Blog: Kansas Travelogues

Kansas' Largest Celebration Neewollah

This program describes events at the 1959 Neewollah festival in Independence, Kansas. Neewollah is a celebration that began in 1919 with alternative activities for kids. Neewollah (Halloween spelled backwards) is the oldest and largest annual festival in Kansas. For 100 years, Independence has been celebrating with parades, queen's pageant, musical theatre productions, carnival, street acts, food vendors, and much, much more. It started out small, centered around parades held on October 31. Except for years of interruption in the mid-20th century, due to the Great Depression, World War II and lack of financial support, the festival has grown from a one-day celebration to a now nine-day festival. Digitization funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission through the Kansas State Historical Records Advisory Board.

Historical Society / Ancestry Partnership

Selected Kansas newspaper titles digitized and available on Chronicling America.
Read more about the project at Kansas Digital Newspaper Program.

Manhattan flood, 1903

Coronado Starts for Quivera

Columbus, Frank Rockefeller's Hereford

St. Fidelis Church, Victoria

Tennessee Town Kindergarten, Topeka