Medium: Text
Date: January 18, 1881
Richard West, a resident of Barton Station, Alabama, wrote this letter to Kansas governor St. John requesting information about available land in Kansas. West was a farmer who described in…
Medium: Text
Date: January 17, 1881
In this brief letter, Mrs. P. Gillespie of Nevada, Iowa, enclosed five dollars as a contribution to the Exoduster relief effort in Kansas. In addition to his role as governor…
Medium: Text
Date: January 29, 1881
This letter from W. J. Caltin included a check for sixty dollars, collected by the citizens of Meriden, Connecticut. This money was to be used to aid black refugees, otherwise…
Medium: Text
Date: March 7, 1882
Samuel Baker of Columbia, South Carolina, wrote this letter to Kansas governor St. John requesting information about housing for freed blacks. Apparently, there were around 10,000 blacks in South Carolina…
Medium: Text
Date: April 28, 1881
This brief letter was written by J. C. Black, a former slave from Paris, Tennessee. According to Black, his white neighbors were saying that black refugees in Kansas were starving…
Medium: Text
Date: January 16, 1880
This informative twelve-page letter, written by John P. St. John, Governor of Kansas, details how the Freedman’s Relief Association has been assisting the black refugees fleeing from the South. St.…
Medium: Text
Date: January 22, 1881
This flyer, distributed by the Southern Refugee Relief Association of Chicago, Illinois, describes the dire situation of the African-American refugees relocated in Kansas. The secretary of this association, Horatio N.…
Medium: Text
Date: 1880
This song sheet, which includes both the sheet music and lyrics, describes how black Southerners longed for safety and freedom but frequently lived in fear of the Ku Klux Klan…
Medium: Text
Date: May 17, 1879
This drawing, from an original by James H. Moser, depicts a large gathering of African-American refugees congregating around a steamboat docked at Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was published in the national…
Medium: Text
Date: April 16, 1877
This advertisement for Nicodemus, Graham County, Kansas, describes the location of the colony near the Solomon River and the town company’s plans to build more houses, businesses, and other public…
Medium: Text
Date: Between 1900 and 1929
New Mexico Penitentiary, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Medium: Text
Date: Around 1900
A portrait of Thomas Edward Ketchum, 1863-1901, who was also known as “Black Jack” Ketchum. Ketchum pursued a life of train robbery and murder in the southwest as one of…
Medium: Text
Date: 1889
Cowboy Band Roster Season of 1889, Dodge City, Kansas.
Medium: Text
Date: Between 1880 and 1889
This item is a roster of the Cowboy Band in Dodge City, Kansas. Roy Drake, director and C.M. Beeson, manager.
Medium: Text
Date: 1914
The Farmer Jones Cook Book was issued by the Fort Scott Sorghum Syrup Co., Fort Scott, Kansas. Mary, the woman on the cover, worked for the company’s manager and his…
Medium: Text
Date: 1874
This pamphlet of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway promotes land sales in the Neosho Valley of Kansas.
Medium: Text
Date: 1870s or 1880s
This broadside promotes travel to the Colorado mines via the AT&SF railroad. The route began at Kansas City and traveled to Denver with various stops in between. This item demonstrates…
Medium: Text
Date: October 8, 1868
General Philip Henry Sheridan, a veteran of the Civil War, wrote this telegram to the Governor of Kansas to inform him of the current state of affairs in western Kansas.…
Medium: Text
Date: 1873
This is a Kansas Pacific Railroad promotional advertisement for cheap land and homesteading opportunities in Kansas.
Medium: Text
Date: October 15, 1868
This volunteer enlistment form belonged to George L. Higby, who volunteered to serve in the 19th Kansas Cavalry, Company D, for the period of six months. The 19th Kansas Cavalry…
Medium: Text
Date: January 15, 1879
In this brief letter, Michael Sutton, the county attorney of Ford County, Kansas, wrote to Governor St. John regarding warrants for the arrest of the Cheyenne Indians who had been…
Medium: Text
Date: 1881
This broadside promotes settlement in Texas and passage there through the Missouri Pacific Railway. It also promotes the landscape of the Indian territory as a scenic route, and addresses Texas…
Medium: Text
Date: Between 1870 and 1900
This broadside promotes the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway to merchants and businessmen. The route traveled through Sedalia, Missouri, Ft. Scott, Kansas, Indian territory, and Denison, Texas. W. P. Robinson,…
Medium: Text
Date: 1846
This excerpt from the congressional report of the Secretary of War includes the abstracts of two journals, one by Lieutenant William B. Franklin, a topographical engineer, and another by Lieutenant…
Medium: Text
Date: September 15, 1845
This typescript recounts the journey of the 1st Dragoons under the command of Stephen Watts Kearny. In 1845, the dragoons (cavalry troops) left Fort Leavenworth on a circular march, heading…
