Topics in Kansas History:
Politics & Government

Kansas Territory was created to help solve the nation's political turmoil in 1854 with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The territory quickly became the scene for strong political discussion. Settlers with both free-state and proslavery perspectives moved to the area to support their respective causes. When violence occasionally erupted, some called the state "Bleeding Kansas." read more

Find resources on Politics & Government:

• Brewer, David J.
• Browder, Earl
• Brown v. Board of Education
• Buffalo Soldiers
• Burch, Rousseau Angelus
• Butler, Pardee
• Capper, Arthur
• Cedar Crest
• Cessna, Clyde
• Chase County Courthouse
• County Fights
• Curtis, Charles
• Essay on Kansas Governors
• First Territorial Capitol
• Gray, Georgia Neese Clark
• Hope, Clifford
• Ingalls, John James
• Kansans in U.S. House
• Kansans in U.S. Senate
• Kansas Flag
• Kansas Governors
• Kansas State Government Organization
• Rosin, Elizabeth, "The New Deal in Kansas," Kansas Preservation, January/February 2002
• Schwenk, Sally, "Historic Courthouses," Kansas Preservation, July/August 2003
• Thies, Randy, "Historic Kansas Armories," Kansas Preservation, May/June 2002
• Thies, Randy, "The Nickell's Armories," Kansas Preservation, July/August 2002

Letters, documents, objects, photographs, and sites

• American Woman and Her Political Peers pastel (woman suffrage)
• Ballot box that survived a tornado, 1882 county seat election
• Capper, Arthur stained glass windows
• Fremont flag, 1856 presidential campaign
• Kansas State Banner
• Kansas Territorial Seal
• Landon, Alf podium, 1936 presidential campaign
• "Legislative War" artifacts
• Lincoln, Abraham banner, 1860 presidential campaign
• Topeka Constitution (transcription)
• The Spirit of Kansas painting by Mary Weston
• White, William Allen press passes
• White, William Allen printing press
• Wyandotte Constitution (transcription)

• Constitution Hall State Historic Site in Lecompton
• First Territorial Capitol State Historic Site in Fort Riley
• Kansas State Capitol in Topeka
• Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site in Fairway near Kansas City

Bibliographies

• Abolition, Segregation and Civil Rights Bibliography
• Kansas Constitutions Bibliographies
• Lecompton Constitution Bibliography
• Topeka Constitution Bibliography
• Wyandotte Constitution Bibliography
• Kansas Legislature Bibliography
• Populism and Radical Politics Bibliography
• Women's Suffrage Bibliography
• Temperance and Prohibition Bibliography

Finding aids and guides to the collections

• Bureau of Indian Affairs Records, Central Classified Files, 1907-1939
• Civilian Conservation Corps Newspapers
• Enrollment Cards of the Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914
• Thomas Ewing, Jr., Papers, 1856-1908
• Minnie Tamar Johnson & Virgil Hooker Grinstead Collection, 1878-[not before 1923]
• Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940
• Margrave Family Papers, 1861-1961
• Isaac McCoy Papers
• Jotham Meeker Papers
• Military Pension Index Cards (Kansas), 1861-1900
• New England Emigrant Aid Company Papers
• John G. Pratt Papers

Kansas Heritage, our popular history magazine

• "The Old Grey Mare, She Ain't Where She Used to Be," Summer 2000
• "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly," Autumn 2000

Kansas History, our scholarly journal

• "Cementing His Political Views: S.P. Dinsmoor and the Garden of Eden," Summer 2001
• "I Am Only a Woman: Tiera Farrow's Defense of Clara Schweiger," Autumn 2002
• "John M. Houston: Congressman and Labor Negotiator," Autumn 2002
• "Lane & Lincoln: A Mysterious Connection." Autumn 2001
• "Taking the Plunge: Race, Rights, and the Politics of Desegregation in Lawrence, Kansas, 1960," Autumn 1997

Kansas Kaleidoscope, our children's magazine

• "Bleeding Kansas & the Civil War," February 1998
• "Getting to Know Government," August/September 2004
• "Presidents in Our Kansas Past," August/September 2000
• "The Making of Kansas: Territorial Days 1854-1861," December 2000/January 2001

Teaching Materials

• Classroom Materials: Politics & Government
• Field Trips: Agriculture