Santa Fe in 1880 only to be revived in a way by the advent of the motor vehicle traffic on highways laid out on paths similar to the old Santa Fe Trail through the region.

Today the US National Parks Service oversees the Santa Fe National Historic Trail providing a system of road signs directing travelers to significant locations along the way including sites where they can view wagon ruts still imprinted on the land.

Below are some links to information on the Santa Fe Trail with an emphasis on Kansas.

GENERAL RESOURCES

Santa Fe National Historic Trail
http://www.nps.gov/safe/index.htm
(National Park Service website)

Santa Fe Trail
http://www.rmpbs.org/byways/sft_healing.html
(America's Byways)

KANSAS SITES

Santa Fe Trail Center
http://www.santafetrailcenter.org/index.php
(An American Association of Museums accredited institution located in Larned, Kansas, operated by the Fort Larned Historical Society)

Santa Fe Trail Association
http://www.santafetrail.org/
(The Santa Fe Trail Association is composed of people who are bound together by an interest in the fascinating saga of the Trail, and an interest in preserving its many physical traces and landmarks that still exist upon the face of the American West)

Santa Fe Trail Research Site
http://www.santafetrailresearch.com/
(Developed and maintained by Larry & Carolyn, St. John Kansas)

Interactive Santa Fe Trail
http://www.kansasheritage.org/research/sft/
(A Kansas Heritage site)

The Santa Fe Trail Lives On
http://www.santafetrailks.com/

SANTA FE TRAIL IN OTHER STATES

Santa Fe Trail in Colorado
http://www.santafetrailscenicandhistoricbyway.org/

Santa Fe Trail in Missouri
http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/presentations/default.asp?ap=sanfetrl
(52 minute long video provided at the Missouri Secretary of State's website)

Santa Fe Trail in New Mexico
http://www.santafetrailnm.org/

Santa Fe Trail in Oklahoma
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/S/SA020.html
(A short bit of history on the Trail in the Oklahoma Panhandle)

BOOKS, ETC.
Santa Fe National Historic Trail Google Books Search
Santa Fe National Historic Trail ATLAS Search
Santa Fe Trail Bibliography (Kansas State Historical Soc.)

2011-03-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

KANSAS TREES

Dear cottonwood, so lovely then,
How wide and tall it grew.
What joy to those long absent when
Its top first came to view!
A sentinel it seemed to be
That stood majestic there,
And guarded those who dwelt within
That dear old home so fair.
--Ed Blair -- "The Planting of the Cottonwood Tree"
(From Poetry of Kansas)

Stereotypically Kansas is often seen in literature and on film as flat and barren or a large wheat field stretching from one end to the other. But much like Brooklyn a tree does grow in Kansas! Actually many trees grow in the Sunflower State providing shelter, shade, commerce, beauty, protection and a home to humans and animals.

Below are links to some information on trees in our state... historical, cultural, commercial and societal resources.

Kansas Forest Service
("Care of natural resources and service to people through forestry")
Site Map/Website Directory
Order Conservation Seedlings
Community Forestry
Rural Forestry
Riparian Forestry
Wood Energy Initiative
Arbor Day
Champion Trees of Kansas

Woody Plants in Kansas
http://www.gpnc.org/woody.htm
(Great Plains Nature Center)

Kansas Trees and Shrubs
http://www.kswildflower.org/tree_index.php
(Kansas Wildflowers & Grasses website)

KANSAS RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
(Publications issued by Kansas Research and Extension at Kansas State University)
Champion Trees of Kansas
Fertilizing Trees in the Landscape
Handling and Planting Container-Grown Trees
Native Kansas Forest Trees
Selecting and Planting a Tree
Shade and Ornamental Trees for Kansas
Staking and Guying Landscape Trees
Street Trees for Kansas
Tree Diseases in Kansas
Tree Squirrels: Urban Wildlife Damage Control
Trees and Shrubs for Difficult Sites
Trees and Shrubs That Attract Songbirds and Wildlife
Watering Newly Planted and Young Trees and Shrubs

Kansas Memory--Trees
http://www.kansasmemory.org/category/708

Kansas Christmas Tree Growers Association
http://www.kctga.com/

Christmas Tree Recycling
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/solw2/ep1.pdf

The Aluminum Christmas Tree
http://www.kshs.org/p/cool-things-aluminum-christmas-tree/10148

THE COTTONWOOD
(Kansas designated the Eastern Cottonwood as the official state tree in 1937. The cottonwood tree are deciduous trees which are distinguished by thick, deeply fissured bark and triangular to diamond-shaped leaves. The Eastern Cottonwood is also the state tree of Nebraska. Wyoming has the Plains Cottonwood as its state tree)

Adoption of the Kansas State Tree
http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/trees/ks_cottonwood.htm

Cottonwood Trees: Facts and Information
http://www.cheyennecity.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1150
(From City of Cheyenne, Wyoming)

Cottonwood Tree Coloring Page
http://www.nebraskahistory.org/oversite/kidstuff/cottonwd.htm
(The cottonwood is also the Nebraska state tree. A page for children and others who enjoy coloring in between the lines!)

Cottonwood Trees in Kansas
http://ravenstonepress.com/cottonwd.html
(From Ravenstone Press)

ATLAS TOPEKA LIBRARIES CATALOG
(Library resources from online catalog of the State Library, Kansas Historical Society, Supreme Court Law Library and Washburn University Libraries)
Trees
Trees--Kansas
Cottonwood--Kansas
Tree planting -- Kansas
Trees, Care of -- Kansas
Ornamental trees -- Kansas
Bird attracting -- Kansas
Forests and forestry -- Kansas
Kansas -- Forestry Management
Kansas Forest Service
Windbreaks, shelterbelts, etc. -- Kansas

John R. Brinkley

2011-03-03T07:46:00.001-08:00

Dr. John R. Brinkley.
July 6, 1885 – May 26, 1942.

Dr. John R. (Richard) Brinkley was one of the greatest hucksters who ever lived in the United States. He started out as a poor boy from the South, and grew to be worth millions of dollars by the mid 1930’s. He was known as the “Goat Gland Doctor” for his famous operation, which he claimed would rejuvenate older men, and in fact claimed that some of his patients had later sired children. He built

hospitals in Milford, Kansas (1st), Little Rock, Arkansas, and Del Rio, Texas. He pioneered the use of radio in the early 1920s through the 1930s. He was the first broadcaster to build “super” radio stations, which could reach radio audiences throughout the country.

He sold patented medicines, published promotional pamphlets, advertised his hospitals, and had famous country and westerns stars entertain his audiences via his radio station. Over a period of time he owned three yachts, and even hobnobbed with the Duke of Duchess of Windsor at Nassau in the 1930s. He had a political career and almost became the governor of Kansas, much to the horror of men such as William Allen White.

Brinkley’s greatest medical nemesis was Dr. Morris Fishbein of the American Medical Association. In 1938 Dr. Fishbein published an article wherein he called Dr. Brinkley a charlatan. Dr. Brinkley sued in Texas, and lost. By this time the good doctor was in trouble with the IRS for millions in back taxes..

Brinkley declared bankruptcy in 1941. He died of heart problems in 1942 and was survived by his second wife and his son known as Johnny Boy. Today you can still see his fabulous mansion in Del Rio, a Texas historical landmark. To read more about this fascinating Kansas character see the bibliography below, or follow the links to learn more about him, and to see many pictures.

Campaign paperweight from when Dr. Brinkley ran for Governor Of Kansas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brinkley, J.R. The Brinkley Operation. Chicago. Sydney B. Flower, 1922.

Brinkley, John R. Dr. Brinkley’s doctor book. Del Rio, Texas, 1936.

Brinkley, John R. Road Courageous: being a compilation of radio talk given over radio station XERA during the full and Winter months of 1937 and 1938. Printed by John R. Brinkley, 1938.

Brock, Pope. Charlatan: America’s most dangerous huckster, the man who pursued him, and the age of flimflam. New York. Crown, 2008.

Carson, Gerald. The Roguish world of Doctor Brinkley. New York. Rinehart & Co., 1960.

Lee, R. Alton. The Bizarre careers of John R. Brinkley. University Press of Kentucky, 2002

Wood, Clement. The Life of a man. Kansas City, Goshorn Publishing Co., 1934.

INTERNET RESOURCES

Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Brinkley

Quackwatch entry for The Goat Gland Doctor: the Story of John R. Brinkley.
http://www.quackwatch.com/11Ind/brinkley.html

Border Radio Quackery – go here, and you can hear Dr. Brinkley.
http://wfmu.org/LCD/GreatDJ/Brinkley.html

Kansapedia entry for John R. Brinkley.
http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/john-r-brinkley/11988

Information on Brinkley Papers – KSHS.
http://www.kshs.org/p/john-r-brinkley-papers/13988

Kansas Memory entries for John R. Brinkley.
http://www.kansasmemory.org/locate.php?query=john+r.+brinkley

A Humorous graphic novel view of Dr. Brinkley
http://www.matthewmusial.com/brnkpgs/brnkpgs.htm

Article by: Tom Roth, State Library of Kansas
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

The Wheat State

2011-02-17T12:40:00.000-08:00

"As I sat on a Kansas hilltop,
While, far away from my feet,
Rippled the lights and shadows
Dancing across acres of wheat,

The sound of the grain as it murmured
Wrought a wonder with me.
It turned from the voice of the Prairie
Into the roar of the sea.

And I saw not the running wind-waves,
But an ocean that washed below
In ridging and crumbling breakers
And ceaseless motion and flow..."

("A Wheat-Field Fantasy", by Harry Kemp. Poetry of Kansas)

Kansas is known around the world as both The Sunflower State and The Wheat State. The nicknames denote two different aspects of our state. The wild, tenacious sunflower signifies the stubborn spirit of Kansans. Through storm, drought, fire and famine we have struggled up through the hard times and bloomed, our gaze always on sun, that bright star pointing the way to a new dawn.

Wheat symbolizes the outcome of that struggle... A harvest of plenty amidst the once supposed "Great American Desert." It is that stubborn spirit of the Kansas sunflower come to fruition in fields of waving grain spreading across rolling hills as far as the eye can see. Wheat is a survivor, often flourishing in the harsher climate of the prairie better than other crops. It is an "immigrant," originally brought to Kansas by hard working folk intent on creating a place where they could be free to live and experience life according their own beliefs.

So how important is wheat in the 21st century to Kansas? From the Kansas Dept. of Agriculture: "On average, Kansas produces more wheat than any other state. Nearly one-fifth of all wheat grown in the United States is grown in Kansas. And, Kansas ranks first in the nation in flour milling, wheat gluten production and wheat stored. Roughly one-third of Kansas' 63,000 farmers grow wheat. Normally, Kansas farmers produce about 400 million bushels of wheat a year, with a production value that hovers around $1 billion."

Kansas wheat... It's is a vital part of our economy, culture and history. Below are links to information on Kansas wheat provided by various online resources.

Kansas Wheat Commission
http://www.kswheat.com/
(The Kansas Wheat Commission is a grower-funded, grower-governed wheat products advocacy organization)
Their site includes:
--Annual Recipe Book
--Bake and Take Month
--Baking Laboratories
--Educational Materials
--Just For Kids
--Kansas Bakeries Directory
--Kansas Wheat Blog
--Kansas Wheat Products
--News
--Nutrition
--Online Videos
--Recipes
--Straw Artists
--Wheat Facts
--Wheat Fun
--Wheat Mania: All About Wheat

Wheat Page
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/wheatpage/
(Kansas State University Research and Extension)

Wheat People: Celebrating Kansas Harvest
http://www.kshs.org/exhibits/wheat/wheat.htm
(An online exhibit provided by the Kansas State Historical Society)

Kansas Memory: Wheat
http://www.kansasmemory.org/category/14
(Digitized primary sources provided by the Kansas State Historical Society)

Kansas Wheat History
http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Kansas/Publications/Crops/whthist.pdf (2009 publication by Kansas Agricultural Statistics cooperating with the Kansas Dept. of Agriculture)

Winter Wheat in the Golden Belt of Kansas
http://www.skyways.org/orgs/fordco/malin/
(A transcription of a 1944 history of wheat in Kansas agriculture written by James C. Malin)

Wheat Varieties
http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Kansas/Publications/Crops/Whtvar/index.asp
(Information from the National Agricultural Statistics Service)

KU Waving Wheat
http://www.ku.edu/about/traditions/wheat.shtml
(OK, OK... Apologies to Wildcats, Hornets, Shockers, Tigers and others.... But we can't leave out the University of Kansas' famous "Wave the Wheat" tradition. And for those of us who are "cheer challenged" there's actually a video on how to do it just right!)

Kansas Wheat (FaceBook)
http://www.facebook.com/kansaswheat
(A FaceBook page that promotes wheat growing and growers in the Sunflower State)

The World in 1861

2011-01-25T18:34:00.000-08:00

AROUND THE WORLD IN 1861

In a few days we'll be celebrating the 150th anniversary of Kansas statehood. Most Americans are aware of the fact that Kansas entered the Union a few months before the official beginning of the American Civil War. Statehood came on January 29th, 1861 and shots were fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12th starting up four years of confrontation between North and South.

This article takes a look at what was going on in the rest of the world during that first year of Kansas statehood. We'll step out of the "Kansas Box" and see what other people around the globe were doing. Wars, natural disasters, discoveries, literature, music and dress... it's interesting to place ourselves in the context of Kansas within the activities of the bigger picture.

Imagine Kansans not just as a people struggling to survive their first year of statehood dealing with a Civil War that would spill into their lives again and again but also as human beings who will also feel the ripples of other lives far away... sometimes faintly, sometimes powerfully.

The Great Comet of 1861
http://cometography.com/lcomets/1861j1.html
http://www.phenomena.org.uk/Cometof1861.htm
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=1861J1;orb=1
(formally designated C/1861 J1 and 1861 II, was a comet that was visible to the naked eye for approximately 3 months. It was categorized as a Great Comet, one of eight in the 19th Century)

Discovery of Thallium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thallium
(Discovered independently by William Crookes and Claude-Auguste Lamy, thallium production is used in the electronics industry, and the rest is used in the pharmaceutical industry and in glass manufacturing. It is also used in infrared detectors)

Italian Unification, or Risorgimento (Europe)
http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/italian_unification_risorgimento_map.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Gaeta_%281860%29
http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Victor_Emmanuel_II_of_Italy
(Throughout the 19th Century up until about 1871 the Italian Peninsula went through wars, insurrections and revolutions in slowly creating a united Italian state. Several incidents played out in 1861, among them the Siege of Gaeta, the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy and crowning of Victor Emmanual II as its first king)

End of First Taranaki War (New Zealand)
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Cow01NewZ-c18.html
(An armed conflict over land ownership and sovereignty that took place between Maori and the New Zealand Government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand's North Island from March 1860 to March 1861)

Abolition of Serfdom in Russia (Europe)
http://academic.shu.edu/russianhistory/index.php/Alexander_II,_Emancipation_Manifesto,_1861
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_reform_of_1861
(The 1861 Emancipation Manifesto, signed by Alexander II of Russia, proclaimed the emancipation of the serfs on private estates and of the domestic (household) serfs. By this edict more than twenty-three million people received their liberty. Serfs were granted the full rights of free citizens, gaining the rights to marry without having to gain consent, to own property and to own a business)

Conquest of the Bamana Empire (Africa)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamana_Empire
(The West African empire existed as a centralized state from 1712 to the 1861 invasion of Toucouleur conqueror El Hadj Umar Tall)

Earthquake Hits Mendoza, Argentina (South America)
http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/35760
http://www.pbase.com/mr2c280/image/15979354
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rolandkrebs/5321294784/
(An earthquake of 7.2 magnitude. Approximately six to eight thousand people lost their lives in this city of 18,000)

The Melbourne Cup's First Race (Australia)
http://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/melbournecup
(The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major thoroughbred horse race. Billed as "The Race That Stops a Nation," it is a race for three-year-olds and over, over a distance of 3,200 metres)

The Battle of Shanghai (China)
http://www.museumstuff.com/learn/topics/Battle_of_Shanghai_%281861%29
http://www.taipingrebellion.com/
(The 1861 Battle of Shanghai was one of many confrontations of the Taiping Rebellion which was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864. About 20 million people died during this war, mainly civilians, in one of the deadliest military conflicts in history)

Lambing Flat Riots (Australia)
http://about.nsw.gov.au/encyclopedia/article/lambing-flat-riots-14-july/
(A gold rush and immigration of Chinese workers caused several conflicts, chief among them an attack on Chinese workers in 1861)

Colombian Civil War, 1860-1862 (South America)
http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Colombian_Civil_War_%281860%E2%80%931862%29
(The United States was not the only country engaged in a civil war during the 1860s)

Battle of Ky Hoa Forts (IndoChina)
http://www.historynet.com/1861-french-conquest-of-saigon-battle-of-the-ky-hoa-forts.htm
(Another war in Vietnam in a different century)

Life in 1861 (Australia)
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/outbackhouse/history/
(An excellent look at life down under in 1861)

LITERATURE and MUSIC
(Titles published, composed or written in 1861)

"Abide With Me" (hymn)
Text written in 1847 by Henry Francis Lyte, and the music composed in 1861 by William Henry Monk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abide_with_Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw5TtwJFIKU

"Aura Lea," by W.W. Fosdick and George R. Poulton (song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvBAu0JO9G4

Silas Marner, by George Eliot (book)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silas_Marner

The Insulted and Humiliated, by Fyodor Dostoevsky (book)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humiliated_and_Insulted

Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens (book)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations

Orley Farm, by Anthony Trollope (book)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orley_Farm_%28novel%29

"Paul Revere's Ride," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (poem)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere%27s_Ride_%28poem%29

"Battle Hymn of the Republic" (poem/song)
http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/BattleHymnoftheRepublic.htm

The Tragedy of Man, by Imre Madách (play)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tragedy_of_Man

Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (book)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Beeton%27s_Book_of_Household_Management
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10136

"Washington Grays," by Claudio S. Grafulla (march)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Grays_%28march%29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHypd4cT0IY
(Also known as "Washington Greys")

Artworks for the year 1861
http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/list_single_year.php?y=1861
(provided by The Athenaeum)

Music of the American Civil War
http://www.pdmusic.org/civilwar.html

FASHION

Fashion Print Timeline, 1861-1865
http://www.victoriana.com/library/Timeline/1861.htm

Fashion 1861
http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/social-history/1861/fashion

CSA Fashion
http://www.angelpig.org/csa_fashion.html

Kentucky Library & Museum
http://www.wku.edu/library/kylm/collections/online/fashion/fashionplates/index.html

1860s in Fashion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860s_in_fashion

GENERAL ONLINE RESOURCES ON 1861

The Year in Review: 1861
http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/almanac/1861
(The House Divided Project at Dickinson College aims to create resources for teachers and students that will help bring alive and explain the turbulent Civil War era in American history)

The Year 1861
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1861
(Wikipedia)

The Civil War Home Page
http://www.civil-war.net/

American Civil War Battles, 1861
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1861.htm

Harper's Weekly Original Civil War Newspapers
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/the-civil-war.htm

World Events By Year: 1861
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZX3yTogiwk
(Youtube video)

Article by: Bill Sowers
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

African Americans in Kansas

2011-01-12T12:08:00.001-08:00

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is fast approaching and beyond that is African American History Month in February. Interwoven into the fabric of Kansas history are the experiences of the many people of African descent who settled in the Sunflower State, some before statehood. There is a wealth of information on African American History in Kansas. Below is a sampling of resources particular to Kansas as well as general U.S. information.

KANSAS

KANSAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY

MUSEUM OF THE KANSAS NATIONAL GUARD
http://www.kansasguardmuseum.org/

BUFFALO SOLDIERS

NICODEMUS, KANSAS

BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
http://www.nps.gov/brvb/parknews/index.htm

Biographies of African Americans
held by the State Library of Kansas
http://sites.google.com/site/afambio/
(Resources that can be requested by contacting the Library)

African American Oral History Interviews
http://www.lawrence.lib.ks.us/oralhistory/
(Lawrence/Douglas County, Kansas)

Brown v. Board of Education (Kansas 150 SLK)
http://kansas150slk.blogspot.com/2010/07/brown-v-board-of-education.html
(An article appearing in a previous issue of this Blog, Kansas 150 SLK)

BlackPast.org: Kansas
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=tree/Kansas/Kansas

Quindaro, Kansas (Kansas City, Kansas)
http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/kscoll/lochist/quindaro/quindaro.htm

Western University (Quindaro)
http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/kscoll/lochist/quindaro/tour.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_University_(Kansas)

Territorial Kansas, 1854-1861
Subject Search for "African Americans"

Kansas Memory
Subject search for: "African Americans"

Kansas Industrial and Educational Institute (1895-1919)
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/kansas-industrial-and-educational-institute-1895-1919

Kansas African American Affairs Commission
http://www.kaaac.org/

Kansas African American Museum (Wichita)
http://www.tkaamuseum.org/index.html

The Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City
http://www.blackarchives.org/

African Americans in Kansas
http://www.kslib.info/sdc/documents/AAHM2010.pdf
(Current statistics from the Kansas State Data Center)

Langston Hughes Center for African American Studies
http://www2.ku.edu/~lhcaas/Home.html
(at the University of Kansas)

Spencer Museum of Art (University of Kansas)
African American History Month Exhibit

Standing Tall
http://www.wichita.lib.ks.us/Programs/StandingTall.htm
(Wichita Public Library celebrates African-American History Month)

SOME ONLINE ARTICLES

Exodus to Kansas
(National Archives)
"Wyandotte and the First 'Exodusters' of 1879," by Glen Schwendemann
(Transcribed article from the Kansas Historical Quarterly, Autumn, 1960 (Vol. 26, No. 3), pages 233 to 249, at the Kansas Collection website)

"Racial Uplift, Black Power, and Reparations on the Kansas Frontier," by Charlotte Hinger
(An Article that explores the concept of racial uplift, black electoral power and reparations for slavery in the ideals of three early citizens of Nicodemus)

The African American Religious Experience in Kansas
(by Amy Leigh Beecher, University of Kansas)

"This Is Not Dixie," by Brent M. S. Campney
(An article from Southern Spaces on the state of race relations in Kansas after the Civil War as former slaves settled in the state, comparing it to stereo-typical views of racism in the South)

GENERAL INFORMATION

Resources from the US National Archives Information Center
http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/black-history.html

Hot Topics: Black History Month
http://govdocs.evergreen.edu/hotopics/blackhistory.html
(Evergreen Government Documents and Maps Website)

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
African American History
http://free.ed.gov/subjects.cfm?subject_id=116
(Federal Resources for Educational Excellence)

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

U.S. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
African American History
http://www.nps.gov/history/aahistory/
(Visit sites around the country with a connection to African Americans and African American history)

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
African American History Resources
http://www.dol.gov/oasam/library/bib/african.htm

SEARCH THE ATLAS CATALOG
Search the resources of the State Library of Kansas, Kansas State Historical Society, Kansas Supreme Court and Washburn University Libraries:
AFRICAN AMERICANS--KANSAS
AFRICAN AMERICANS--EDUCATION--KANSAS
AFRICAN AMERICANS--COLONIZATION--KANSAS
KANSAS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE
KANSAS VOCATIONAL SCHOOL
BROWN, OLIVER, 1918-1961
BROWN V BOARD

Kansas Day 2011

2010-12-29T11:01:00.000-08:00

Some KANSAS DAY Resources
on the INTERNET

Though we're still in December Kansas Day 2011 is just around the corner. With that in mind we're providing a list of some resources here on Kansas Day in the hopes of helping out librarians, teachers, students and others in preparing for the upcoming festivities.

KANSAS 150 WEBSITE
A cooperative effort involving many different state agencies, organizations and individuals, "this website gives Kansans an opportunity to share their talents with others, find valuable cultural resources to bring to their community, and promote hometown events, projects, and programs."
http://ks150.kansas.gov/Pages/default.aspx

FROM THE KANSAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Some resources from our State Historical Society
KANSAS DAY pages at kshs.org

KANSAS DAY AT THE STATE CAPITOL
"In honor of the milestone anniversary of Kansas statehood a special Kansas Day program will be held at the Capitol on Friday, January 28, 2011. Due to construction on the building and limited access to the program location, this 30-minute program will be live streamed over the Internet. We encourage all schools to take advantage of this unique opportunity to celebrate Kansas Day. The Kansas Department of Education is developing civics lessons for grades K-12 to use with the program that will be available online in early January."
http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-day-at-the-kansas-state-capitol/14805

KANSAS DAY IN YOUR CLASSROOM
"[The Kansas Historical Society] offers a variety of resources for those unable to join us for Kansas Day at the Museum in Topeka or a State Historic Site]
http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-day-in-your-classroom/14770

BIRTH OF KANSAS DAY
"... taken from an article originally published in the January 1932 issue of The Kansas Teacher and Western School Journal. The article "The Origin of Kansas Day" was written by Esther Clark Hill, Kansas Historical Society"
http://www.kshs.org/p/birth-of-kansas-day/15952

KANSAS DAY PLANNING TOOL KIT
"This Kansas Day toolkit is designed as a general guide to planning a large public event."
http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-day-planning-toolbox/15663

150 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT KANSAS
A special exhibit at the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka, January 28-December 31, 2011, which will feature 150 objects, images, and documents about Kansas
http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-museum-of-history-upcoming-exhibits/15782

STATE LIBRARY OF KANSAS

THE 150 BOOKS THAT KANSANS LOVE
In keeping with our books focus, the State Library plans to compile a list of 150 books that Kansans love. Nominations and votes were compiled throughout much of 2010. The list will be announced in January 2011.

KANSAS PUZZLE
550 pieces of Kansas history, culture, people and geographical wonders gathered into a box ready for you to put together! Monies raised by sales go to support the Kansas Center for the Book.
http://statelibrary.mykansaslibrary.org/?p=8992
(Article on the puzzle with a link to retail outlets selling the puzzles)
http://statelibrary.mykansaslibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/Kansas_box.jpg
(Large puzzle graphic)

KANSAS 150 SLK BLOG
Yessiree, friends and neighbors... this blog is part of the Kansas 15oth celebration! Begun in January, 2010, it will continue through December 2011 providing information on the history, people, culture, geography and nooks and crannies of the Sunflower State.
http://kansas150slk.blogspot.com/

OTHER KANSAS RESOURCES

Today in History: January 29th
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan29.html
(Some Kansas History Resources From the Library of Congress)

Kansas Information for Students & Researchers
http://www.kslib.info/information.html
(Links to Kansas history, statistics, facts, etc.)

Kansas State Symbols (State Library of Kansas)
http://www.kslib.info/symbols.html
(Links to information on Kansas state symbols)

Kansapedia
http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/
(An online encyclopedia of Kansas history provided by the Kansas Historical Society)

Kansas Memory
http://www.kansasmemory.org/
(Excellent online resources on Kansas history provided by the Kansas State Historical Society)

The Kansas Collection
http://www.kancoll.org/
(An online collection of books, articles and graphics on Kansas history)

Map of Kansas Literature
http://www.washburn.edu/reference/cks/mapping/index.html
(Washburn University)

Territorial Kansas Timeline leading up to Kansas Day, 1861
http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/cgiwrap/imlskto/index.php?SCREEN=timeline
(From Territorial Kansas website)

Kansas History Resources
http://www.kansashistory.us/ksstateorg.html

Kansas Heritage Group
http://www.kansasheritage.org/
(online archives devoted to digitally preserving Kansas' past)

Kansas Sampler Foundation
http://kansassampler.org/
(Information on Kansas architecture, art, commerce, cuisine, customs, geography, history, and people)

Poetry of Kansas
http://www.skyways.org/poetry/
(A growing collection of poetry on Kansas)

Kansas Center for the Book
http://www.kcfb.info/
( The mission of the Kansas Center for the Book is to stimulate public interest in the educational and cultural role of the book; authorship and writing; literacy; and the promotion of reading and libraries.)

Kansas Governors' Messages, 1861-2008
http://www.kslib.info/messages/index.html
(State Library of Kansas. Read Kansas history in the speeches of its governors)

Kansas Legislators Past and Present
http://www.kslib.info/legislators/index.html
(State Library of Kansas. Basic information on more than 8,000 men and women who've served in the State Legislature.)

Natural Kansas
http://www.naturalkansas.org/
(Come see the natural beauty of Kansas)

Request a copy of the Kansas Visitor's Guide
http://www.travelks.com/s/VisitorGuideE.cfm
(Full of pictures, maps and information on Kansas. Provided by Kansas Travel & Tourism, Kansas Dept. of Commerce)

Check out the ATLAS Catalog for other resources:
KANSAS DAY
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS, ETC -- KANSAS
KANSAS--ANNIVERSARIES, ETC.

Article by: Bill Sowers
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

Kansas State Seal

2010-12-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

This week’s Kansas 150 blog provides links to information about the State Seal of Kansas.

For the first fifty years of statehood, Kansas only had two symbols: the sunflower and the state seal. Since then, these symbols have been joined by other statutory symbols such as the Cottonwood, the Western Meadowlark and the Ornate Box Turtle.

Our State Seal is provided for by the Kansas Constitution, article 1, section 9: “There shall be a seal of the state, which shall be kept by the governor, and used by him officially, and which shall be the great seal of Kansas. All commissions shall be issued in the name of the state of Kansas; and shall be signed by the governor, countersigned by the secretary of state, and sealed with the great seal.”

But why have a seal? Why would a governing body need this colorful graphic?

Frank Blackmar in his 1912 book, Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history..., tells us that “from the earliest period of history the seal has been used 'by individuals, corporate bodies and states, for making impressions on instruments of writing, as an evidence of their authenticity.' Every civilized country has its great seal, …. Prior to the Revolution, each of the American colonies had its seal, which in most instances, with some modifications, became the seal of state after the formation of the Federal Union. And almost the first act of every state, upon its admission into the Union, has been to adopt by suitable legislation a design for a great seal of state. Even before admission, and while under a temporary government as an organized territory, a seal has been found necessary as a testimony of official sanction or authority.”

Throughout its history Kansas has always had an official seal. During the territorial period a Seal was designed featuring a pioneer holding a rifle and hatchet opposite the goddess of agriculture, Ceres, encircled with a Latin motto translated as “Born by the voice of the people” or “Born of the popular will”. Encircling the border were the words: “Seal of the Territory of Kansas, Erected May 30, 1854." The Territorial Seal was designed by Governor Andrew Reeder and now resides at the Kansas Museum of History.

The Wyandotte Constitution of 1859, which was eventually adopted as the State Constitution, required that "There shall be a seal of state, which shall be kept by the governor, and used by him officially; and which shall be the great seal of Kansas."

In Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history Blackmar related the adoption of the State Seal as one of the first actions of state government soon after Kansas entered the Union:

"In his first message to the new State Legislature in 1861, Governor Charles Robinson called attention to the requirement for a seal. A committee was soon appointed and it drafted a resolution and the legislature approved a resolution which described the newly designed seal: 'The east is represented by a rising sun on the right hand corner of the seal; to the left of it, commerce is represented by a river and a steamboat; in the foreground, agriculture is represented as the basis of the future prosperity of the state, by a settler's cabin and a man plowing with a pair of horses; beyond this, is a train of ox wagons going west; in the background is seen a herd of buffalo, retreating, pursued by two Indians on horseback; around the top is the motto: 'Ad astra per aspera'—and beneath a cluster of 34 stars; the circle is surrounded by the words 'Great Seal of the State of Kansas, January 29, 1861'”. (General Laws of the State of Kansas. 1861, ch.78. )

John J. Ingalls is credited with being instrumental in designing the State Seal and is largely credited with choosing the motto, Ad astra per aspera. Suggestions for mottos that were not accepted: “We will”, countered with “We won’t”.

THE SEAL ON THE FLAG
In 1927 a state flag was established with the seal as a basic element of the flag.

THE GREAT SEAL
Often the term “Great Seal” is confused with the “State Seal”. The Great Seal is used only by the governor, is encircled by a double rope border with the date January 29, 1861, the date on which Kansas became the 34th state and includes the words “The Great Seal of the State of Kansas”. Other usage of the seal should not include the rope border with the described text.

OTHER INFORMATION AND RESOURCES

In an address before the Kansas Historical Society on Jan. 17, 1883, Robert Hay said: “All the seal is historic, but suggestive of a fact that will be true forever, that the conquest of difficulties is the way to moral as well as to political success.”

“There’s No Place Like Home: Symbols and Images of Kansas”
(magazine article : Kansas History, vol. 8, no. 3 (Autumn, 1985), p. 138-161)
(An excellent article by James Nottage and Floyd R. Thomas, Jr. on Kansas symbols which can be purchased from the Kansas State Historical Society or requested via interlibrary loan from the State Library of Kansas.)

A picture of the Great Seal, suitable for coloring, can be found on the Secretary of State’s web site.

A detailed description on each of the elements found on the Seal and their meaning is provided on the Governor's website.

Kansas Statute Annotated 75-201 - 203
(The legal description of the State Seal)

Article by: Cindy Roupe
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

The Korean War

2010-11-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

Sometimes known as the "Forgotten War," the Korean War was a military conflict fought on the Korean Peninsula in the early 1950s (1950-1953 armistice). It marked the first major armed conflict of the Cold War involving the world's superpowers as well as the United Nations. Never fully resolved, it is still felt in heated actions and words on the Korean Peninsula today.

During the war many Kansans served as soldiers, sailors, airmen, medical staff, military chaplains and in other capacities. Casualties were heavy. Over 400 Kansas military personnel lost their lives with many more sustaining serious injuries.

There has been an increased interest in the Korean War within the past decade. Memorials, monuments and ceremonies have honored the men and women who participated in this conflict. Below are links to some Kansas information as well as a few general sites on the War and its aftermath.

Kansas Casualties in the Korean War, 1950-53
Kansas State Historical Society
http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-casualties-in-the-korean-war-1950-53/15802
Kansas Adjutant General's Department
http://www.accesskansas.org/kskoreanwar/ksvets/kscasualties.html

Military Records: Korean War
http://www.kshs.org/p/military-records-korean-war/11194
(Kansas State Historical Society)

Kansas Memory
Military - Wars - Korean War
http://www.kansasmemory.org/category/1159
Military - Wars - Cold War
http://www.kansasmemory.org/category/1156
(Check out original source material at the Kansas State Historical Society's Kansas Memory website)

Korean War Commemoration, 1953-2003
http://www.accesskansas.org/kskoreanwar/index.html
(Kansas Adjutant General's Department)

Cool Things: Korean War Anniversary
http://www.kshs.org/p/cool-things-korean-war-anniversary/10219
(Kansas State Historical Society)

Kansas Korean War Memorials in Kansas
(Korean War Veterans Association)
http://www.kwva.org/memorials/ks/p_mem_ks.htm

Korean War Memorial, Wichita, Kansas
pictures http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/memorials/ks/index.htm

Korean War Memorial, University of Kansas
http://www.buildings.ku.edu/markers_memorials.shtml

Northeast Kansas Korean War Memorial, Topeka
http://www.simemorials.com/our_projects/topeka_kansas.htm

Korean War Memorial, Overland Park
http://www.siveteranmemorials.com/siprojects/si_projects_overland_park.htm
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=36725

Korean Vietnam War Memorial, Kansas City, Kansas
http://www.wycokck.org/Dept.aspx?id=16232&banner=15284

Kansas Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients
http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/kansas-congressional-medal-of-honor-recipients/11698
(Kansas State Historical Society. Includes information on Stanley T. Adams who served during the Korean War)

Korean War Service Medal Information
http://www.accesskansas.org/kskoreanwar/ksvets/servicemedal.html
(Kansas Adjutant General's Department)

Emil Kapaun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Kapaun
(Kapaun, a Roman Catholic priest and US Army chaplain, was born near Pilsen, Kansas, and died a prisoner of war in Korea in 1951. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in Korea and is being promoted for both the Medal of Honor as well as canonization within the Roman Catholic Church)

Harry S. Truman Library & Museum
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/index.php
(Truman was president during much of the Korean War. The Presidential Museum and Library, located in Independence, Missouri, has a wealth of information on the Korean War during his administration. Do a search for Korean or Korea in the upper left search box to get an idea of what is available there. Or search the National Archives search page for the library's holdings)

Center for the Study of the Korean War
http://www.koreanwarcenter.org/
(Located in Independence, Missouri)

Dwight D. Eisenhower Library & Museum
http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/
(President Eisenhower worked to achieve an armistice in 1953. The Presidential Library and Museum, located in Abilene, Kansas, also has information on the Korean War during his administration. Search the National Archives search page for the library's holdings)

Korean War Educator
http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/home.htm

Korean War National Museum
http://www.theforgottenvictory.org/

United States Forces Korea
http://www.usfk.mil/usfk/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
(Official page on the current presence of U.S. Military in South Korea)

60th Anniversary of the Korean War
http://www.usfk.mil/usfk/hot-topic.the.60th.anniversary.of.the.korean.war.471
(United States Forces Korea)

Korean War Historical Information
http://www.history.army.mil/reference/Korea/kw-remem.htm
(U.S. Army Website)

Timeline of Korean War
Wichita Eagle
http://www.kansas.com/2009/12/03/1081944/timeline-of-the-korean-war.html
US Army Website
http://www.history.army.mil/reference/Korea/kw-chrono.htm

Korean War Images
http://www.kansas.com/2009/12/03/1082697/korean-war-images.html
(Wichita Eagle)

Understanding Is Better Than Remembering: The Korean War, 1945-1954, by Allan Millett
http://www.k-state.edu/history/specialevents/Eisenhowerlecture/eisenhower7.htm
(The Dwight D. Eisenhower Lectures in War & Peace, no. 7 -- Kansas State University, 1995)

Material on Korea and the Korean War found in the Topeka Libraries ATLAS Catalog:

KOREAN WAR
KOREA

Article by: Bill Sowers
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

Kansas Railroad History

2010-10-25T07:10:00.001-07:00

The plow and the rail were two important tools employed in developing the early economy of Kansas. The plow opened up the rich prairie soil to new possibilities for thousands of land-hungry settlers while the laying of rails across Kansas opened up these lands for the establishment of farms, ranches and towns.

Our state's history is in many ways the history of the railroad in settling and developing the Great Plains. Lacking major highways or deep rivers much of Kansas' commerce depended heavily on the presence of nearby railway transportation. This made railroad companies a powerful force in Kansas politics, economic development and daily life. Communities thrived or died depending on access to railway traffic.

The links below are a small sampling of resources available on the history of railroads in the Sunflower State.

Railroads in Kansas
http://www.kansasheritage.org/research/rr/index.html
(Articles on the history of railroads in Kansas from Kansasheritage.org)

History of Kansas Railroads
http://www.ksdot.org/burrail/rail/railroads/history.asp
(A time line provided by the Kansas Department of Transportation. The Department also has a page on railroad terms as well as a listing of current railroads in Kansas)

Digitized Kansas Maps
http://specialcollections.wichita.edu/collections/maps/18801889.asp?offset=10
(Provided by Special Collections at Wichita State University. This page is a search result display showing historic Kansas maps which include railroad routes)

Railroads of Kansas, compiled and edited by Kathy Weiser
http://www.legendsofkansas.com/railroads.html
(From the Legends of Kansas website)

List of Kansas Railroads
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kansas_railroads
(Wikipedia article listing past and present railroads in Kansas)

Territorial Kansas website
(Digitized items pertaining to the early development of railroads in Kansas, 1854-1861)
Immigration and railroads
Railroad companies
Railroad conventions
Railroad land grants
Railroad legislation
Railroad promotion
Railroads
Railroads design and construction
Railroads economic aspects
Railroads finance

Kansas Memory website
(Kansas primary sources from the Kansas State Historical Society. The categories below bring up huge numbers of hits but check out the menu on the left side for subcategories)
Business and Industry -- Railroad
Transportation - Railroads
Transportation -- Railroads -- Depots

A Few Online Articles on Kansas Railroad History

"The Birth of The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad," by Joseph W. Snell and Don W. Wilson
Kansas Historical Quarterly
Summer, 1968 (Vol. 34, No. 2), pages 113 to 142.
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1968/68_2_snell+wilson.htm
Autumn, 1968 (Vol. 34, No. 3), pages 325 to 356
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1968/68_3_snell+wilson.htm

"The Building of the First Kansas Railroad South of the Kaw River," by Harold J. Henderson
Kansas Historical Quarterly
August 1947 (Vol. 15, No. 3), pages 225-239
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1947/47_3_henderson.htm

"Thomas Ewing, Jr., and the Origins of the Kansas Pacific Railway Company," by David G. Taylor
Kansas Historical Quarterly
Summer 1976 (Vol. 42, No. 2), pages 155 to 179
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1976/76_2_taylor.htm

"Trains," by Elfriede Fischer Rowe
Lawrence Journal-World, December 16, 1970
(One of a series of articles titled "Wonderful Old Lawrence," originally published in the Lawrence Journal-World)
http://www.kancoll.org/books/rowe/trains.htm

Titles found in the Topeka Libraries ATLAS Catalog
(Subject search results)
Railroads -- Kansas
Railroads -- Kansas -- History
Street Railroads -- Kansas

Museums, Associations, Depots, Historic Sites
(This is a very short list of railroad-related locations in Kansas today)

Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad
http://www.salinafyi.com/marketplace/dickinson-county/businesses/abilene-smoky-valley-railroad/
(Abilene, Kansas)

Ellis Railroad Museum
http://www.kansastravel.org/ellisrailroadmuseum.htm
(Ellis, Kansas)

Great Overland Station
http://www.kansastravel.org/overlandstation.htm
(Topeka, Kansas)

Great Plains Transportation Museum
http://www.gptm.us/
(Wichita, Kansas)

Halstead Heritage Musem & Depot
http://historicalsociety.halsteadkansas.com/page5.php
(Halstead, Kansas)

Heart of the Heartlands, Inc.
http://www.heartlandstrainclub.org/index.html
(Scammon, Kansas)

Historic Downs Depot
http://www.downsks.net/depot.htm
(Downs, Kansas)

Midland Railway Historic Association
http://www.midland-ry.org/
(Baldwin City, Kansas)

National Orphan Train Complex
http://www.orphantraindepot.com/index.html
(Former Union Pacific Railroad Depot in Concordia, Kansas)

Rock Island Depot
http://www.travelks.com/s/index.cfm?LID=209&QString=Keywords%3Dliberal%26Page%3D2
(Liberal, Kansas)
Take a YouTube Video Tour of the building
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT3J7OZ7MK8
Depot Jubilee Article
http://www.liberal.net/info/events/rock.html

Santa Fe Depot Foundation
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Kingman/depot.html
(Kingman, Kansas)

Union Station, Kansas City Mo
http://www.unionstation.org/aboutus.html

Article by: Bill Sowers
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

Home On The Range

2010-10-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

In 1947 the Kansas State Legislature adopted "Home On The Range" as the official state song of Kansas. Known around the world the song had become popular as a "cowboy ballad" promoting a simpler life in the American West. Its mention of Kansas place names, Beaver Creek and the Solomon River Valley, made it a good choice as music representing the Sunflower State.

The words, written by Dr. Brewster Higley in 1872 as a poem titled "My Western Home," described a land of blue skies and natural beauty set out on the banks of Beaver Creek in Smith County, Kansas, where Higley was living at the time. The poem had been set to music by Higley's neighbor, Dan Kelley, and within several years become popular in the West. The words had often been changed to reflect the locale wherein the song was sung but retained their original intent of a peaceful life where "the sky is not clouded all day."

There had been some controversy over the song's origins in the 1930s but the text, discovered in an 1876 issue of The Kirwin (Kansas) Chief determined that the words were Higley's. Though the words, home on the range, never appeared in Higley's original poem that title stuck and has remained as the song's official name.

Below are resources on "Home on the Range" including links to different audio versions of the song and the official words of the Kansas state version.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Home on the Range
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/homeontherange/
(Provided by National Public Radio, this web page offers a short history of the song and different audio versions. Some broken links)

Roam Is Where The Heart Is
http://www.kansashistoryonline.org/ksh/ArticlePage.asp?artid=111
(From Kansas History Online)

Home On The Range
http://ktwu.washburn.edu/journeys/scripts/2003/1601a.html
(KTWU public television Sunflower Journeys program transcript)

An Anthem
http://www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=459
(Provided by Discovering Lewis & Clark)

The History of the State Song
http://www.kshs.org/teachers/read_kansas/pdfs/i11card01.pdf
(Kansas State Historical Society)

"State Song of Kansas..."
http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/jan09/kssong12109.html
(A short article appearing on the Kansas State University's Media Relations website)

The Off-Key Story of a Song
http://www.southernlivestock.com/articles/columnists/home_on_the_range_the_offkey_story_of_a_song.4298.sls
(The controversy continues for some on the origins of the song)

INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS

Tales Out of School
http://www.emporia.edu/cgps/tales/nov2003.html
(Center for Great Plains Studies)

Read Kansas! - Fourth Grade
http://www.kshs.org/teachers/read_kansas/card_i11.htm
(Provided by the Kansas State Historical Society's Read Kansas! Program. This lesson teaches the history of the state song, “Home on the Range,” through expository text and a time line)

HIGLEY AND KELLEY

Brewster Higley VI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_M._Higley
(Wikipedia article)

Brewster Higley Historical Marker, Rutland, Ohio
http://www.remarkableohio.org/HistoricalMarker.aspx?historicalMarkerId=491

Historical Background of “Home on the Range”
http://www.dunelady.com/laporte/histories/Home_on_the_Range.html
(Written by Russell K. Hickman. Contains a lot of biographical information on Brewster Higley)

Brewster Higley's Gravesite
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6810840
(Provided at Find A Grave)

Daniel E. Kelley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_E._Kelley
(Wikipedia article)

SOME DIFFERENT VERSIONS

The Official Kansas State Song
https://sites.google.com/site/statesonghistory/
(Quoted from the 1947 Session Law)

Home on the Range: Classic Cowboy Poetry
http://www.cowboypoetry.com/Homeon.htm
(The original poem, the first version of the song and Lomax versions)

Three versions of the text on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_on_the_Range
(Higley, Goodwin and Lomax)

SMITH COUNTY, KANSAS

Nomination Form for "Home On The Range" cabin
http://www.kshs.org/resource/national_register/nominationsNRDB/Smith_HomeontheRangeCabinNR.pdf
(Kansas State Historical Society)

Kansas US Hwy 281
http://www.ushwy281.com/2010/01/home-on-the-range-with-kansas-us-hwy-281.html
(General information on Smith County which is also the location of the center of the 48 contiguous states)

Smith County KSGenweb
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/smith/
(Provided by the Kansas Genweb Project)

Smith County at Blue Skways
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/counties/SM/
(Provided by the State Library of Kansas)

YouTube Video

View a YouTube audio of "Home on the Range" featuring versions by Roy Rogers and Gene Autry:

Article by: Bill Sowers
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

Kansas Insects, Spiders & Other Arthropods

2010-09-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

EEK! A bug! Get it!

Wait... What sort of "bug" are you looking at? Do you see six legs, eight legs or too many legs to count? Will it wing, sting, sing or spring if you try to step on it? Just what are you threatening with your shoe?

Wiktionary defines bug as "a colloquial name for any insect, arachnid or other terrestrial arthropod." With this in mind most of us use the word, "bug," as a catch-all term for a large number of different creatures, most all of them members of a phylum (i.e. descriptive animal grouping) called Arthropoda or Arthropods. Spiders, ticks, centipedes and all insects are all arthropods. The phylum also includes aquatic animals such as crabs, shrimp and crayfish.

Terrestrial or air-breathing arthropods account for over 80% of all known living animal species. Kansas and the Great Plains are home to thousands of different varieties. They are both a bane and blessing to us. Some, notably the grasshopper, have in part fashioned our human history in the Sunflower State. Even today arthropods such as the bedbug, monarch butterfly, mosquito and tick can be news makers.

Below is a small selection of links to resources on insects, arachnids and other arthropods in Kansas and the Great Plains as well as some links to general information for students, teachers and the naturally curious. Bugs are a part of our daily lives on the prairie and getting a better idea of what they are and how they live is important.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Entomology for Kids
http://www.lib.k-state.edu/subguides/entomology/kids.html
(Resources provided by the Kansas State University Libraries)

Entomology: K-12 Recommended Resources
http://www.ent.iastate.edu/list/directory/158/vid/5
(An excellent list of resources available for studying insects, etc. Provided by Iowa State University)

Collecting and Preserving Insects and Mites
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/site_main.htm?docid=10141&page=1
(So you'd rather display bugs than step on them? This website provided by the US Department of Agriculture offers you the tools and techniques in creating your own bug museum)

Iowa Insects, Spiders, and Other Invertebrates
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/IAN606.pdf
(Though you're not in Kansas any more this guide provides excellent, easy to understand descriptions of the major groups of "bugs")

BugGuide.net
http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740
(An online community of naturalists who enjoy learning about and sharing observations of insects, spiders, and other related creatures)

Fossil Insects
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/fossils/insect.html
(Arthropods have been around for millions of years. Here's a short presentation provided by the Kansas Geological Survey on insect remains preserved in fossils)

KANSAS-SPECIFIC INFORMATION

Checklist of Kansas Insects
http://www.gpnc.org/images/pdf%27s/Checkbugs.pdf
(From the book Insects in Kansas)

Kansas Insects
http://www.gpnc.org/insects.htm
(From the Great Plains Nature Center website)

Insects of the Konza Prairie
http://www.entomology.ksu.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=441
(A long-term program at the Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS) to study insect diversity in a natural tallgrass prairie ecosystem began in 2001. The goal is to develop baseline survey information on selected insect groups, to develop the holdings of the Kansas State University Museum of Entomological and Prairie Arthropod Research (KSU-MEPAR), and to make specimens, taxon names, and associated information for insect groups collected available to the scientific community)

The Kansas School Naturalist
http://www.emporia.edu/ksn/
(An excellent source of information on nature in Kansas, especially for students. Many of the issues are now online. Quite a few issues cover Kansas spiders, insects and invertebrates. Provided by the Department of Biological Sciences at Emporia State University)

K-State Museum of Entomological and Prairie Arthropod Research
http://www.entomology.ksu.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=103&tabid=347
(A research collection of about 824,000 specimens housed at Kansas State University)

The Insect Zoo
http://www.entomology.ksu.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=442
(Located next to the K-State Gardens at Kansas State University. Open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, 12:00-6:00pm and by appointment)

University of Kansas Division of Entomology
http://www.nhm.ku.edu/ksem/index.html
(Includes a searchable specimen database of Division collections, Insect videos and information on the University's Bee Collection)

IDENTIFICATION

Introduction to the Identification of Insects and Related Arthropods
http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/choate/insectid.pdf
(An excellent identification guide with some really cool black and white drawings. By P.M. Choate)

Kansas Insect Diagnostician
http://www.entomology.ksu.edu/desktopDefault.aspx?tabid=375
(Working through your local county extension office you can find out just what sort of bug you've got in that mayonnaise jar. Provided as a service by the Kansas State University's Department of Entomology. There is also an online pamphlet explaining instructions for submitting insect samples)

Insect Photo Gallery
http://www.entomology.k-state.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=86
(Provided by the Kansas State University Department of Entomology. Many of the graphics are of agricultural and gardening insect pests)

Facts & Information on Household Pests
http://www.entomology.ksu.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=382
(Identification of the bugs people like to swat provided by the Kansas State University Department of Entomology)

SPECIFIC ARTHROPODS

Honeybee
http://www.gpnc.org/honeybee.htm
(The Kansas State Insect. Provided by the Great Plains Nature Center)

Butterflies in Kansas
http://www.gpnc.org/butterflies.htm
(Provided by the Great Plains Nature Center)

Butterfly Links
http://doe.sd.gov/octa/ddn4learning/ThemeUnits/Butterflies/science.htm
(Provided by the South Dakota Department of Education)

Cicadas
http://www.gpnc.org/cicadas.htm
(Also known colloquially as harvestflies or incorrectly as locusts. Provided by the Great Plains Nature Center. Listen to the call of a cicada in this YouTube video)

Common Spiders
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/entml2/ep125.pdf
(A guide to common spiders in Kansas provided by Kansas State University Research and Extension)

Checklist of Kansas Orbweaving Spiders
http://www.emporia.edu/ksn/v52n2-september2005/predators.htm
(Article from Kansas School Naturalist. Includes a page with great images of spiders)

Checklist of Kansas Jumping Spiders
http://www.emporia.edu/ksn/v47n1-february2001/list.htm
(Article from Kansas School Naturalist. Includes a page with great images of spiders)

An Historic Look At Grasshoppers
http://www.kansasmemory.org/category/5851
(Kansas Memory provides some original source material on the perennial battle between Kansans and the grasshopper)

Bed Bugs
http://www.entomology.k-state.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=675
(The latest bug in the news, this short page provides basic information on bed bugs which are making their presence known in Kansas homes and businesses. The University of Kansas' Student Health Services also provides a pamphlet on bed bugs)

LIBRARY MATERIAL ON ARTHROPODS
(Much of this material can be borrowed on interlibrary loan from the State Library or other holding libraries in the ATLAS library consortium. The Kansas State Historical Society, a research library, does not lend out its books)

Insects -- Kansas
Spiders -- Kansas
Cicadas -- Kansas
Grasshoppers -- Kansas
Butterflies
Bees -- Kansas
Bee culture

Article by: Bill Sowers
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

Kansas Quilters and Kansas Quilts

2010-09-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

As pioneers came west to homestead and create new cities and states, they brought their lives with them. That included their quilts, patterns, needlework and history. So it’s only natural that some of their legacy can be woven together by researching and documenting their quilts.

A number of contemporary Kansas authors and quilters have done just that over the last quarter century. In addition, 20th and 21st century quilters have paid homage to their foremothers by either recreating the quilts from early Kansas statehood days and the Civil War or by using those earlier quilts as inspiration for new quilts.

Women have used needlearts and crafts through the centuries to express their views, their feelings, and to support political movements and ideas. It should come as no surprise that they created quilts to accomplish those very things.

Today reproduction fabrics, patterns, classes and tools allow 21st century quilters to explore creating quilts that harken back to the last half of the 19th century. Lawrence, KS is home to several quilt historians and researchers – and also to a collection of historic quilts (held at Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas).

These local quilters are nationally renowned and recognized for their research and writings.

One of them is Barbara Brackman
Brackman’s publications include:

--Quilts from the Civil War (1997)

--Civil War Women: Their quilts, their roles, activities for re-enactors (2000)

--Kansas Quilts & Quilters (1993) - The findings of the Kansas Quilt Project
collected into a book that gives the history, not only of Kansas quilts, but of
quiltmaking in general.

The Underground Railroad is a popular area of research and study, and quilts made to remember both the path to freedom in the North and the sympathizers and former slaves are still being created. One recent book by Brackman attempts to put to rest the myths and legends surrounding quilts and the Underground Railroad, and focus on historic facts, pattern histories, and fabric dating to shed light on the true role played by quilts and quilters in this historic era.

Facts & Fabrications: Unraveling the Story of Quilts and Slavery (2006)
A fundamental source of information and inspiration for contemporary quilters interested in quilt history is the book “Hearts and Hands: The influence of women & quilts on American Society” (1987), published by the Quilt Digest Press. One quilt in particular in that book (pp 70-71) distills and illustrates the deep influence and meaning that quilts played both in political movements and the lives of those affected.

The quilt pictured in the photo is an unknown pattern (but could be Birds in the Air). It was made by Deborah Coates, Lancaster County, PA, ca. 1840-1850, pieced silks with stamp work. Here’s the story of that one quilt, and how it continues its influence today (excerpted from the book “Hearts and Hands”):

The Coates family of Lancaster County, Penn. Was well-known in the early part of the nineteenth century. Lindley Caotes was documented by traditional history as he was a prominent and active abolitionist, a Quaker who was among the organizers of the Anti-Slavery Society (1833) and who preceeded William Lloyd Garrison as president of the AASA in 1840.

What we know of Coates’s wife’s role and her abolitionist sentiments has been recorded in a very subtle, indeed fragile, manner: it has come to us quietly and directly, sewn into the center of her elegant quilt. Were it not for a family what has kept the oral history of the quilt alive, we might have missed Deborah Coates’s message altogether. According to the family, two granddaughters of the maker could not agree on who should inherit the precious quilt, and so, with the Quaker sense of equality, it was decided to cut the quilt exactly in half.

When the raw edges were bound over, the small central image was almost totally obscured. All that remained to be seen were a tiny foot on one quilt half and the edge of an arm on the other. Finally, the two halves came down together to a single descendant, along with the story of what lay within the seams. Recently, under the direction of a conservator, the bindings were opened and the fractured image was brought together for the photograph. In researching family history related to the quilt, a descendant has recently discovered that Lindley and Deborah Coates’s home in Sadsbury, Lancaster County, Penn. was Station #5 on one of the many routes of the Underground Railroad. This was clearly a family which found a variety of ways to express a strong moral commitment to justice and the emancipation of slaves.

“Deliver me from the oppression of man.” The image of the bound slave was inked onto a triangle near the center of this amazing quilt.

The quilt below was recreated, using cotton fabrics, in a wall sized reproduction for the book Quilts from the Civil War. The quilt hangs in the Northeast Kansas Library System offices in Lawrence, KS on loan from maker Patti Wiggins Mersmann Butcher.

RESOURCES:

Heartland quilt network (great resource to find quilters and organizations)
http://www.heartlandquiltnetwork.com/

Quilters who blog
http://quilterblogs.com/updates/

Barbara Brackman
http://www.barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/

Deb Rowden
http://debrowden.blogspot.com/

Linda Frost
http://www.13thstreetstudio.typepad.com/

Ruth Powers
http://www.ruthpowersartquilts.com/weblog

Alma Allen and Barb Adams
http://blackbird-designs.blogspot.com/

OTHER LOCAL QUILTERS:

Terry Clothier Thompson
http://www.terrythompson.com/

Sue Spargo
http://www.suespargo.com/

Jan Patek
http://www.janpatekquilts.com/index.html

Kansas quilters organization
http://ksquilter.org/

LOCAL QUILT GUILDS

Lawrence
http://www.kawvalleyquiltersguild.org/

Topeka
http://www.kscapitalquilters.com/

Kansas City
http://www.quiltguildofgkc.org/

by Patti Butcher, Lawrence KS

Kansas State Capitol

2010-08-31T10:55:00.000-07:00

The Kansas State Capitol, also known as the Statehouse, has been a fixture on the Topeka landscape for over 140 years. Construction began in 1866 and continued for 37 years until the structure was completed around the turn of the last century.

At one time or another the Capitol has provided meeting spaces and offices for all three branches of state government. It has also been a focal point for state and national events and activities. Speeches, demonstrations, celebrations, performances and memorial observances have been held inside and outside on the grounds. The artwork and architectural beauty of the building have attracted many and sometimes angered some. Motion pictures have used the Capitol as a setting and artists have spent hours sketching, photographing and painting views of its interior and exterior. In many ways the Capitol and its grounds have served as our state's "town square" where the day-to-day life of our state is viewed in the actions of government as well as other Kansas citizens.

Ten years ago the State Legislature voted to begin the process of renovating the Capitol refurbishing the building as well as updating it for use as a vital center of government in the 21st century.

Renovation of the Kansas State Capitol continues. Recently the street just to the west of the Statehouse grounds was partially closed in order to set up a 340 foot high crane which will soon loom over the building. Workers will use the crane for exterior masonry restoration. Work on the building should continue for several more years and should when completed provide an open, accessible setting that will prominently display the beauty of the past mixed with the technology of the present.

We've assembled here some links to resources on the State Capitol, past and present with a glimpse into the planned future.

GENERAL INFORMATION AND HISTORY

Kansas State Capitol
http://www.kshs.org/places/capitol/index.htm
(Information from the Kansas State Historical Society)
Includes:
--What you'll see
--Find out about our history
--Take an Online Tour
--Take a Historic Tour
--Take a School Tour
--Stories from the Capitol
--Real People. Real Stories
--Just for kids
--Just for teachers
--Guides to the Capitol
--Construction update

Capitol Tours
http://www.kshs.org/places/capitol/historic_tours.htm
(Tour schedules and contacts)

Guide to the Kansas State Capital
http://www.kshs.org/places/capitol/pdfs/guide_state_capitol.pdf
(A wonderful publication available online from the Kansas State Historical Society)

Kansas State Capitol Guide For Young People
http://www.kshs.org/teachers/classroom/pdfs/capitol_young_peoples_guide.pdf
(Great guide for school children from the Kansas State Historical Society)

Capitol Building
http://www.kansasmemory.org/category/2723
(Graphics showing original documents and pictures at Kansas Memory)

Kansas State Capitol
http://www.kansastravel.org/kansasstatecapitol.htm
(Information and photos from Kansas Travel and Tourism. Note the photo of the glass floor in the State Library, a favorite "walk over" by tours. The Library's site in the Capitol is currently closed for renovation but should reopen in 2012. In the meantime the Library has been relocated to a portable unit on the southwest corner of the Capitol)

Topeka Photo Tour
http://www.galenfrysinger.com/kansas_topeka.htm
(Includes some good photos of the Capitol)

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION

John Steuart Curry
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july-dec98/curry_8-13.html
(An interesting look at the artist who painted several murals in the Capitol and felt the ire of some Kansans because of his work. From PBS website)

The Dome
http://www.kansastravel.org/kansasstatecapitol2.htm
(From Kansas Travel and Tourism. Tours of the Dome have been suspended during renovation but you can see some great photos here)

Ad Astra Statue
http://cjonline.com/indepth/adastra/
(Articles from the Topeka Capital Journal about the placing of a statue on top of the dome)

Abraham Lincoln (seated) Sculpture - "Man Of Sorrow"
--Information
--Picture (photo by Carol Yoho)

Kansas Law Enforcement Memorial
--Information from Kansas Peace Officers Association
--Information from Kansas State Historical Society

Statue of Liberty Replica
http://cjonline.com/news/local/2009-12-27/scout_to_restore_miss_liberty_wall
(An article from the Topeka Capital Journal about a Boy Scout's work in restoring the wall under the statue on the Capitol grounds)

Peter F. Felten, Jr. Statuary
http://www.kansasmemory.org/locate.php?query=felten
(Hays artist, Peter "Fritz" Felten, Jr. sculpted four statues of famous statues which grace the inside of the Capitol)

CURRENT RENOVATION PROJECT

Capitol Renovation
http://www.kshs.org/places/capitol/renovation/index.htm
(Information at the Kansas State Historical Society's website)

Kansas State Capitol Renovation
http://www.treanorarchitects.com/static/Statehouse/index.html
(Information from the architectural firm working on the Capitol)

Renovation History
http://www.kshs.org/places/capitol/renovation/history.htm
(Information at the Kansas State Historical Society's website)

JE Dunn Portfolio: Kansas State House
http://www.jedunn.com/portfolio/19/403356/
(Primary building company)

Article by: Bill Sowers
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

Sunflowers

2010-08-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

The Kansas Statutes, in designating the sunflower as our state flower, states:

"WHEREAS, Kansas has a native wild flower common throughout her borders, hardy and conspicuous, of definite, unvarying and striking shape, easily sketched, moulded, and carved, having armorial capacities, ideally adapted for artistic reproduction, with its strong, distinct disk and its golden circle of clear glowing rays -- a flower that a child can draw on a slate, a woman can work in silk, or a man can carve on stone or fashion in clay."

(Kansas Statutes 73-1801)

Sunflowers are grown in Kansas gardens, appear in Kansas architecture and show up on Kansas-related websites as iconic symbols of our state. Kansans sing, quilt, paint and wax poetic about Helianthus Annuus. And woe betide any state that considers declaring our much loved symbol a noxious weed!

So let's get out a couple lawn chairs, stroll out into a field of wild sunflowers (bug spray optional!), sit back and ponder this symbol of perpetual optimism as it faces its namesake's journey across the summer sky.

SOME BASIC INFORMATION

Kansas State Flower (Florapedia)
http://www.proflowers.com/flowerguide/kansas

Sunflower: An American Native (Missouri Extension)
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/firstgarden/planning/dictionary/flowers/sunflowers.cfm

WILD SUNFLOWERS IN KANSAS

Kansas Wildflowers website
--Common Sunflower (Kansas state flower)
--Ashy Sunflower
--Hairy Sunflower
--Maximilian Sunflower
--Plains Sunflower
--Stiff Sunflower
--Sawtooth Sunflower
--Tickseed Sunflower
--Willow-Leaf Sunflower
--Other Kansas wild flowers in the sunflower family

Kansas Sunflowers and Prairie Skies
http://www.washburn.edu/cas/art/cyoho/archive/AroundTopeka/cloudsunflowers/

SUNFLOWERS IN POETRY

Selections from Poetry of Kansas
--The Maverick
--The Nodding Sunflowers
--An Ode to the Kansas Sunflower
--Serenade Of The Sunflowers
--Sunflower Fields
--The Sunflower Of Kansas
--When The Sunflowers Bloom
--Ah! Sunflower!

SUNFLOWERS IN YOUR GARDEN

My First Garden
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/firstgarden/planning/dictionary/flowers/sunflowers.cfm
(University of Illinois at Urbana)

The Sunflower Story: Teacher's Guide
http://agweb.okstate.edu/aitc/lessons/intermed/plants.pdf
(Oklahoma State University)

Sunflowers: A Gift of Joy in the Garden
http://ceplacer.ucdavis.edu/newsletterfiles/Curious_Gardener17572.pdf
(University of California at Davis)

Gardening With Wildflowers
http://www.kansasnativeplantsociety.org/gardening.htm
(Kansas Wildflower Society)

A FEW BOOKS, ARTICLES, ETC.
ABOUT THE SUNFLOWER IN KANSAS

"Flowers Of The Sun" / by Lorraine J. Kaufman
(magazine article : Kansas wildlife & parks. Vol. 57, no. 5 (Sep./Oct. 2000), p 20-25)
ATLAS Catalog Record

Kansas Icons
Topeka, KS : KTWU/Channel 11 Television, c2005
[30 minute videorecording]
ATLAS Catalog Record

Kansas Katie: A Sunflower Tale / by Jerri Garretson
(children's book : Manhattan, Kan. : Ravenstone Press, 2000)
ATLAS Catalog Record

Kansas Sunflowers / by H.A. Stephens
(booklet : Emporia, Kansas : Emporia State University, Department of Biology, 1981)
ATLAS Catalog Record

Sunflower / by Miela Ford ; pictures by Sally Noll
(children's book : New York : Greenwillow Books, 1995)
ATLAS Catalog Record

Sunflowers
(picture book : Philadelphia : Courage Books, 2004)
ATLAS Catalog Record

Sunflowers: The Secret History ; The Unauthorized Biography of the World's Most Beloved Weed / by Joe Pappalardo
(book ; New York : Overlook Press, 2007)
ATLAS Catalog Record

"'There's No Place Like Home' : Symbols And Images of Kansas" / by James H. Nottage and Floyd R. Thomas, Jr
(magazine article : Kansas History, vol. 8, no. 3 (Autumn, 1985), p. 138-161)
ATLAS Catalog Record

This Is The Sunflower / by Lola M. Schaefer ; pictures by Donald Crews
(children's book : New York : Greenwillow Books, 2000)
ATLAS Catalog Record

To Live In Symbols / by Neil Byer, et al.
(booklet : Emporia, Kan. : Kansas State Teachers College, Dept. of English, 1957)
ATLAS Catalog Record

Article by: Bill Sowers
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

Brown v. Board of Education

2010-07-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision ruling that "separate but equal" public school segregation was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. The decision, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, was an important first step in ending a long established practice in some states of forcing minority children (primarily African American) to attend substandard public schools in the same community where white students often received a more advantageous education at separate schools.

But the Court went a step further than pointing out financial differences in the segregated educational systems in the country as a reason for overturning "separate but equal." It also noted that even if racially segregated schools were on an equal fiscal plane the whole concept of using laws to separate children by race within a government supported system such as the public schools was wrong:

"Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does...

Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system...

We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment." (from: Opinion of the Court delivered by Chief Justice Warren)

Brown v. Board was an important milestone in the long struggle for equality in the United States. The fact that it is fairly recent history and was well documented means that there is a wealth of resources on it. Below you will find some basic resources on Brown v. Board, the National Historic Site in Topeka and the Topeka parents and children who took a courageous stand against school segregation in our state.

Brown v. Board of Education
National Historic Site, Topeka, Kansas
http://www.nps.gov/brvb/index.htm
(Established in Topeka, Kansas, on October 26, 1992, by the United States Congress to commemorate the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision aimed at ending racial segregation in public schools)
--Directions
--Operating Hours & Seasons
--Fees & Reservations
--Schedule a School Field Trip
--Special Events
--Special Exhibits
--2009-2010 Program Schedule
--Centennial Initiative 2016

Brown Foundation For Educational Equality
http://www.brownvboard.org/
(The Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research was established in 1988 as a living tribute to the attorneys and plaintiffs in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of 1954 Brown v. Board of Education)

Photo Tour of the Brown v. Board National Historic Site
http://brownvboard.org/monroe/tour/
(From the Brown Foundation for Educational Equality)

Brown v. Board of Education (KSHS)
http://www.kshs.org/portraits/brown_v_board.htm
(Information supplied by and through the Kansas State Historical Society)

Brown v. Board of Education (Kansas Memory)
http://www.kansasmemory.org/category/6646
(Primary sources on Brown v. Board and school segregation in Kansas from the Kansas Memory website)

Kansas Memory Podcast
(Listen to interviews with Kansas participants in Brown v. Board)
--Charles I. Baston and Fred Rausch, Jr.
--Christina Jackson
--Maurita Davis
--Judge Robert Lee Carter

Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka Era Bibliography
http://www.kshs.org/research/collections/documents/bibliographies/brownvboard/bibliography.htm
(Further reources from the Kansas State Historical Society)

Interview with Linda Brown Smith
http://digital.wustl.edu/e/eop/eopweb/smi0015.0647.098lindabrownsmith.html
(Text of a 1985 interview with Linda Brown Smith, the daughter of Oliver Brown)

Eisenhower Presidential Library
Abiline, Kansas
http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/Research/Digital_Documents/Civil_Rights_BrownvsBoE/BrownvsBOEfiles.html (Resources available from the Library)

Brown vs. Board
http://cjonline.com/indepth/brown/archives/
(Archived articles from the Topeka Capital Journal)

Looking Back: Brown v. Board of Education
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/brown50/index.html
(From National Public Radio)

Brown @ 50
http://www.brownat50.org/brownCases/BrownCasesFrameset.html
(Howard University Law School website commemorating the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board in 2004)

"With an Even Hand"... Brown v. Board at Fifty
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/
(An online presentation of an exhibit held at the Library of Congress in 2004)

Brown v. Board of Education
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education
(An excellent Wikipedia article on Brown v. Board)

Brown v. Board:
Five Communities That Changed America
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/121brown/
("Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plans" presented by the National Park Service)

Teaching With Documents:
Documents Related to Brown v. Board of Education
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brown-v-board/
(From the National Archives)

Related Materials from the Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/afam/afam-brown.html
(This presentation by the Library of Congress explores the question, What historical events led to the Supreme Court decision of 1954? by providing access to selected digitized historical information that enhances an existing research tool. Note! The photos at the top are no longer directly linked)

Article by: Bill Sowers
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

Amelia Earhart

2010-07-16T07:09:00.001-07:00

The final resting place of Amelia Earhart may yet remain a mystery, but the city of Atchison, Kansas is proud to claim her beginning. Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in the home of her maternal grandfather, Alfred Gideon Otis, a former federal judge and president of the Atchison Savings Bank. The daughter of a railroad attorney, Amelia and her younger sister “Pidge” spent much of their childhood in various towns, including Atchison and Kansas City, Ks. She attended six high schools in four years, finally graduating from Chicago's Hyde Park High School in June 1915. Earhart always considered Atchison her hometown. The house in which she was born now houses the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum, which claims to represent “the most tangible remaining link with the famous female aviator.” The Gothic Revival cottage, which looks out over the west bank of the Missouri River, is open year round to visitors.

According to the official Amelia Earhart website, maintained by her family, Earhart was not impressed the first time she encountered a plane at age 10. But a decade later, she took her first flight and was hooked. Six months after her initial flying lesson on January 3, 1921, she bought her first plane. With her second-hand Kinner Airster two-seater biplane she nicknamed “Canary” for its bright yellow paint, she set her first women's aviator record by flying to an altitude of 14,000 feet.

In the years following, Earhart continued to set records. In May 1932, she became the first woman, and only second person, to fly solo across the Atlantic (see news report in the Atchison Globe). With this flight, she also gained recognition as the first person to cross the Atlantic twice by air nonstop and for setting a record for the fastest Atlantic crossing. It was the longest distance ever flown by a woman. For this feat, she received several awards, including the Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society, presented to her by President Herbert Hoover, and the Distinguished Flying Cross, being the first woman so honored. Her second book, The Fun of It, came out later that year (read an excerpt).

The following years included more record setting flights, lecture tours, celebrity status, and even fashion design. In the fall of 1935, Earhart joined the faculty of Purdue University as an adviser in aeronautics and as consultant in the Department of the Study of Careers for Women. Purdue University Libraries now houses the world's largest collection of Amelia Earhart papers, photos, memorabilia and artifacts. The Library has digitized more than 3,500 scans of photographs, maps, and documents relating to Earhart. These can all be viewed online, including a manuscript draft of a prenuptial agreement by Earhart to George Putnam expressing her "reluctance to marry."

On July 2, 1937 Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan took off from Lae in Papua New Guinea with Howland Island as their intended destination in their celebrated flight around the world, “just for fun”. Their last known position report was about 800 miles into their flight near the Nukumanu Islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca was on station at Howland and was assigned to guide Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E to the island once they neared the area. However, radio and weather difficulties caused the plane to lose radio contact. Earhart's plane never arrived at Howland, and despite a massive search by the U.S. government, no trace of Earhart, Noonan, or their plane has yet been found. Earhart's husband, George Putnam, continued the search at his own expense until October 1937. On January 5, 1939, Amelia Earhart was declared legally dead in Superior Court in Los Angeles.

The whereabouts of Earhart and Noonan remains a mystery, and continues to the subject of much speculation and controversy. Numerous books and movies have been produced with theories as wide ranging as capture by the Japanese as prisoners of war to being marooned on an island and later returning to the US to live in anonymity (see Discussion section of the Amelia Earhart Wikipedia article for sample).

Earhart's memory is kept alive by the controversy, but also by women and men alike who admire her courage and accomplishments. One such group is the Ninety Nines, an organization of women in aviation, of which Earhart was a charter member and first president. The Ninety Nines maintain the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchison, as well as the International Forest of Friendship. Located at Warnock Lake, the forest is a living memorial to the history of aviation and aerospace. A statue of Amelia Earhart and a tree from her grandfather's farm are located there.

The community of Atchison also keeps alive the memory of Amelia Earhart with an annual community celebration, held this year on July 16-17. The celebration includes an awarding of the Amelia Earhart Pioneering Achievement Award from the Cloud L. Cray Foundation, which provides a $10,000 women’s scholarship to the educational institution of the honoree’s choice. This year's honoree is University of Kansas basketball great, Lynette Woodard.

Other sites of interest:
Amelia Earhart Earthwork at Warnock Lake Park, Atchison, Kansas. Stan Herd created the 1-acre landscape mural in 1997 from permanent plantings and stone to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Earhart's birth.

Kansas State Historical Society tribute

Meet Amelia at the Atchison Library! And other festival events at the Atchison Public Library

See live videos of Earhart at biography.com

See the trailer for the 2009 movie “Amelia,” starring Hillary Swank and Richard Gere at Rotten Tomatoes

A partial bibliography of books and more books

This article was written by Diana Weaver, Director, Atchison Public Library
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

The Great Flood of 1993

2010-06-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

Kansas City flood levels in 1844, 1951 and 1993 as shown at
Westport Landing on the Missouri River in Kansas City.
Photo by Americasroof 2006
"It cannot be tamed, curbed or confined...you cannot bar its path with an obstruction which it will not tear down, dance over and laugh at. The Mississippi River will always have its own way, no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise...” -Mark Twain

"Wild rivers are earth's renegades, defying gravity, dancing to their own tunes, resisting the authority of humans, always chipping away, and eventually always winning."- Richard Bangs, River Gods

1993 marked an amazing midwestern weather phenomenon. A heavy wet winter, spring and summer throughout the upper midwest and a stagnant weather system inundated the lands until they could not hold it and the tributaries to the Mississippi River swelled and burst through levees. Through our connection to the Mississippi River via the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, northeast Kansas experienced 100 year record level flooding. Thanks to advanced warning systems and continuous updates there were no lives lost in Kansas, but many were displaced and crops were lost.

Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1993 Impact of the 1993 Flood on Kansas from the NOAA

National Weather Service report:
http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/floods/papers/oh_2/great.htm

Maps and Images

Map of flood warnings and watches

1993 Flood photo gallery

1903 and 1993 floods photo slide show

Significant River Flood Outlook

Reports and Studies

United States Geological Survey (USGS):
http://mo.water.usgs.gov/Reports/1993-Flood/index.htm

USGS: Effects of Reservoirs on Flood Discharges in the Kansas and Missouri River Basins - 1993

Perry, C.A., 2000, Significant Floods in the United States During the 20th Century—USGS Measures a Century of Floods: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS024-00, 4 p.

The Great Flood of 1993 on the Upper Mississippi River—10 Years Later

Historic Floods of Kansas

Flood Safety
NOAA Flash flood safety podcast

Flood planning from FEMA

After the flood

Cleanup guidelines and issues to consider from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE)

After a Hurricane or Flood: Cleanup of Flood Water by the Center for Disease Control (CDC)

Flooded septic systems from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Article by: Kim Harp. Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

Civil War Battle Sites

2010-06-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

Kansas statehood came less than three months before the beginning of open hostilities in the American Civil War. For the next four years Union and Confederate troops fought a devastating war that took the lives of over 600,000 combatants. During this same time Kansas struggled to develop a state government in the midst of guerilla warfare that might have rivaled some civil conflicts in the world today.

Although the conflicts in Kansas were generally small in comparison to what was being played out to the east there were several battles within the new state. Below are links to resources, graphics and information on Civil War battlefield sites in Kansas as well as some general Kansas Civil War information.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Civil War Battles in Kansas
http://www.civilwaracademy.com/civil-war-battles-in-kansas.html
(A map and list of the four major Civil War battles in Kansas. Includes a summary of basic information on date, location, casualties, major combatants and outcome)

Civil War Timeline of Events in Kansas
http://ehistory.osu.edu/uscw/features/battles/states/kansas/0001.cfm
(Skirmishes, raids and battles are listed)

Kansas in the Civil War
http://www.kshs.org/research/topics/war/civilwarkansas.htm
(Kansas State Historical Society)

Kansas in the Civil War
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/civilwar/index.html
(Kansas Genweb)

Kansas Memory
http://www.kansasmemory.org/locate.php?query=civil+war
(Original documents, manuscripts and graphics provided by the Kansas State Historical Society)

Centennial of the Civil War
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1965/65_1_staff.htm
Kansas Historical Quarterly
Spring, 1965 (Vol. 31, No. 1), pages 62-66

ATLAS CATALOG HOLDINGS
(Library holdings of the Kansas State Historical Society, State Library of Kansas, Kansas Supreme Court and Washburn University)
Kansas -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865

INDIVIDUAL BATTLE SITES

BAXTER SPRINGS, 1863
The Battle of Fort Blair, sometimes called the Fort Baxter Massacre, or the Battle of Fort Baxter was fought on October 6, 1863, near the modern-day town of Baxter Springs, Kansas.

Battle Summary (National Parks Service)
http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/ks002.htm

Fort Blair and Baxter Springs Massacre
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-fortblair.html

William Quantrill Attacks Baxter Springs, Kansas
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/william-quantrill-attacks-baxter-springs-kansas

"Incidents at Baxter Springs on October 6, 1863"
by Lary C. Rampp
Kansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 36, no. 2 (summer, 1970), p. 183-197
(Get a copy of this article via interlibrary loan from the State Library of Kansas)

LAWRENCE, 1863
The Lawrence Massacre, also known as Quantrill's Raid, was a rebel guerrilla attack by Quantrill's Raiders, led by William Clarke Quantrill, on the pro-Union town of Lawrence, Kansas. Quantill's Raid on Lawrence in 1863 is well known through books, articles and motion pictures.

Battle Summary (National Parks Service)
http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/ks001.htm

Eyewitness Reports on Quantrill's Raid
http://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/2005summer_six.pdf
Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains
Summer 2005 (Vol. 28, No. 2), p. 94-103

Erastus D. Ladd's Description of the Lawrence Massacre
http://www.kshs.org/publicat/khq/1963/63_2_bidlack.htm
Kansas Historical Quarterly
Summer 1963 (Vol. 29, No. 2), pages 113 to 121

In Pursuit of Quantrill: an Enlisted Man's Response
http://www.kshs.org/publicat/khq/1973/73_3_unrau.htm
Kansas Historical Quarterly
Autumn 1972 (Vol. 39, No. 3), p. 379 to 391

MARAIS DES CYGNES
The Battle of Marais des Cygnes took place on October 25, 1864, in Linn County, Kansas during Price's Missouri Raid. It is also called the Battle of Osage, and the Battle of Trading Post. It proved to be the first of three interconnected actions on this same day, all involving elements of Major General Sterling Price's Confederate Army of Missouri and the Union's Provisional Cavalry Division commanded by Major General Alfred Pleasonton.

Battle Summary (National Parks Service)
http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/ks004.htm

Price's Missouri Expedition
http://www.thefullwiki.org/Price

Price's Raid and the Battles of Linn County
http://www.legendsofkansas.com/priceraid.html

Report of Maj. Gen. Sterling Price
http://www.missouridivision-scv.org/pricereport1864raid.htm

Books/Articles on the Battle
http://topekalibraries.info/search~S8/d?Price%27s+Missouri+Expedition
(Holdings within Topeka ATLAS Consortium libraries)

MINE CREEK, 1864
"On October 25, 1864, approximately 2,800 Union troops attacked and defeated about 8,000 Confederates along the banks of Mine Creek. This was one of the largest cavalry battles in the Civil War and a major battle fought in Kansas."

Battle Summary (National Parks Service)
http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/ks004.htm

Mine Creek Battlefield State Historic Site
http://www.kshs.org/places/minecreek/index.htm

Mine Creek Battlefield Foundation
http://www.minecreek.org/

Books/Articles on the Battle
http://topekalibraries.info/search/d?mine+creek+battle
(Holdings within Topeka ATLAS Consortium libraries)

MISCELLANEOUS

Diamond Springs
http://www.legendsofkansas.com/diamondsprings.html
(Report of a small skirmish at Diamond Springs)

Article by: Bill Sowers
My thanks to Roy Bird for supplying some of the links in this article
Please use the "Comments" link/box below for questions and comments.

Vacation Kansas!

2010-06-05T18:45:00.001-07:00

The summer looms ahead of you like a two lane highway cutting a rolling path across the Flint Hills. What to do? Where to go? Your bank account nixes any trips to far off locations. You look around waiting for a passing twister to lift you up and deposit you in Oz but the sky is a clear, deep Kansas blue without a cloud in sight.

How about vacationing in Kansas? You'd be amazed at what the Sunflower State has to offer in sights, sounds and friendly people. You can tour the state on prolonged journeys or take short day/weekend ventures. Chances are good you'll spend a lot less money and surprise yourself in discovering Kansas up close.

So put down those "impossible dream" brochures and thumb through the possibilities listed below. Kansas spreads out before you, a patchwork quilt of festivals, lakes, rodeos, museums, galleries, racing, music and good times.

KANSAS TRAVEL & TOURISM
http://www.travelks.com/
Official site of the Kansas Travel and Tourism Division, Kansas Department of Commerce. The Division's Tourism site promotes all aspects of Kansas as a place to visit and enjoy providing information on lodging, dining, directions and suggestions on what to pack Some areas of interest:

--Free Publications
http://www.travelks.com/s/VisitorGuideE.cfm
(Supply contact information, fill out the online form indicating your specific interests and receive maps and guides on places and activities in Kansas)

--Trip Planner
http://www.travelks.com/s/index.cfm?trip
(Select a time period, your interests and an optional location and this planning tool will assist you in planning your excursion)

--Yellow Brick Road Trips
http://yellowbrickroadtrip.com/
(A wonderful way to plan a trip or just see what the different regions of Kansas have to offer. Use the map or the menu on the left to select a journey and then print off an itinerary of places to visit. Offers coupons and suggestions on what to pack and mapping your trip)

--Kansas Adventure e-newsletter
http://www.travelks.com/s/EnewsSubscribeE.cfm
("Kansas Adventures is the official Kansas Tourism e-newsletter. Subscribers receive periodic e-mail updates on the latest Kansas travel news, events, festivals, attractions, vacation packages, and special offers")

--Kansas! magazine
http://www.kansasmag.com/
(Quarterly magazine with stunning photography and interesting stories of places and people in Kansas)

OTHER WEBSITES

Kansas Scenic Byways
http://www.ksbyways.org/
("Kansas has nine scenic byways, two of which are National Scenic Byways. In addition to being beautiful drives, the byways each have a fascinating history and an abundance of activities to enjoy")

8 Wonders of Kansas
http://www.kansassampler.org/8wonders/
("The purpose of the 8 Wonders series is to help the world get to know Kansas and to encourage the public to explore Kansas")

Historic Tours of Kansas
Kansas State Historical Society
http://www.kshs.org/tourists/index.htm
("Plan your trip into Kansas history by choosing a region, theme, highway, or site name. Learn about accomodations for group tours")

Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks
http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/
Hunting, fishing, boating, lakes, parks, etc. Be sure to check out the video on the Flint Hills on the main page as well as other Kansas wildlife and Parks videos on YouTube)

Some National Parks Service sites in Kansas
http://www.nps.gov/state/ks/index.htm
(A short list with links provided by the National Parks Service. A more complete list of national historic landmarks is available from the Kansas State Historical Society)

GeoKansas... Places to Visit
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/KSplaces/visitindex.html
(Photos and descriptions of sites of geologic and other interest in Kansas. Provided by the Kansas Geological Survey. The website also includes a Field Trips page with guidebooks) http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/fieldtrips.html

Natural Kansas
http://www.naturalkansas.org/welcome.htm
(Your portal to the many Wildlife Watching opportunities found here in the heart of
the Great Plains of North America)

Kansas Flint Hills
http://kansasflinthills.travel/
(Discover one of the most underrated natural attractions in the United States)

Kansas Chambers of Commerce
http://www.kansaschamber.org/mx/hm.asp?id=KcceDirectory
(Check out individual communities in Kansas. A directory of some of the chambers in Kansas. Includes a website when available. Provided by the State Chamber of Commerce)

Article by: Bill Sowers
Please use the "Comments" link below for questions and comments.

Kansas Halls of Fame

2010-05-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

“Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.”
~Zig Ziglar~

Success is often the goal that drives the American dream. However one wishes to define the word many of us strive to have a lasting effect in some small way on the world around us or perhaps just within ourselves believing that this country of ours offers that possibility.

Americans love to celebrate successes. We recognize the deeds of others in many fields of interest touting these triumphs in museums, schools and notably "halls of fame."

The list below covers many of the halls of fame in Kansas. Within our state we have places that honor individuals and groups who have stood out within a profession, area of interest or activity at the state or national level. We also have halls of fame which promote animals and plantlife!

We've shied away from local and individual school halls of fame in this list knowing that that list is much longer than the space we've set out for these blogs. If we've missed a hall of fame in Kansas that you're aware of contact us and let us know via the comment box at the bottom of this blog. Don't forget to include an address and possible website! We'll determine what to include and add more halls of fame to the list.

NATIONAL HALLS OF FAME

Agricultural Hall of Fame
Bonner Springs
http://www.aghalloffame.com/
(Educates society on the historical and present value of American agriculture and honors leadership in Agri-Business and Academia by providing education, information, experience and recognition)

Greyhound Hall of Fame
Abilene
http://www.kansastravel.org/greyhoundhalloffame.htm
(Devoted to greyhound breeding, racing, and the history of the sport)

Highbanks Hall of Fame
http://highbanks-museum.org/
(Celebrates national midget auto racing and auto racing drivers)

Teachers Hall of Fame
Emporia
http://www.nthf.org/
(Recognizes and honors exceptional career teachers, encourages excellence in teaching, and preserves the rich heritage of the teaching profession in the United States)

They Also Ran Gallery
Norton
http://www.theyalsoran.com/
(Honors presidential candidates who were defeated but not forgotten)

STATE

Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame
Wichita
http://www.kansasaviationmuseum.org/hall.php
(Created to preserve the memory of outstanding aviation contributions by citizens of the State of Kansas)

Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame
Wichita
http://www.wichitahof.com/Baseball_Main.htm
(Honors baseball greats from Kansas)

Kansas Broadcasting Hall of Fame
http://www.kab.net/KABAdditionalInformation/AwardsDL1/Downloads_GetFile.aspx?id=34694
(Honors those who have worked in the broadcasting business recognizing substantial contributions to broadcasting in the state/nation. Individual broadcasters may be Kansas natives and have made contributions in other states or at the national level. Individuals who are not Kansas natives who have worked in Kansas broadcasting are also recognized)

Kansas Business Hall of Fame
Emporia
http://www.emporia.edu/business/kbhfhome.php
(recognizes business leaders, who through their high standards of ethics, have added to the prestige and growth of Kansas. By identifying outstanding examples of business leadership, the Hall of Fame shares with high school and college students and adults these stories of success and innovation through representative displays. The Hall of Fame creates an awareness of appreciation of Kansas' rich heritage of business leadership)

Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame
Dodge City
http://boothill.org/cowboy-hof/
(Preserves and honors the life of the Kansas cowboy. The five inductees each year are honored for their outstanding contribution to the western heritage lifestyle, past and present, and to the preservation of the cowboy culture. The five categories are Rancher/Cattleman, Cowboy Entertainer, Cowboy Historian, Working cowboy, and Rodeo Cowboy)

Kansas Golf Hall of Fame
http://www.kansasgolf.org/foundation/hall-of-fame/
(Honors Kansas men and women, amateurs and professionals, who have made outstanding contributions to the game of golf)

Kansas Music Hall of Fame
http://www.ksmusichalloffame.org/
(Recognizes and honors performers and others who have made significant contributions to the musical history of the state of Kansas and the greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The Hall of Fame endeavors to promote public interest in the musicians of the past and encourage those of the present and future)

Kansas National Guard Hall of Fame
http://www.kansasguardmuseum.org/hof.php
(Commemorates and recognizes individuals who have served in the Kansas National Guard or it's predecessor, Kansas State Militia, who have made a significant contribution to the National Guard achievements, tradition, or history)

Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame
http://www.kspress.com/img/hof05.pdf
(An honor roll of journalists who have made outstanding contributions to the profession and to Kansas)

Kansas Oil Gallery
El Dorado (Museum)
http://www.kansasoilmuseum.org/inductees.cfm?bio=criteria
(Honors those men and women who have made contributions to Kansas’ oil heritage)

Kansas Poker Hall of Fame
http://www.kansaspokerhalloffame.com/
(Meet the legends of Kansas poker history)

Kansas Sports Hall of Fame
Wichita
http://www.kshof.org/
(Honors Kansans who have excelled in athletics)

Kansas State High School Activities Assn Hall of Fame
Topeka
http://www.kshsaa.org/HOF/HOF-front.html
(Recognizes individuals who have contributed their time and talent to their school, community and/or state through secondary school activities)

Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame
Dodge City
http://www.visitdodgecity.org/index.aspx?NID=86
(Dedicated to the early and present day teachers who have devoted their lives to the profession of teaching)

Kansas Wheat Hall of Fame
http://www.k-state.org/wgrc/Germplasm/kansastop10.html
(The Kansas Wheat Hall of Fame is composed of the State's most popular wheat varieties. These varieties have demonstrated good staying power, having been grown on more than 1 % of the State's acreage at least 20 years. They also have contributed greatly to the Kansas economy and to the farm communities where they were grown)

Article by: Bill Sowers
(My thanks to Rhonda Machlan for suggesting this topic and supplying the links!)
Please use the "Comments" link below for questions and comments.

The Rock Band, Kansas

2010-05-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

This week we will rise above the noise and confusion, just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion... And for those of you who are sitting there wondering just what the heck I'm writing about, carry on my wayward son (or daughter) and keep reading!

Do an Internet search for the word, "Kansas," and you'll find hits for the state of Kansas and Kansas City along with many sites about the rock band, Kansas. The band and its name have a history going back 40 years. A band formed with the name, Kansas, by Topekans, Dave Hope, Phil Ehart and Kerry Livgren in 1970 folded, reformed and merged with different names and members before a newly formed band was brought together in 1973 with the name, Kansas, affixed permanently. Kansas band members by then were Phil Ehart, Dave Hope, Kerry Livgren, Robbie Steinhardt, Steve Walsh and Rich Williams.

With the release of their first major album, "Kansas," in 1974 Kansas moved into the national music spotlight as a progressive rock band, offering music which combined rock interwoven with classic symphonic tones and complex arrangements. Years later Kansas is still entertaining crowds of new and old fans with its distinctive, musical style and rich, reflective lyrics.

Enthusiastic followers known as "wheatheads" travel great distances to attend Kansas concerts such as the sold out January, 2008, performance at the Topeka Performing Arts Center. The band rocked the house that night with an assist from the Topeka Symphony Orchestra. Reviewer Bill Blankenship from the Topeka Capital-Journal commented after the concert, "More often than not, Kansas performs opuses, not songs. They are rich and textured and far too long for radio. They have movements, tempo changes, counterpoint and other symphonic forms that go well beyond the verse-chorus 'Roll Over Beethoven' roots of rock."

So let's sit back, pop in a CD and listen to some great music while perusing information on a band that named itself after a state.

Kansas, the Official Website
http://www.kansasband.com/
Includes information on:

Current Band Members

History

Multimedia

News and Reviews

Some Current* & Former Band Members' Websites

Phil Ehart* (Wikipedia)

John Elefante

Billy Greer*

David Hope (Wikipedia)

Kerry Livgren

Steve Morse

David Ragsdale*

Robby Steinhardt (Wikipedia)

Steve Walsh*

Richard Williams*

Discographies

Official website

MusicMoz

Wikipedia

Billboard Charts and Awards

Fan Clubs

People of the South Wind (POTSW)

KansasFans.com

Other Resources

Kerry Livgren Interview (2006)

Rich Williams Interview (2008)

Billy Greer Interview (2001)

Phil Ehart Interview

Song Lyrics (Rock Lyrics)

1kansasfan has a large array of Kansas videos on YouTube

Miscellaneous

Kansas Platinum Record (Kansas State Historical Society)

A Review of the Kansas concert with the Washburn Symphony Orchestra held February 10, 2009 in Topeka. The concert was later released on DVD titled "There's Know Place Like Home," and shown on KTWU Public Television.

Resources found in the ATLAS online catalog (Includes State Library of Kansas holdings)

Article contact: Bill Sowers
(My thanks to Cindy Roupe for suggesting this topic)

Orphan Train Children

2010-04-22T09:56:00.001-07:00

From the mid 1850s to 1929 between 150,000 to 200,000 orphaned or abandoned children made their way west from the U.S. East Coast to be adopted into new homes and families in the Midwest, West and Canada. Because they moved primarily via trains they were commonly known as orphan train children.

Kansas played a role in this movement as a final destination for many children and continues to remember them, their families of origin, adoptive families and their life changing experiences with a museum and research center in Concordia.

The links below connect you to the tragic and triumphant stories of the children and adults who were involved in this great social experiment. We've emphasized information resources for Kansas but have included other related sources as well.

National Orphan Train Complex
http://www.orphantraindepot.com/index.html
(Located in Concordia, Kansas, the Complex has a museum and research center. The website includes a history of the orphan trains and personal stories by adoptees)
---Museum Virtual Tour
---Orphan Train History
---Orphan Train Rider Stories
---Website Archives
---Links to Primary Resource Facilities

Orphan Trains of Kansas
http://www.kancoll.org/articles/orphans/
(History, stories, newspaper accounts, graphics and references provided on the Kansas Collection website)

Bibliography of Printed Material on Orphan Train Children
http://sites.google.com/site/ks150slk/orpantrains
(prepared by the Kansas Collection and State Library of Kansas)

Library Holdings at the State Library of Kansas, Kansas State Historical Society and Washburn University (ATLAS online catalog)
ORPHAN TRAINS

The Orphan Trains
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/orphan/index.html
(website for a PBS special TV program)

The Orphan Trains/Children's Aid Society
http://www.childrensaidsociety.org/about/history/orphantrain

Orphan Trains of Nebraska
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/trains//Orphan.htm

Orphan Trains
http://www.nebraskahistory.org/sites/mnh/orphans/index.htm
(Nebraska State Historical Society)

Orphan Train
http://iagenweb.org/iaorphans/
(Iowa GenWeb Project)

Some Orphan Trains Genealogy Links
http://www.genealinks.com/orphantrain.htm

Orphan Trains (Cyndi's Genealogy List)
http://www.cyndislist.com/orphans.htm#Orphans

Orphan Train (song) written by Utah Phillips
---The Song Lyrics
http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Orphan_Train.htm
---The Song on YouTube (performed by Dry Branch Fire Squad)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-og-66Bzwzw

Article contact: Bill Sowers

Carry A. Nation (a.k.a. Carrie A. Nation)

2010-04-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

(November 25, 1846 - June 9, 1911)

Born Carrie Amelia Moore in Garrard County, Kentucky, Nation came to describe herself as “a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn’t like.” Her first marriage was to a doctor named Charles Gloyd in 1867. This marriage was brief and he died a drunkard shortly after the divorce. Nation attributed her hatred of liquor to her failed first marriage. Her second husband, David A. Nation, was a newspaper editor, minister and lawyer. A few years after their marriage in 1877 the couple moved to Medicine Lodge, Kansas. It is here that Nation began her temperance work and crusade against alcoholic intake. While living in Medicine Lodge she began jail evangelism and helped create the local chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement (WCTM) which spoke out against drink and tobacco, to name just a few.

In 1881, Kansas outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. However, enforcement of such laws was largely ignored. Becoming one of the most famous figures of the Temperance Movement, she adopted the name “Carry A. Nation” and used it as a slogan, even going so far as to have it registered as a trademark in the state of Kansas. Hatchetations, as they became known, took place in saloons and bars around the state of Kansas. The first such incident occurred around Kiowa, KS. This smashing occurred without a hatchet, for which she would later be known. A roadside marker describes the ordeal. Nation referred to her supporters as “Home Defenders” and together they were successful in shutting down a number of “joints.” Jailed a number of occasions for the destruction of liquor establishments, Nation sold souvenir pin hatchets in order to cover the cost of fines.

Two houses are listed on the National Register of Historic Houses as “Carry A. Nation House.” The Carrie Nation House in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, is also known as the Carry A. Nation Home and Museum. Her birthplace in Lancaster, Kentucky is the other Carry A. Nation House.

Nation is buried in Belton, Missouri; a historical marker is in Cass County, MO. The inscription on her gravestone reads- “Faithful to the cause of Prohibition- She hath done what she could.”

Biographical information

Biographical information
(Kansas State Historical Society)

Online Exhibit
(Includes a link to a Curriculum Guide)

Carry Amelia Nation Papers, 1870-1919

Rootsweb
(Contains image of Carry A. Nation House in Medicine Lodge, KS. Biographical information provided including references to a bridge named in her honor in Barber County.)

Medicine Lodge, Kansas - Historic Happenings

Kansas Heritage Group

Encyclopedia of Arkansas history and culture

Handbook of Texas Online

American Heritage

History on the Web

The Kansas State Historical Society has a variety of information on their website as well as within their digital historical repository- Kansas Memory.

People - Notable Kansans (Nation, Carry Amelia, 1846-1911)

Collections – Photographs (Nation, Carry Amelia)

Collections – Manuscripts (Nation, Carry Amelia)

Additional information

Read the full-text online of “The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation” by Carry A. Nation

There is a festival in her honor located in Holly, Michigan. The CarryNation Festival began in 1973 and marks “a historical moment in time when a very prominent woman visited Holly and made her mark on the community.

In Wichita, relocated from the Old Cowtown Museum and now located along a walk in Naftzger Park, stands a drinking fountain “erected to the memory of Carry A. Nation by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Kansas, 1918.”

Listen to the audio file- Carrie Nation in Kansas by Steve Porter (1901) which contains a satirical song about Nation and how "women wear the pants in Kansas."

The Kansas State Historical Society (KSHS) has a tradecard series which includes a Carry A. Nation card. Also, Carry Nation’s Hammer, Carry Nation’s Purse, Carry Nation Lecture Poster, and a Carry Nation’s Portrait.

C-SPAN interview of author Fran Grace discussing her biography Carry A. Nation: Retelling the Life

Alcohol, Prohibition and the Temperance Movement
History of Alcoholic Beverages in Kansas
(Kansas Department of Revenue- Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC))

Prohibition
(Digital History: using new technologies to enhance teaching and research)

The Dry Years
(Selected images relating to Prohibition from the Collections of the Library of Congress- Prints & Photographs Room)

Kansas Women’s Christian Temperance Movement / Mary Evelyn Dobbs Collection
(Kansas State Historical Society)

Community Life – Clubs and Organizations - Reform/Advocacy
(Kansas State Historical Society- Kansas Memory)
Women’s Christian Temperance Union
Kansas State Temperance Union
National Temperance Society

Government and Politics – Reform and Protest
Prohibition and Temperance

Government and Politics - Political Parties
Prohibition

Article contact: Megan Schulz

Kansas and the Wizard of Oz

2010-03-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up in California my family had an annual event in late February or early March: Wizard of Oz Night.

My Mom would make homemade pizza, soda pop would be allowed in the living room during the meal and a large bowl of popcorn was passed around. Then we'd sit back and watch the 1939 MGM movie, The Wizard of Oz.

Other than the NBC peacock my first memory of color television was the year we got a color TV and watched the cinematically dull, drab world of Dorothy Gale’s Kansas fade into the Technicolorful Land of Oz. We oooed and ahhhed as Dorothy and Toto stepped out of the tornado-borne house into the Munchkin village. We jumped as the Wicked Witch of the West appeared out of nowhere in a burst of flame searching for the murderer of her sister, and all the while I wondered why in the world Dorothy wanted to return to Kansas when she could stay in Oz!

Years later, imbued with these stereotypical views of Kansas I went off to college at the University of Kansas and realized upon my arrival in Lawrence that Kansas was not only very colorful but greener than California in August…. the first of many Wizard of Oz myths about Kansas dispelled.

Like it or not though, L. Frank Baum’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the 1939 motion picture rendition of the tale of Dorothy's journey through Oz have shaped how the world sees Kansas and Kansans. I have been asked many times about Toto's well being and where my ruby-red cowboy boots are. Below are some links to resources on L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Kansas and Oz, Dorothy and yes, her little dog too.

The Book That Started It All...

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1900)
Online text version
Online audio version
Another Online Audio Version

The 1939 Motion Picture...

The Wizard of Oz (MGM 1939)
1949 Reissue Trailer
1998 trailer/promo of digitally restored film
2009 Blu Ray digitized version trailer/promo

Interpretation And Symbolism...
Secrets of the Wizard of Oz, by Rumeana Jahangir
Oz and Populism, by David B. Parker

Kansas and The Wizard of Oz
Oztoberfest in Wamego
2010 Information
Official Site (2009 information)

Dorothy's House and Land of Oz in Liberal
Tribute site
Official site

Ah Kansas!
During the 1980's the Kansas Department of Economic Development created a series of publications and commercials promoting Kansas with a play on words from L. Frank Baum's books using "Kansas, Land of Ahs."
Listen to a short promo from KNAB Radio dated 1984
Listen to a couple "Ah Kansas" radio commercials from KFH Radio

The Wizard of Oz
(A short introduction on the Kansas State Historical Society’s website)

Kansas Articles and Commentary
The Wiz Lives On In The Land Of Oz
Marketing Kansas
Kansas Is Oz's Home
Film and History in Kansas and the Great Plains

Search the ATLAS Catalog
(State Library, State Historical Society, Washburn University)
Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank), 1856-1919
Wizard of Oz

Kansas -- Civilization

The Wizard Of Oz
Other Motion Pictures and Stage Productions
The Wizard of Oz (1902 Musical Play)
The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910 motion picture)
The Wizard of Oz (1925 motion picture)
The Wizard of Oz (1933 animated short film)
Catalog of the Oz Movies - 1908 to 1938

FOR THE FANATIC/DEVOTEE

Memorable quotes
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Wikiquote
Quotes from the book

L. Frank Baum and the Land of Oz
(Library of Congress)

Oz on Stage and Film

(Library of Congress)

The International Wizard of Oz Club

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Website

The Wizard of Oz Wiki
(Updated by viewers)

Wizard of Oz Events Calendar
(Calendar of events around the world for book, motion picture and staged productions fans)

Other Oz Books and Movies By L. Frank Baum
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908)
Audio -- Text
The Emerald City of Oz (1910)
Audio -- Text
Glinda of Oz (1920, posthumously published)
Audio -- Text
His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz (1914)
motion picture
Little Wizard Stories of Oz (1913)
Audio --Text
The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)
Audio -- Text
The Magic of Oz (1919, posthumously published)
Audio -- Text
The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914)
Motion Picture
The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904)
Audio -- Text
Ozma of Oz (1907)
Audio -- Text
The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913)
Text -- 1914 Motion Picture
Rinkitink in Oz (1916)
Audio 1 -- Audio 2 -- Text
The Road to Oz (1909)
Audio -- Text
The Scarecrow of Oz (1915)

Audio -- Text

Tik-Tok of Oz (1914)
Audio -- Text
The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918)
Audio -- Text

Article contact: Bill Sowers

Kansas State Governors

2010-03-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Kansas State Constitution states that, "the supreme executive power of this state shall be vested in a governor, who shall be responsible for the enforcement of the laws of this state. "

Since Kansas became a state in 1861 there have been 45 governors serving as the chief executive of state. They have come from all corners of Kansas and covered a broad political spectrum. They have presided over our state during wars, drought, insurrection, scandals, floods, social upheaval and economic downturns. The Kansas political environment seen by outsiders might appear to be as serene as the rolling hills along I-70 but a closer look reveals a complicated "ecosystem" in which our governors have played a vital role through the years.

There have been 32 Republican governors, eleven Democrats and two Populists. Some have served for eight years. One served for twelve days. After serving as governor several served terms in Congress; one served as U.S. Secretary of War; another as a U.S. federal judge; one ran unsuccessfully for public office in Canada; another was the Archivist of the United States; one was a Republican candidate for President; and one is currently serving as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Below is some basic information on the office of Governor as well as the individuals who have held that office.

Powers and Duties of the Governor

State Constitution, Article 1
http://kslib.info/constitution/art1.html
(Outline of powers and duties of the governor set forth by the State Constitution)

Kansas Statutes 75-101 et seq
http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-statutes/index.do
(You can browse through the Statutes online starting at 75-101. The Statutes on this website are not up to date. Also bear in mind that specific duties and powers of the governor are found throughout the Kansas Statutes, not just in this section.

Legislative Procedure in Kansas
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/ksleg/KLRD/about/legproc.pdf
(Check out Chapter 15 for how the Governor acts on legislation passed by the Legislature)

The Governor's Budget, FY 2011, volume 1
http://budget.ks.gov/publications/FY2011/FY2011_GBR_Volume1--updated_2-10-2010.pdf
(The beginning section of Volume 1 contains an organizational chart of Kansas government and gives a good summary of the governor's duties as they relate to state finance)

The Government of Kansas / by James W. Drury with Marvin Stottlemire (2001)
(This book has gone through several editions and is a good read in understanding the workings of government in Kansas)

Mark Parkinson, Current Governor of Kansas
---Governor's website (http://governor.ks.gov/)
---Biography
---News Releases
---Capitol Blog

Governors' Speeches, Writings, Records, etc.

Kansas Governors' Messages
http://kslib.info/messages/index.html
(A collection of Governors' messages transcribed or digitzed by State Library of Kansas staff)

Governors' Papers and Records
All state and territorial governors left behind papers and records during their administations. These records give insight into the workings of government and many records are open to the public for research. The State Archives, located at the Kansas History Center in Topeka, has most of the governors' records. Spencer Library at the University of Kansas has two governors' records collections. Governor George Docking destroyed his records after his term of office was over.
---Kansas State Archives
http://www.kshs.org/people/governors.htm
(A list of Kansas territorial and state governors, terms of service, with online finding aids for their records. Provided by the Kansas State Historical Society)
---Spencer Library, University of Kansas
http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/collections/index.shtml
(Governors Robert Docking and Robert Bennett donated their gubernatorial records to the University of Kansas)

Other Resources on Kansas Governors

Kansas Governors
http://www.kshs.org/people/governors.htm
(The Online finding aids linked to in this list also include biographical information. Provided by the Kansas State Historical Society)

Governors of Kansas
http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.8fd3d12ab65b304f8a278110501010a0?submit=Submit&State=KS
(Short biographical entries on the 45 governors of Kansas. Provided by the National Governors Association)

Essay on Kansas Governors
http://www.kshs.org/research/topics/politics/essay_governors.htm
(Short piece on Kansas governors. Provided by the Kansas State Historical Society)

Kansas Memory
http://www.kansasmemory.org/category/713
(Primary source material on Kansas state governors provided online by the Kansas State Historical Society)

ATLAS Online Catalog
http://topekalibraries.info/
(Search for information about Kansas governors or for government publications issued by Kansas governors held by the State Library of Kansas, Kansas State Historical Society, Washburn University Libraries and the Kansas Supreme Court Law Library)

Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=kansas%20governor
(Hits in the Internet Archive using the terms, Kansas and governor. Not all of these titles pertain to Kansas governors but some do. Among them is an excerpt from a speech by Governor Alf Landon, Republican candidate for President, in 1936)

Kansas Governors / by Homer Socolofsky
Lawrence, Kan. : University of Kansas Press, 1990
(A 1990 book with a chapter on each of the governors. View the ATLAS Online Catalog record)

Article contact: Bill Sowers
(My thanks to Kim Harp for her help in putting together this information)

GERMANS IN KANSAS

2010-02-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

Written by August Disselhofff over 150 years ago Nun Ade, Du Mein Lieb' Heimatland epitomized the sorrow and hope of German speaking Europeans who emigrated from their homelands seeking a better life overseas.

They did not all come from what is now the country we call Germany. They did not share the same religious or political beliefs. Their literature, music, cuisine and customs differed. But although a diverse people they shared a common language, though many might have disputed that as well with the many dialects of German spoken! Within this article the word, German, will be used loosely to describe German speaking European immigrants as a whole.

Germans immigrants settled throughout Kansas. They built churches, colleges, hospitals, schools, farms, businesses, homes and meeting halls. They founded newspapers, socials organizations, societies and established themselves as a vital part of Kansas society. They left their language scattered across the landscape with names like Humboldt, Stuttgart, Windthorst, Olpe, Marienthal and Schoenchen.

The links below offer up basic resources via the Internet, microforms and in paper. We also provide information on organizations, societies and institutions which have researched the history of German settlement and life in Kansas.

SOME GENERAL INFORMATION

The German Heritage of Kansas: An Introduction
http://www.swissmennonite.org/feature_archive/2002/200201.html
(William D. Keel, University of Kansas. From Swiss Mennonite Cultural & Historical Association website)

Max Kade Center for German-American Studies
http://www2.ku.edu/~maxkade/
(Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Kansas)

Deitsch, Däätsch, Düütsch, and Dietsch: The Varieties of Kansas German Dialects after 150 Years of German Group Settlement in Kansas
http://www2.ku.edu/~germanic/LAKGD/William_Keel_Essay.shtml
(By William Keel, Department of Germanic Languages, University of Kansas)

Linguistic Atlas of Kansas German Dialects
http://www2.ku.edu/~germanic/LAKGD/Atlas_Intro.shtml
(From the Department of Germanic Languages, University of Kansas)

Germans in Kansas. Review Essay
http://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/2005spring_turk.pdf
(Article by Eleanor L. Turk. Kansas History, Spring, 2005 (Vol. 28, pages 44-71). From Kansas State Historical Society website)

Kansas Memory
(The Kansas State Historical Society provides a wealth of information on all things Kansas at this excellent website. Below are four categories that take in Germans in Kansas)
People - European Americans - Germans - Volga-Germans
People - European Americans - German Russians
People - European Americans - Germans
Community Life - Religion - Christianity - Mennonite

ETHNIC, RELIGIOUS AND GEOGRAPHIC COMMUNITIES
Many Europeans immigrated in groups. These groups often shared a common belief system, ethnic heritage, came from the same community in Europe or all of the above. Most Kansans are familiar with some of these groups, which sometimes overlap: Mennonites, Germans from Russia and Low Germans (Plattdeutsch):

Germans from Russia (Volga Germans)
http://www.volgagerman.net/

Germans and German-Russians
http://www.kshs.org/research/collections/documents/bibliographies/ethnic/german_russian.htm
(A bibliography Provided by the Kansas State Historical Society)

Mennonites
http://www.kshs.org/research/collections/documents/bibliographies/religion/mennonite.htm
(A bibliography provided by the Kansas State Historical Society)

The Bukovina Germans
http://www.elliscountyhistoricalmuseum.org/index.asp?DocumentID=687
(You might ask just what is a Bukovina German? Find out here!)

From Far Away Russia: Russian-Germans in Kansas
http://www.kshs.org/exhibits/russia/russia1.htm
(A virtual exhibit provided by the Kansas State Historical Society)

The Migration of the Russian-Germans to Kansas
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1974/74_1_saul.htm
(By Norman E. Saul, Kansas Historical Quarterly, Spring, 1974 (Vol. 40, No. 1),
pages 38-62. From the Kansas Collection website)

American Historical Society of Germans From Russia
Northeastern Kansas Chapter
http://www.ahsgr.org/northeastern_kansas_chapter.htm

The Golden Jubilee of German-Russian Settlements of Ellis and Rush Counties, Kansas
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/ethnic/german-russian/jubilee/
(A transcription of the 1926 book at the Kansas GenWeb website)

Low German Language and Heritage Revitalization Project of Washington and Marshall Counties, Kansas
http://www2.ku.edu/~germanic/newlghp.shtml
(From the Department of Germanic Languages, University of Kansas)

Mennonites in Kansas
http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/K366.html
(From The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online)

Mob Violence and Kansas Mennonites in 1918
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1977/77_3_juhnke.htm
(Violence against German Americans was common during World War I. This article is one of many different resources on the ugliness of prejudice. Kansas Historical Quartery, Autumn, 1977 (Vol. 43, No. 3), pages 334 to 350, from the Kansas Collection website)

Swiss Mennonite Cultural and Historical Association
Monthly Features
http://www.swissmennonite.org/feature_archive/archive.html
(Articles from the Association, many of which have to do with Kansas and Kansans)

Settlement of the Krimmer Mennonite Brethren at Gnadenau, Marion County
http://www.kshs.org/publicat/khq/1945/45_5_pantle.htm
(Article by Alberta Pantle. Kansas Historical Quarterly, February, 1945 (Vol. 13 No. 5), pages 259 to 285. From Kansas State Historical Society website)

Volga German Immigrants in Kansas Traveling Resource Trunk
http://www.kshs.org/teachers/trunks/volga_ideas.htm
(From the KSHS website: The Kansas Historical Society offers an exciting series of educational resource trunks. Trunks are based on a specific theme and include hands-on activities to help students better understand the history of Kansas. Each trunk is aimed at a specific age level, but the information within the trunks can be adapted for use with all ages. Complete instructional information is included with each trunk.)

Chihuahua, Mexico Low German Dialects in Kansas
http://www2.ku.edu/~germanic/KHC_Project.html
(Low German-speaking immigrants from Mexico to Kansas started arriving in the 1990's. Research from the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Kansas)

GERMAN COMMUNITIES WITHIN KANSAS TOWNS
German communities within larger towns were very active among themselves as well as business and benevolent activities that benefited all those around them.

Small Town Germans: The Germans of Lawrence, Kansas, from 1854 to 1918
http://history.lawrence.com/project/community/thesis/intro.html
(By Katja Rampelmann. Maters Thesis, University of Kansas, 1993. From Lawrence
Community Connections' History of Lawrence website)

The Germans of Atchison, 1854-1859: Development of an Ethnic Community
http://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/1979autumn_turk.pdf
(Article by Eleanor L. Turk. Kansas History, August 1979 (Vol. 2), pages 146-156. From Kansas State Historical Society website)

A Nod to a Shared History
http://cjonline.com/stories/080402/mid_volgagermans.shtml
(Volga Germans in Topeka. An article by Paul Eakins, Topeka Capital Journal, August 4, 2002)

St Joseph Catholic Church (Topeka, Kansas) Records, 1887-2002
http://www.kshs.org/research/collections/documents/businessrecords/business_records_findingaids/stjosephtopeka.htm
(A detailed list of records held at the Kansas State Historical Society which chronicle the history of the Volga German Catholic community in Topeka. Many microfilmed records can be borrowed from the Society via interlibrary loan)

A Tale of Two Counties: German Speakers in Kansas
http://www.epinions.com/content_4340228228
(An interesting article comparing the German communities of Ellis and Marshall counties)

GERMAN LANGUAGE NEWSPAPERS
One of the best sources of information on the rich history of German language newspapers in Kansas is the article, "The German Newspapers of Kansas" by Eleanor Turk, (Kansas History, vol. 6 Spring 1983, pages 46+.) Many libraries subscribe to Kansas History. If you can't find it locally you should be able to get a copy via interlibary loan at your local library)

Here's a googled list of Some Kansas counties with German language newspapers You'll have to bring up each county and then do a word search for "German." You can also search the Kansas State Historical Society's Newspaper Database at http://www.kshs.org/library/news.htm. The database does not have a language qualifier but common words like Zeit, Blatt, Sonntag, Herold, Anzeiger, used in a title search will bring up some newspapers. Newspapers on microfilm can be borrowed from the Society via interlibrary loan.

ON A LIGHTER SIDE
On a lighter side, or darker depending on the choice of beer, Germans in Kansas have contributed to the celebration of life with their food, drink and special events. Below are links to some of these activities that speak, taste and sing to us of all that is German in Kansas:

Kansas Breweries
http://freestatebrewing.com/history
(By Cindy Higgins. Beer brewing history in Kansas is closely tied to German
immigrants. From the Free State Brewing Company website)

Schuelerkongress.
http://www2.ku.edu/~germanic/UniversityRelations2010.pdf
(An annual day-long competition for high schoolers studying German in Kansas will
take place on March 6, starting at 9:00 a.m., in Wescoe Hall)

Bieroch Recipe
http://www.kansasheritage.org/cooking/bierochs.html
(A bieroch, can be a meal unto itself. This is just one recipe sample. There are as many ways to make a beiroch as there are to spell the word!)

Volga German Food
http://www.midwestdeutschefest.com/index.asp?DocumentID=704
(Includes recipes!)

Find a Local German Food Store
http://www.germanfoods.org/consumer/find/stores.cfm
(Search by Kansas)

Some Recipes from Kansas Food Journal
http://www.kansasfoodjournal.com/?s=german
(Recipes from Kansas State University students)

Archival Recipe Index Search
http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/archrecipes/
(Wow! An amazing search tool for recipes, cookbooks and other culinary resources)

Volga German Foods
http://www.kshs.org/teachers/trunks/pdfs/volga10_food.pdf
(A document from the Kansas State Historical Society's

Oktoberfest!
Atchison
Caldwell
Hays (Midwest Deutsche celebration)
Hays (held in conjunction with FHSU Homecoming weekend)
Overbrook
Stafford
Topeka (OK... it's in June and it's called Germanfest!)
(Shawnee and Abilene have Oktoberfest celebrations as well)

Article contact: Bill Sowers

People of the Wind

2010-02-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

"The fretful wind,
the whimpering wind,
The wind that is never still
Comes lustily into his own at last
On this far, high hill."
(From: "The Wind" by Esther M. (Clark) Hill)

Sometimes friend, sometimes foe, the wind has played an integral part in Kansas history and continues to be an important influence on our economy, culture, literature and persona.

We are "The People of the South Wind" according to most translations of the word Kansa, the Native American tribe for which our state was named. Whether a true translation or not it fits us. Most Kansans constantly have an eye and/or an ear to the skies and to the wind. The wind's turn can mean a sudden change to rain, snow, or extreme cold. It can drive devastating tornadoes, dust, blizzards, or be a source of power to drive an economy. It speaks to us in roaring gales or soft murmuring breezes. Songs, poems and stories reflect the power of the Kansas wind while photographs show vistas of windblown prairies resembling ocean waves flowing up and down across the landscape. We are most assuredly a people of the wind.

So let's take a look at the wind as it has shaped Kansas through the years. The links below will touch on the wind as a force in general covering many topics. Specific topics such as tornadoes and dust storms will be covered more in-depth later in this series.

WHERE DOES THE WIND BLOW?
Kansas Wind Resource Map
http://www.kcc.state.ks.us/maps/Kansas_SPD50m_22Sept08.pdf
(Enlarge the map using the percentage drop down box at the top. The colored graphics in the legend on the right hand side indicate average wind speeds around the state)

And the windiest winner is......
According to the National Climatic Data Center's list of annual average wind speeds, the windiest U.S. city is Dodge City, Kansas, with an average speed of 13.9 mph. Other windy cities include Amarillo, Texas (13.5 mph) and Rochester, Minnesota (13.1 mph.). The windiest "big" cities are New York City (LaGuardia Airport) and Oklahoma City, which both have an average annual wind speed of 12.2 mph.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/archive-windy-city.htm

When Kansas Winds Blow, by Gail Lee Martin
http://ourecho.com/story-510-When-Kansas-Winds-Blow.shtml
(Personal reminiscences and observances of the wind in Kansas)

Thunderstorm in Hamilton County, 2009 (YouTube video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq8JrH32EFA
(Wind and rain lash across Hamilton County, Kansas)

HISTORIC GALES
Dust, fire and snow driven by the Kansas wind can wreak havoc on anything in its path.

Picture of a Family in a Wind Storm
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/208411
(An 1874 graphic from Harpers Weekly shows a family in a covered wagon being buffeted by a Kansas gale. From: Kansas Memory)

Dust Storms, by James C. Malin
Part I, 1850-1860
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1946/46_2_malin.htm
Part II, 1861-1880
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1946/46_3_malin.htm
Part III, 1881-1900
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1946/46_4_malin.htm
(Dust in the wind is not limited to popular music and the 1930s. Dust storms have been a part of the Great Plains ecology for many years. From issues of the Kansas Historical Quarterly transcribed at the Kansas Collection website)

Kansas in the 1930s, by Clifford R. Hope, Sr.
Kansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Spring 1970)
http://www.kshs.org/publicat/khq/1970/70_1_hope.htm
(The ill winds of the economic collapse of 1929 were magnified by the winds that brought dust storms to much of Kansas during the 1930s. From: KSHS)

U.S. Dust Bowl of the 1930's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEYb9xjAhHI
(A short YouTube oral history of an approaching dust storm's effects)

Curbing the Wind, by L.C. Archer
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/210664
(The dust storms of the early 1930s awakened a greater understanding of wind erosion and the need for preventive measures in agriculture. From: Kansas Memory)

Kansas Dust Storm 2004

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ddc/swaw/dust.php
(Dry top soil and high winds combine to give an eerie 1930s flashback in 21st century western Kansas)

WIND AND FIRE
With the power of the wind behind it a fire on the prairie can sweep over farms, livestock, towns and people in a matter of minutes

The Prairie Fires in Kansas
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C0DE4DA1731E033A25756C1A9659C94629ED7CF
(An 1893 article from The New York Times of devastating prairie fires in Kansas.)

Lincoln County, Kansas, remembers the prairie fires of 1890
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/lincoln/fire1890.htm
(Transcribed articles from local papers at the Lincoln County KSGenweb site)

WIND AND SNOW
Officially, the National Weather Service defines a blizzard as a storm which contains large amounts of snow OR blowing snow, with winds in excess of 35 mph and visibilities of less than 1/4 mile for an extended period of time (at least 3 hours)

Blizzards in Comanche County, Kansas
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kscomanc/blizzards.html
(Reminiscences of wind-driven, blinding snow storms in Comanche County)

The Blizzard of 1886
http://www.ellsworthinderep.com/web/isite.dll?1195064998828
(Historic information from the Ellsworth Independent Reporter)

Late March Blizzard, 2009
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ict/scripts/viewstory.php?STORY_NUMBER=2009033012

WIND EROSION

Soil erosion can be a “slow death” for fields in Kansas robbing farms of valuable topsoil. The graphic to the left, from the US Department of Agriculture, shows wind erosion next to a wheat field in Dickinson County.

Three Wind Erosion Videos (YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-gzhT8ksfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhOLWzNfGNc
http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=MZnOP_HEwoY
(Turn your sound down for these though it does give you an auditory wind experience. It may look like dull viewing, but imagine the tons of topsoil at risk across the state)

Principles of Wind Erosion and its Control
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/crpsl2/mf2860.pdf
(Pamphlet from Kansas State University Dept of Agronomy giving information on wind erosion and how to retain soil on land)

HARVESTING THE WIND

Kansans have been taking advantage of the wind since territorial days in providing water and now energy resources. The graphic to the left shows wind turbines along I-70 in Ellsworth County.

The Farm Windmill
http://www.kansasmemory.org/category/6152
(Kansas Memory gives us views of windmills across the state through the years. Harnessing the power of the wind, farm windmills provided household water needs, irrigated some crops and watered livestock)

Windmills
http://www.kancoll.org/books/schiller/tech07.html
(From: “Reflections From the Prairie” at the Kansas Collection)

Kansas Wind and Prairie Task Force
http://kec.kansas.gov/wptf/
(The Wind and Prairie Task Force (WPTF) was established by the State Energy Resources Coordination Council (SERCC), at the request of then Governor Kathleen Sebelius. The Task Force was charged to develop principles, guidelines, and tools that local entities can use as they address the issues concerning wind-energy development in the Flint Hills and other environmentally sensitive areas)

Wind Energy in Reno County
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6dAvTsqy3I
(Wind turbines provide energy to power homes, farms, public buildings and businesses. A promotional video about the development of wind power in Kansas)

Setting up the Greenbush Wind Turbine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EW7_9BLHEo
(YouTube video from the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center in Greenbush, Kansas)

Construction of Spearville Industrial Wind Turbine Power Plant
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7700687328401178662#
(This video has no sound but it gives a detailed look at the construction of a large "wind farm" site near "The City of Windmills," Spearville, Kansas)

Concern Expressed about Wind Power Development
http://www.audubonofkansas.org/Wind/wind.html
(Audobon of Kansas, among others, expresses concern about wildlife, land ecology and the conservation of areas such as the Flint Hills in regards to construction of wind turbines across the land)

Kansas Wind Energy Projects
http://www.kansasenergy.org/wind_projects.htm
(From the Kansas Energy Information Network)

Wind Turbines and Amber Waves of Grain (YouTube video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWU598shF_E
(A calming look at two Kansas bumper crops: wheat and wind)

WIND IN POETRY
Kansans have described the wind in many different ways in song, story and verse. Here are a few samplings of verbal visions of the wind:

POEMS FROM THE POETRY OF KANSAS WEBSITE
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/poetry/index.html
The Song Of The Wind And The Leaves - Ed. Blair
Meadow Lark and Prairie Wind - Ann Reece Pugh
Wind In The Treetops - Louisa Cooke Don-Carlos
The South Wind - C. P. Slane
Prairie Wind - Thomas E. Moore
Song Of The Four Winds - Esther M. (Clark) Hill
Song - May William Ward
Winds at Night - May William Ward
The Prairie Pioneers - Willard Wattles
The Wanderer - Esther M. (Clark) Hill

Poems from the Kansas Poets website
http://www.kansaspoets.com/index.htm
Bluestem Breeze - Phillip Albert King
Seasonal Dichromatic - Ellen Drake
Gift - Lois Virginia Walker

The Kansas Poems of Kenneth Wiggins Porter
http://www.washburn.edu/reference/cks/ebooks/KWPorter.html
(From: Center for Kansas Studies, Washburn University. Take note of the selection from Porter's poem, "The Ghosts of the Buffalo," which speaks to the misguided concept of "conquering" the land rather than living with it)

DOROTHY! DOROTHY!
And what look at the Kansas wind would not be complete without the story which has defined us for decades? Love her or hate her, Dorothy Gale means Kansas to people around the world... and her little dog too!
“The Cyclone” from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum
http://www.kancoll.org/books/baum/oz01.htm
(The first chapter of the book, later adapted in various film versions, that has defined the Kansas persona. From The Kansas Collection)

Article contact: Bill Sowers

In the Beginning: Kansas Geology

2010-01-25T21:39:00.000-08:00

Before the people. Before the waving grasses blown by the wind. Before the buffalo... there was the land.

What's so special about the land that makes up Kansas? It's a flat, uninteresting checkerboard of fields and rangeland marked off by right-angled roads extending as far as the eye can see, isn't it? No! This is the stereotypical view most Americans have of Kansas from movies such as "The Wizard of Oz" or glancing down from an airliner flying from one coast to the other.

As with anything worth a closer look, understanding the lay of the land in Kansas often requires taking the next exit off an Interstate highway, pulling over to the side of a two-lane road, getting out of your car and opening your eyes, ears and mind to the rich diversity of seemingly subtle changes around you.

Below are links to some resources on Kansas geology. Basic information, graphics and references will give you an opportunity to dig down into the rich layers of geological history that have formed the different regions that make up the Kansas landscape.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Kansas Geological Survey
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/
(Maps, research publications, databases, graphics, informative web pages, etc. The Survey provides a wealth of information on the geology of Kansas, much of it available online, held by libraries or for sale from the Survey.)

GeoKansas: a Place to Learn About Kansas Geology
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/home.html
(GeoKansas is a branch of the Geology Extension program at the Kansas Geological Survey, designed to provide regionally focused information about the state's geology.)
Included here:
--Geologic Regions
--Fossils
--Places to Visit
--Rocks and Minerals
--Geo Topics
--Field Trips
--Glossary of Geological Terms

Geologic Regions of Kansas
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/Physio.html
("Kansas embraces a wide variety of landscapes, shaped by geologic processes in the past and more recently by human activities, such as farming and mining. Based on common landscape features and geological history, geologists have divided Kansas into the 11 different regions shown on the map. These regions (sometimes called physiographic provinces) each tell a unique story about Kansas geology.")

Physiographic Map of Kansas
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Physio/physio.html
(The Kansas landscape was formed by alternating periods of deposition and erosion. This landscape divides regions of Kansas according to physical geology, or physiography. Each region is different, and that difference is determined largely by geology, along with other factors such as climate.)

Kansas Physiographic Provinces
http://www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov/about/profiles/physiography.html
(Another map of physiographic regions. This one includes a link to an easily printed pdf (Adobe Acrobat) map. Supplied by the US Dept. of Agriculture.)

Kansas Photos from the Kansas Geological Survey
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Images/DB/index.html
(A cool list of photos accessible by subject areas, counties, highways and physiographic regions.)

Kansas Geologic Timetable
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/geotopics/timeChart.html
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/General/timeChart.html
(This chart is available as an 8½ by 11 inch sheet. Single copies of the sheet are free; multiple copies are 10 cents each. Contact the Publications Sales Office of the Kansas Geological Survey for more information.)

Geology of Kansas
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Geology_of_Kansas
(Information from Wapedia.)

Earth Science Department, Emporia State University
http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/earthsci.htm
(The Department's website is a treasure trove of information on Kansas geology. You can find virtual tours of the ESU Johnston Geology Museum and the Creager Kansas Rock Garden there. Links take you to sites covering related topics such as kite aerial photography, remote sensing and the World of Amber. Student and staff publications are also available.)

Online Research Projects by Students,
Emporia State University, Earth Science Department
http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/student/present.htm
(An excellent collection of projects and reports covering many different aspects of Kansas earth science.)

The Osage Cuestas of Southeast Kansas, Legacy of an Ancient Sea
http://archaicgeo.angelfire.com/
(Information from James Whittington, Emporia State University, 2007, about a physiographic region of eastern Kansas.)

Post Rock Limestone
http://www.rushcounty.org/PostRockMuseum/PostRockMuseum2.htm
(Information supplied at the Rush County Historical Society's website on the origins of post rock limestone.)

Oceans of Kansas
http://www.oceansofkansas.com/
(Kansas paleontology with a strong dose of geology on the Western Inland Sea which covered the state millions of years ago. A great site for the curious as well as the studious based on the book, Oceans of Kansas.)

PRINTED RESOURCES

Adams, George Irving. 1903. The Physiographic Divisions of Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 18:109-123.

"As we Venture Across the State From East to West, We Find Ourselves
Climbing the Stairsteps of History"
Kansas heritage. Vol. 13, no. 2 (summer 2005) p. 6-7

Buchanan, Rex. (Ed.). (1984). Kansas Geology: An introduction to landscapes, rocks, minerals and fossils. Kansas Geological Survey Publication, University Press of Kansas.

Buchanan, Rex. (Ed.). (1986). Kansas Rocks and Minerals. (Rev. Ed). Kansas Geological Survey Publication, University Press of Kansas.

Buchanan, Rex. Roadside Kansas: a Traveler's Guide to its Geology and Landmarks. Lawrence, Kan. : University Press of Kansas for the Kansas Geological Survey (1987)

Everhart, Michael J. Oceans of Kansas: a Natural History of the Western Interior Sea. Bloomington : Indiana University Press. (2005)
http://www.oceansofkansas.com/

Geological Structure [of Kansas]
(From: William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas
was first published in 1883 by A. T. Andreas, Chicago, IL.)
http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/deschist/geolog-p1.html

Hay, Robert. Geology and Mineral Resources of Kansas (From the Eighth Biennial Report of the State Board of Agriculture, 1891-92. 1893.)
http://www.archive.org/details/geologyandminer01haygoog
(The economic possibilities under foot as seen by 19th century Kansans.)

Heat Moon, William Least. PrairyErth (a deep map) : an Epic History of the Tallgrass Prairie Country. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. 1991
(A deep map look at Chase County, Kansas. “PrairyErth is a vigorous and exalted evocation of the American land, its people, its past, its hopes. The very word ‘prairyerth,’ an old geologic term for the soils of our central grasslands, captures the essence of the American tall-grass country."...From the dust jacket)

Kedzie, William K. The Elements of Agricultural Geology for the Schools of Kansas Wilson, Hinkle & Co. (1877)
http://www.archive.org/details/elementsagricul00kedzgoog
(Kansas geology as taught in the public schools in the 1800s.)

Lee, W. & Merriam, D.F. Cross sections in eastern Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey Publication, University Press of Kansas. (1954).

Merriam, D.F. The Geologic History of Kansas. State Geological Survey Publication, University of Kansas Publications, Lawrence, KS. (1963).

Mudge, Benjamin Franklin. First Annual Report on the Geology of Kansas / issued by the first Kansas State Geologist. (1866).
http://www.archive.org/details/firstannualrepor00kansrich
(Mudge was the first State Geologist of Kansas. A look at how early Kansans saw the geology of Kansas)

Wooster, Lyman Child. The Geological Story of Kansas. Crane & Company. (1900).
http://www.archive.org/details/geologicalstory00woosgoog

Zeller, D.E. The Stratigraphic Succession in Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey Publication, University of Kansas Publications, Lawrence, KS.

(1968).

Article contact: Bill Sowers

Welcome to Kansas 150 SLK!

2010-01-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the State Library of Kansas' blog celebrating 150 years of Kansas statehood!

Within the issues to come we will be providing you with links to resources on the state of Kansas celebrating its entrance as the 34th state in the Union on January 29, 1861 to the present. We will wander from east to west visiting places of beauty, notoriety and memorable events. We will journey through our state's history learning what and who took a part in its development. We will also enjoy Kansas' cultural, ethnic and religious heritage. Kansas stretches out before us ready to tell us her stories and we will listen and learn together.

During 2010 we'll issue a new article every two weeks. In the sesquicentennial year we plan on a new article every week. Our hope is to supply librarians and other interested folks a look at special places, faces and events in Kansas' past and present.

So saddle up and join us. Pull on some comfortable boots, set a broad-rimmed hat on your head to keep the sun, snow and rain out of your eyes... and let's ride!