Flags
The Kansas Historical Society collections include about 75 flags from Kansas' involvement in the Civil War. Most are battle flags of various Kansas regiments, but there also are captured confederate and border ruffian flags and political banners.
On July 4, 1866, Civil War veterans presented those flags to the Kansas Adjutant General for safe keeping. They resided in the Kansas State Capitol for the next 40 years in a cabinet, furled and standing upright. In 1905 the flags became part of the Kansas Historical Society collections. When Memorial Hall opened in 1914 members of the Grand Army of the Republic participated in the transfer of the battle flags to the Historical Society’s new home across the street. The museum collections were moved to west Topeka in the 1980s. By this time the flags were fragile and crumbling. A project called Save the Flags! Was initiated in the mid-1990s to conserve and stabilize the flag collection. Many of these flags have been treated as a part of the project.
Other later donations to the collection include flags from World War II, the Spanish-American War, and state banners.
These flags are part of the museum collections.
Entry: Flags
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: February 2016
Date Modified: February 2016
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.