A Moment in Time

125 Years Ago Publishers Began Collecting Kansas History"

December 2000
By Bobbie Athon

A monthly series from the Kansas Historical Society

Following the end of the Civil War, Kansas newspaper editors and publishers sought a way to record the founding of the state and its heroic role in the fight against slavery. A committee of the Kansas Editors' and Publishers' Association met December 13, 1875 and formed the Kansas Historical Society to collect newspapers and manuscripts on the territorial period.

Publishers became members of the Society by donating issues of their newspapers. For all others, the annual membership fee was $2.

At first, the Society was able to store its small collection in a bookcase on the fourth floor of the south wing of the Kansas statehouse. In 1879 the state enacted legislation that recognized the Society as "the trustee of the state" for the purpose of maintaining the state's history. Within ten years, the Society had collected more than 16,000 books and pamphlets and more than 3,700 bound volumes of newspaper and periodicals.

"Kansas has the fullest collection ever made by any state in its early years, because this was the first Society that began its career by collecting and preserving every copy of every newspaper published in the state," said Secretary George Martin, in his 25^th annual address of the Society in 1900.

The Society collections continued to grow. In 1893, the legislature authorized the Society to occupy three rooms in the south wing of the statehouse. The board of directors reported that collections filled "every nook and corner of the main room of the Society from floor to ceiling; they occupy cases in the corridors, and they occupy three rooms in the cellar of the State House"

"The Kansas Historical Society is a good deal of a junk shop. . .It had the gall last year to ask that the entire east wing of the state house be turned over to it to be filled with car loads of rubbish. . .," reported the Clay Center Times in 1897.

A $90,000 Civil War claim from the federal government and a legislative appropriation helped to solve the Society's immediate space concerns. In 1911, United States President William Howard Taft was the honored guest at the laying of the corner stone of the new Memorial Building. Built as a monument to the Union veterans of the Civil War, the building opened in 1914. The Society moved more than 440,000 objects and effects to the new quarters, shared with the Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War veterans organization.

The Society added a new type of collections in 1927 with the acquisition of two state historic sites. The annual meeting report celebrated the addition of "Shawnee Mission in Johnson County, [and] the old Capitol at Fort Riley. . ."

In addition to growing collections, the Society expanded its programs. Archeology, historic preservation and museum services were added. By the 1980s, the Society was outgrowing the Memorial Building.

In 1984, the museum moved to a new building located in northwest Topeka. Situated on eighty acres, the museum joined one of the Society's historic buildings, Potawatomi Mission. In 1995, the library and archives also moved to the complex. In January 2001, a third storage bay on the Center for Historical Research will be completed, providing an additional 22,000 square feet of space for storing mainly library and archives collections. The building is expected to handle the Society's space needs for more than 30 years.

Because of the foresight of those earlier publishers, the Kansas Historical Society has one of the most comprehensive collections state newspapers in the nation. The Society is headquartered at the Kansas History Center in Topeka featuring the Center for Historical Research, the Kansas Museum of History, the Kansas History Nature Trail. The Society administers fifteen state historic sites and the Kansas State Capitol Tours and continues its mission toward education, historic preservation and archeology. Kansas Historical Society, Inc. has more than 4,000 members worldwide. The Kansas History Center is located 6425 SW Sixth Avenue, Topeka KS 66615-1099; 785-272-8681, TTY 785-272-8683; www.kshs.org

The Kansas Historical Society does not discriminate on the basis of disability in admission to, access to, or operation of its programs. The Society requests prior notification to accommodate individuals with special needs or disabilities.