Post Records (Bound), ca. 1880-1943, Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Kansas

Manuscript Collection no. 126 and (various) Microfilm

• Descriptive Information
• History/Biographical Sketch
• Scope and Contents
• Organization of the Collection
• Adjunct Descriptive Data
• Controlled Access Headings
• Administrative Information
• Description of Subordinate Components

Descriptive Information

This section provides basic data about the collection and a brief overview of its contents.

1.1 Repository
Kansas State Historical Society (Topeka)

1.2 Creator
Grand Army of the Republic. Dept. of Kansas.

1.3 Title
Post records (Bound)

1.4 Dates
ca. 1880-1943

1.5 Quantity
29 ft. (30 boxes)
10 microfilm reels

1.6 Abstract
State branch of a national organization of Union veterans of the Civil War. Preceded in Kansas by the Veteran (Union) Brotherhood. Established in Kansas in 1866. Permanently reorganized in 1880. The organization purported to preserve fraternal bonds among surviving Union veterans, perpetuate the history of the dead, and assist veterans in need and their families. Responsibility over the records and artifacts of the organization was transferred to the Kansas State Historical Society in 1957.

Bound post records are the administrative records such as minutes books, descriptive rolls, financial ledgers of an individual post, and may include veteran rolls, burial records, and pension books.

1.7 Identification
Microfilm. See the Organization of the Collection section below for a list of microfilm rolls included in this collection.
Ms. collection no. 126
Shelf location 20-11-01-01 thru 20-12-03-02
Consult the Description of Subordinate Components section below for microfilm roll numbers and location & folder numbers of individual series.

1.8 Notes
This finding aid describes materials held by the Kansas State Historical Society. Materials may be used in the Research Room in the society’s Center for Historical Research during regular research hours. Support for telephone, mail, and online reference and research is limited.

This finding aid describes materials on microfilm held by the Kansas State Historical Society. Microfilm may be used in the Research Room in the society’s Center for Historical Research during regular research hours. Microfilm may also be borrowed through interlibrary loan for your use at a participating public, academic, or research library. Information on interlibrary loan is available from the Kansas State Historical Society and on its web site, http://www.kshs.org. Support for telephone, mail and online research and reference is limited.

In a continuing effort to improve the completeness and accuracy of finding aids, revisions are made as more or new information becomes available. Consequently, this finding aid may differ slightly from what appears on the microfilm or on the Kansas State Historical Society’s web site.

Descriptions are often based on a preliminary inspection of the material. As such, they may contain misspellings or other inaccuracies based on folder headings and other sources within the materials. As the collections are arranged and as time permits, these finding aids are improved and corrected. If you spot an error, please feel free to report it to the reference staff or an archivist.

History/Biographical Sketch

This section contains a brief sketch of the organization that created the records.

2.1 History
An organizational history of the Kansas Department of the Grand Army of the Republic is also available.

Scope And Contents

This section contains a description and analysis of the contents of the collection.

The bound records of an individual post may include descriptive rolls, memorial records, minute books, Adjutant/Quartermaster’s reports, financial ledgers, medical descriptive books, veterans rosters, burial records, pension books, honor rolls, visitor’s books, and transfers. The minutes, descriptive rolls, and financial records are the most common types of records in this collection; the record types listed above may appear for one or two posts only.

Unlike a post's quarterly reports, which were routinely submitted to the state department, the bound records of a post stayed at the post and chronicled its history and membership. The bound records were to be sent to the state department when the post closed. This collection includes bound records for just less than half of all GAR posts in Kansas; essentially all posts which turned in records to the state department as required. Posts which did not submit there records to the state department are not represented in this collection unless such records were acquired subsequently by other means.

Organization of the Collection

This section describes the order in which the collection’s contents have been placed.

The individual books and registers are arranged by post number and thereunder proceed in no particular order.

Oversize bound materials are filed with the oversize loose, post records. See Post Records (Loose) for an inventory of these oversize materials.

Many of the books and ledgers in this collection originally included loose leaf documents inserted into their pages. These documents were removed during processing and filed in post number order. Item removal sheets have been inserted at each item's original location and similar sheets accompany the removed item in its new location. The removed files follow the series of bound post records and proceed in numerical order by post number. Corrected removal sheets for items that have been removed, but for which corrections may or may not have been made, are filed in Box 30 following the removed items for posts 334-500.

Microfilmed copies of records exist for several posts and generally invovle materials not included in the orginal collection of the state department aquired by the Society in 1957. The following table lists the microfilm copies of records included in this collection. See the Description of Subordinate Components section below for a complete list of materails in this collection.

Adjunct Descriptive Data

This section includes lists of sources used in the preparation of this finding aid, collections on similar subjects that may be of interest to researchers, items cataloged separately, and items removed from the collection.

5.1 Related Materials
Administrative records, 1878-1945 (1882-1914), Grand Army of the Republic, Kansas Department, Manuscript Collection 126, Series 1- 7. See Administrative Records for a list of records in this collection.

Post Records (Unbound), ca. 1880-1943, Grand Army of the Republic, Kansas Department, Manuscript Collection 126, Series 8. See Post Records (Unbound) for a list of records in this collection.

Charters, ca. 1880-1943, Grand Army of the Republic, Kansas Department, Manuscript Collection 126, Series 10. See Charters for a list of records in this collection.

See the Administrative Records finding aid for a list of additional related materials in allied collections.

5.3 Other Finding Aid
Copies of this finding aid are available in the Research Room of the Center for Historical Research and on its web site, http://www.kshs.org

Controlled Access Headings

The terms listed below may include names, places, subjects, occupations, titles, and other words describing this collection. These terms are used in the ATLAS catalog used by the Kansas State Historical Society and affiliated libraries in Topeka, http://lib.wuacc.edu/search, as well as libraries and archives subscribing to OCLC, an international library/archives database. Searches on these words should produce a description of this collection as well as other books and collections that may be of interest. Names are subjects unless otherwise noted. Topical terms are Library of Congress subject headings unless indicated otherwise.

6.2 Corporate Names
Grand Army of the Republic.; Dept. of Kansas.

6.3 Geographic Names
Kansas -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865.
Kansas -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Societies, etc.
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Societies, etc.
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Veterans -- Registers.

6.4 Subjects
Fraternal societies – Kansas.
Friendly societies -- Kansas.
Grand Army of the Republic.; Dept. of Kansas -- History.
Grand Army of the Republic.; Dept. of Kansas -- Records and correspondence.
Grand Army of the Republic.; Dept. of Kansas -- Societies, etc.
Military pensions -- United States -- Civil War, 1861-1865.
Patriotic Societies – Kansas.
Soldiers – Kansas.
Societies (fraternal).
Veterans – Kansas.

Administrative Information

This section provides more detailed information about this collection that may be helpful to those wishing to use it, including its history, restrictions, copyright information, other formats, and a suggested citation form.

7.1 Restrictions on Access
None.

7.2 Restrictions on Use
Notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). The user is cautioned that the publication of the contents of this microfilm may be construed as constituting a violation of literary property rights. These rights derive from the principle of common law, affirmed in the copyright law of 1976 as amended, that the writer of an unpublished letter or other manuscript has the sole right to publish the contents thereof unless he or she affirmatively parts with that right; the right descends to his or her legal heirs regardless of the ownership of the physical manuscript itself. It is the responsibility of a user or his or her publisher to secure the permission of the owner of literary property rights in unpublished writing.

Most documents created by governmental entities, including the State of Kansas, are considered in the public domain, although copyright to documents found in public records that were written by individuals or organizations and sent to government agencies may be owned by the writers or their heirs.

7.4 Alternate Form Available
Some materials may be available in both paper and microfilm formats. See collection inventories for availability of alternate formats.

7.5 Preferred Citation
Note: [ document and/or series description, date], Grand Army of the Republic, Dept. of Kansas, Post Records (Bound), ca. 1880--1943, Kansas State Historical Society, Ms. Collection 126 [box number]; microfilm MS [roll number].

Bibliography: Grand Army of the Republic, Dept. of Kansas. Post Records (Bound), ca. 1880– 1943, Kansas State Historical Society, Ms. Collection 126 [box number]; microfilm MS [roll number].

7.6 Acquisition Information
In 1957 the Kansas state legislature assigned custody of all records held by the state department of the Grand Army of the Republic at the Memorial Building in Topeka, Kansas, to the Kansas State Historical Society (L. 1957 ch444, p948-949). The KSHS secretary’s report for the annual meeting ending 20 October 1959 notes:

“Records of the Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Kansas, were moved into the archives division from the old office space of the GAR during the past year. Fiscal and reunion records, 1879-1936, have been microfilmed while letters and papers of the organization, totaling 18 manuscript volumes and 14 document boxes, have been arranged and shelved” (See KHQ, v XXVI, 1960 [Kansas Historical Collections, v XLII], p. 78).

Since the 1950s, the Society has received a number of additional GAR records by donation. The identification of considerable gaps in the Grand Army records has prompted the Society to solicit additional donations.

7.7 Processing Information
Collection processed by:

Description Of Subordinate Components

Archival records are typically organized by series, a group of records that has a common element or function and a distinct organizational structure of its own, for example Correspondence Files, arranged chronologically, or Registers of Military Enlistments, arranged by regiment. Groups of series from the same office or other organizational element may form a subgroup, a portion of a larger record group, such as the sub - group "1979 – 87 (John Carlin)"