New Additions to Our Collections

July - December 2000

The pictured metal artifacts were recovered during the Kansas Archeology Training Program field school in June 2000. This project included the excavation of two dugouts at the site of Fort Ellsworth, a frontier fort occupied between 1864 and 1867 in Ellsworth County.

The three buttons on the top row are from military uniforms. The two on either end are General Service buttons that would have been worn by enlisted men of the time. The middle button is probably a cuff button from an infantry officer's uniform. The style is known as a gilded Line Eagle Devise.

The first object on the lower row is a homemade identification tag. The second is a hat insignia of the type used on a military Shako. The cross sabers on the right is a cavalry insignia.

Click on the thumbnail image at right an enlargement of this photograph.

Waiting on the Bounty, The Dust Bowl Diary of Mary Knackstedt Dyck by Pamela Riney-Kherberg is a new Library acquisition. The book is based on a diary kept by Mary Knackstedt Dyck, who settled with her husband on a Hamilton County farm. Her daily entries tell the story of farm life in western Kansas during the Dust Bowl years. Readers are given a rare opportunity to read the point of view of a wife, mother, and partner in a farming operation. According to the author, "Dyck recorded the everyday events as well as the frustrations of living with drought and dust storms and the sadness of watching one's children leave the farm."

Click on the thumbnail image at right to view the cover of Waiting on the Bounty.

Carmie Griscom of Matthews, North Carolina, recently donated the papers of her aunt, Carmie Wolfe. This collection includes compositions written by Carmie Wolfe plus family history and photographs. Wolfe, born in Frankfort, Kansas, was a well-known educator, writer, and Topeka civic leader.

The Golden Fleece Comes to Mt. Oread (pictured here) was an address presented in 1954 to alumni of the University of Kansas, Wolfe's alma mater.

Click on the thumbnail image to view an enlargement of The Golden Fleece address.

The museum was pleased to add to its collection of folk art by Gust Sands by accepting eight more carvings from the artist's son. Sands pursued his craft for personal pleasure, never receiving formal artistic training. His style of folk art reflects both his Swedish heritage (he was born there in 1877) and American experience, and displays a sensitivity to child's play and imagination. The donkey pictured here is pulling an old-style European cart.

Although the museum collection already included a number of pianos and organs, the addition of a Kansas-made instrument late in the year was particularly exciting. Purchased at auction by the donor, the pump organ was made by the Kansas Organ Company between 1880 and 1900. This Leavenworth, Kansas, manufacturer produced organs for both home parlors and church sanctuaries.

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad donated 11 cubic feet of photographs showing Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway equipment. The collection is arranged by equipment number.

Click on the thumbnail image at right to see a larger version of this photo.

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