Kansas Insects, Spiders & Other Arthropods

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.