Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1906
Abolitionist John Brown disguised himself as a surveyor to monitor the activities of proslavery forces in the Kansas Territory. This painting by Samuel J. Reader depicts Brown approaching a Free…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1860
Portrait of Stephen Douglas by Louis Lussier. Douglas helped write the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which called for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Kansas and Nebraska were opened up…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: between 1856 and 1914
Painting by Samuel Reader depicting the Battle of Hickory Point. Reader, an early settler of Shawnee County, was a member of a volunteer Free State company. On September 13, 1856,…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1856
Pro-slavery forces carried this cotton flag while attacking the anti-slavery stronghold of Lawrence in Douglas County, Kansas Territory. Douglas County Sheriff Samuel Jones led the group that sacked Lawrence on…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1856
Kansas statehood was a major issue in the 1856 presidential election. John C. Frémont was the candidate of the newly formed Republican Party, which wanted Kansas admitted as a free…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1908
Self-portrait by Samuel Reader, an early settler and chronicler of territorial life in Kansas. This watercolor was executed in 1908, but based on an early daguerreotype photograph. Reader was an…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: between 1927 and 1933
Carved figure inside a glass bottle, depicting a slave on an auction block. The figure was carved by Frederick I. Douglas to represent a story passed down by his father,…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1879
Illustrations from Harper’s Weekly magazine depicting Exodusters. As life in the South worsened for Blacks after the Civil War, many left for more promising lands. Thousands came to Kansas in…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: between 1800 and 1850
Stuffed whitework quilt with fringed edges. White cotton quilt is made up of 16 blocks, each hand-quilted with a large circular medallion containing a flower-filled urn. The designs are stuffed…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1858
An illustration from the December 25, 1858 issue of “Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper” depicting a panoramic view of the City of Lecompton, territorial capital of Kansas Territory. The illustration includes…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: between 1860 and 1865
A tintype of an unidentified African American woman. This photo was passed down through generations of the Platt family. Jireh Platt was an active abolitionist in Mendon, Illinois. His sons…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: between 1820 and 1850
Violin with spruce belly and maple back and ribs, made by Wurlitzer. The bridge was replaced in the 1890s. Originally owned by James Limerick, who brought the instrument to Kansas…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1855
This flag was created by proslavery Missourians who captured free state supporter Reverend Pardee Butler of Atchison in April 1855. The proslavery men sent Butler adrift on a raft down…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1880
Portrait of Andrew Horatio Reeder, 1807-1864, who was the first governor of Kansas Territory. In 1855, Reeder was removed from office by President Pierce and forced to leave Kansas when…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: between 1850 and 1882
This portfolio was used by Charles E. Fox (1834-1882) who settled in Doniphan County, Kansas around 1850.
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1859
This secretary was used in the home of Augustus Wattles at Moneka, Linn County, Kansas Territory. Family tradition holds that abolitionist John Brown wrote his “Parallels” defense at this secretary…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: between 1860 and 1865
Lithograph of James Henry Lane by Middleton, Strobridge & Company. James Henry Lane (1814-1866) was a controversial figure in Kansas Territory. He moved to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1855, and quickly…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1858
Illustration from the December 25, 1858 issue of “Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper,” of the City of Lecompton, then the capital of Kansas Territory.
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1858
Article from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, December 25, 1858. Entitled “The Cities of Kansas,” it includes accounts of Lawrence, Leavenworth, Lecompton, and Topeka.
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1856
In 1856 this cotton and wool flag was used by Walter Whitehead in a rally at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for Republican presidential nominee John C. Frémont. The oversized 33rd star and…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: between 1855 and 1860
Terrestrial globe on brass stand, used to instruct American Indian pupils at the Delaware Baptist Mission. The mission opened in present-day Wyandotte County around 1836 with the purpose of educating…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: between 1855 and 1858
J. H. Meyer carried this gun in 1856 while guarding the Kansas border from Atchison to Lawrence, while a member of the Kansas territorial pro-slavery militia organized for the purpose…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: between 1854 and 1856
This desk was brought to Kansas Territory by George W. Clarke, an Indian agent, slave owner, and ardent slavery supporter. A notorious proslavery leader during the Bleeding Kansas era, Clarke…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1882
Oil portrait of John Brown, painted in 1882 by Quartus Ruggles. The famed abolitionist joined his sons in Kansas in 1855 and engaged in often violent activity directed at proslavery…
Medium: PhysicalObject
Date: 1856
Banner was used in the Presidential campaign of 1856 by the Frémont Club of Lancaster, New Hampshire to show support for Kansas.
