Kansas Historical Society Online Tour

Part 2

We're proud of our exhibits on Kansas history. Several have won national awards, including How Kansas Gave Texas the Boot.

At the Kansas Historical Society we have one permanent gallery and three other spaces where displays change on a regular basis. Discover what's on display this month by scanning our Exhibits page.

You can view exhibits at our State Historic Sites around Kansas, too.

We also work with the Kansas Humanities Council to offer quality, low-cost traveling exhibits through KITES, the Kansas Interpretive Traveling Exhibit Service. Numerous exhibits are available on such topics as African American history, Kansas folk art, and childhood in Kansas.

All our programs are educational, but some are designed especially for teachers and students.

We sponsor a statewide History Day contest encouraging students to conduct historical research and develop their findings into a project. State contest winners advance to National History Day, where Kansas students regularly place among the finalists.

To learn about our other popular educational programs, look at the Teachers page.

Our staff visits communities around Kansas to help them preserve the state's past. Here, one of our architects offers advice to the owner of a historic building.

Especially popular is a program that motivates communities to raise matching funds to restore their historic buildings. The Heritage Trust Fund provides monies for the preservation of properties listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places.

Another way we preserve the state's history is through our collections.

The Kansas Historical Society's beautiful State Archives & Library is used by thousands of people each year. The staff works with researchers studying our comprehensive collection of books, manuscripts, and other materials.

We also answer research requests by mail, email, telephone, and through interlibrary loan.

At the State Records Center our staff works with other state agencies to manage their records. We maintain records transferred to the Center for the period required by law, and retrieve thousands of documents each year for agencies requesting this service.

The Society's staff works hard behind-the-scenes to manage our own collections.

The Library and Archives collections are lodged in a state-of-the-art storage area housed in this building. Books are stowed on moveable units that slide on tracks. This compact shelving maximizes the room's storage space.

Objects in the Museum collections are stored on steel shelves, racks, and cabinets specially designed by a well-known manufacturer of quality museum storage equipment.