New Additions to Our Collections

David Polson of Gardner recently donated artifacts from Great Bend Aspect sites in Rice County. Such central Kansas sites are the 15th-16th century villages of the ancestors of the Wichita tribe and may have been visited by the Coronado expedition of 1541.

Pictured are two distinctive pottery pieces from the collection. On the left is a glaze-painted sherd that represents tradeware of Southwestern origin, likely dating from the mid-16th century. The specimen on the right is probably from a locally made pot. It is a loop handle with irregularly spaced grass-stem punctures.

Click on the thumbnail image at right to view an enlargement.

A significant Library acquisitions was Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux by J. Ronald Green. Micheaux was the first African American to produce a feature-length film and the first to produce a "talkie" motion picture. The pioneer filmmaker is buried in Great Bend, Kansas, which he considered to be his adopted hometown.

Another important addition to the Library was The Santa Fe Trail: Its History, Legends, and Lore by David Dary.

Click on the thumbnail image at right to view the cover of Straight Lick.

A 1904 farm ledger kept by Joe Reid was loaned to the Society for copying. Reid was the son of Peter and Jennet Reid, who settled near Good Intent in Atchison County. The ledger and other manuscript and photograph materials were loaned to the Society by Dea Yanke, Atchison, as part of the Atchison County Historical Society collecting project. Copies of materials gathered during the project will be available at both institutions.

Click on the thumbnail image to view an enlargement of the Reid ledger.

Dave Mathias and Morris Sowards recently donated their large collection of commercial photographs. Their Topeka company started out as Wolf Commercial Photo and later became Photo 1. There are more than 100,000 negatives and prints documenting Topeka industries, businesses, groups, schools, weddings, etc.

Click on the thumbnail image at right to see a larger version of this aerial view of Topeka from the 1990s.

Back to the most recent New Collections page.