Books and Magazines
The Library and Archives Division of the Kansas State Historical Society
collects materials about the history of Kansas and the West. Subject
areas include railroad development, trails, westward expansion, frontier
and pioneer life, western forts and military life, Indian wars, the
Civil War, and western Native American tribal histories and bibliographies.
General American historical topics are also included. The library also
focuses on genealogy for Kansas and other states, particularly those
surrounding Kansas and those east of the Mississippi. Access to library
materials is through card catalogs, indexes, and finding aids. The library
collection is cataloged by Kansas and non-Kansas holdings into the Kansas
card catalog and the general card catalog located in the research room
of the Center for Historical Research. Information on recent additions
to the collection is available through our on-line public access catalog
called ATLAS.
This online catalog is a shared database for several Topeka libraries
so not all of the entries are at the KSHS. In addition, only a small
portion of our holdings have been recataloged so less than 5 percent
of KSHS holdings can be found in ATLAS at this time.
The library collection includes books, pamphlets, church and school
histories, yearbooks, atlases, family histories, historical and current
published records of state government, poetry, music, and newspapers
related to the collecting areas described above. The library is a depository
for selected federal documents. The holdings currently consist of approximately
500,000 items.
Magazine and periodical holdings of the KSHS library collection include
the publications of the Kansas State Historical Society, historical
periodicals from various historical associations and historical societies,
periodicals from Kansas and out-of-state genealogical organizations,
magazines published in Kansas, journals of Kansas professional organizations
and other special interest publications. The holdings also include numerous
nineteenth and early twentieth century popular and literary magazines
with a national focus. The KSHS library has more than 1500 titles of
current and discontinued Kansas and national periodicals.
Other holdings include:
The library holdings include many sources containing information on
individuals and families. This link will provide information on a variety
of these sources. Portraits of many Kansans and Kansas families my be
found in the photograph collections.
Our collections contain a vast number of histories of both Kansas
and non-Kansas counties and towns. A bibliography for each Kansas county
contains titles for most of the Kansas county histories. These histories
often contain biographical sketches of residents. County clippings volumes
also contain information on individuals and incidents. The ‘dead
town list,” compiled in the 1930s, includes information on
more than 4,500 extinct or declining towns in Kansas. The Kansas
Post Offices Database includes every known Kansas post office created
between May 29, 1828 to August 3, 1961, with its dates of operation.
These dates can indicate approximately when the town was established
and, in some cases, when it disappeared.
Statewide gazetteers and Kansas county, city, farm, business, and
telephone directories, 1859 to date, are listed in finding aids available
in the Research Room. Some non-Kansas directories also are available.
Information on our holdings of Kansas city directories, telephone directories
and some farm and other specialized directories is available in the
directories database.
Over the years, the Kansas State Historical Society has published several
ongoing periodicals. The Society's first periodical was the 17 volume
Kansas
Historical Collections. The first 10 volumes of this series were
also titled the Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society.
The first 11 volumes are available on microfilm through interlibrary
loan.
The Collections were followed by the Kansas
Historical Quarterly, which was published from 1931 through 1977.
Many articles are available in digital format.
The current scholarly publication is Kansas
History,which is available through an annual membership in the Kansas
State Historical Society as is Kansas
Heritage. Kansas Kaleidoscope
is designed for students and is available through an annual subscription.
The Kansas State Historical Society Library has been a permanent repository
for state publications since 1876 and possesses the most extensive collection
of Kansas government documents in the United States. This collection
reflects the strong historical commitment and legal requirement of the
society to preserve Kansas’s history and state publications.
The KSHS Library has been a U.S. depository library since 1877 and
possesses an extensive collection of government documents relating to
Kansas and the West, as well as a general collection on U.S. history,
politics, and government. Holdings include complete runs of the Congressional
Record, the Congressional Serial Set, the Yearbook of Agriculture, and
Statistics of Railroads in the U.S.
The library collection is strong in a number of areas for non-Kansas
items such a family histories, local histories for other states, Adjutant
General’s reports for the Civil War era for states east of Kansas,
gazetteers, postal guides, and some vital records, military rosters,
city directories, and indexes to and federal census for other states.
For genealogical researchers, the KSHS has more than 1500 genealogical
books, 500 genealogical pamphlets, numerous genealogical periodicals,
and lineage books for various patriotic societies including the DAR.
The American Genealogical and Biographical Index is available and the
KSHS has approximately 70% of the sources indexed in this standard genealogical
reference tool.
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