Medium: Text
Date: Between 1858 and 1868
This photograph is of Anna Margaret (Watson) Randolph, who moved from Ohio to Emporia in 1858. Shortly after her arrival, she married Joseph Vance Randolph with whom she had seven…
Medium: Text
Date: June 6, 1857
This is the front page of the very first edition of the “Kanzas News,” edited by Preston Plumb and printed in Emporia, Kansas Territory. The lead article is about the…
Medium: Text
Date: July 14, 1857
In this poster, Richard Realf publicly declares that George W. Brown, editor of the “Herald of Freedom” in Lawrence, Kansas Territory,is a liar, slanderer, and coward. The circumstances of this…
Medium: Text
Date: December 14, 1857
This letter, written from Lawrence, Kansas Territory, by Samuel Tappan, begins with small talk about his personal life. Tappan quickly moves on, however, to the political affairs of the area.…
Medium: Text
Date: August 28, 1857
Franklin B. Sanborn, an ardent supporter of abolitionist John Brown, writes this letter in Boston to one of his associates, Reverend Thomas W. Higginson, an agent of the Massachusetts Kansas…
Medium: Text
Date: July 6, 1857
In this letter, Samuel Tappan writes to Reverend Thomas W. Higginson, an agent of the Massachusetts Kansas Aid Committee, to update him on the situation in Kansas Territory. He discusses…
Medium: Text
Date: April 23, 1856
The full title of this document is “State of Maine Resolves relating to the extension of slavery, the territory of Kansas, and secret political associations.” The state legislature of Maine…
Medium: Text
Date: June 15, 1856
This advertisement by Whitman and Searl of Lawrence, Kansas Territory, states that they propose to open an Emigrant’s Intelligence Office to “meet the urgent demands by emigrants, for accurate and…
Medium: Text
Date:
This advertisement, presumably created by the Kansas Land Trust Company, lists thirty points about Kansas Territory, including the advantages of settling in Kansas and general statistics about the territory. It…
Medium: Text
Date: 1855-1856
This expense report of Charles H. Branscomb, general agent for the New England Emigrant Aid Company in Kansas Territory, details his expenses for a 22 month period during 1855 and…
Medium: Text
Date: October 19, 1856
Cyrus K. Holliday writes from Monongahela House in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to his wife, Mary Holliday, in Meadville, Pennsylvania. John C. Frémont had lost the state election, and Cyrus hopes to…
Medium: Text
Date: December 24, 1856
In this testimony, Charles E. Dewey describes how his family and others in their party traveled to Kansas Territory from Ohio. The group sought advice from S. C. Pomeroy about…
Medium: Text
Date: 1857
This document identifies the names and origins of the residents of Marmiton (Marmaton) Creek, which is a small branch of the Osage River near Fort Scott, Kansas. It lists the…
Medium: Text
Date: 1859
This circular was written by the Board of Trustees of Lawrence University to inform the people of Kansas Territory of the establishment of a university in Lawrence. Included in the…
Medium: Text
Date: June 29, 1854
This printed letter from the House of Representatives in Washington, D. C., was written by John Zacheus Goodrich, a representative from Massachusetts. He informs the reader that members of Congress…
Medium: Text
Date: 1857
This circular advertises that the Lawrence landing is in Delaware City, Kansas Territory. It states that Delaware City, on the Missouri River and closer to Lawrence than either Leavenworth or…
Medium: Text
Date: April 7, 1857
Caleb Pratt writes from Delaware, Kansas Territory, to Reverend Thomas W. Higginson, a prominent Northern abolitionist and an agent of the Massachusetts Kansas Aid Committee. He informs Higginson that a…
Medium: Text
Date: March 12, 1857
This letter written by Anson Stone, assistant treasurer of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, is sent to inform Reverend Thomas W. Higginson, an agent of the Massachusetts Kansas Aid…
Medium: Text
Date: September 29, 1856
This proclamation, written by William E. Murphy, the mayor of Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, announces that he would use the forces of the law against any person who sent an anonymous…
Medium: Text
Date: November 15, 1855
This invitation is to a military festival to be held on November 15, 1855, at 7:00 p.m. at the Free State Hotel in Lawrence, Kansas Territory. The committee of arrangements…
Medium: Text
Date: Around 1855
This map includes the lot numbers as laid out in the original plan for the city of Topeka, Kansas Territory. The map was probably created by Franklin Crane on behalf…
Medium: Text
Date: November 14, 1856
The letter, written by Cyrus Holliday from Meadville, Pennsylvania, discusses the results of the 1856 Presidential election and its anticipated impact on the Kansas issue. Holliday describes to Franklin Crane,…
Medium: Text
Date: 1861
These two printed notices inform the recipient that their seed corn and potatoes are distributed by the New England Kansas Relief Committee. It also instructs the people to use the…
Medium: Text
Date: February 24, 1857
John Doy writes from Lawrence, Kansas Territory, to Reverend Thomas W. Higginson of Worcester, Massachusetts, relating the struggles of Doy’s family and other matters of interest in the Kansas Territory.…
Medium: Text
Date: February 19, 1857
While in Boston, Massachusetts, Franklin B. Sanborn writes this letter to Reverend Thomas W. Higginson, a Northern abolitionist and agent with the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee. The first part of…
