Nightstick
Date: 1889
This is a short wooden nightstick turned of a single piece of wood removed from the floor of Libby Prison. Libby was a notorious jail for Union officers operated by the Confederacy at Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War. The building was dismantled in 1889 and moved to Chicago, Illinois, where it was reassembled as a museum. The person in charge of the disassembly was John W. Woodward, whom the donor, W.W. Phillips, convinced to turn over a section of the prison floor. Phillips then took the wood to a factory and watched while it was turned into three canes and three nightsticks. Phillips was an early Kansas settler and a Civil War veteran, having served in the Second Kansas Militia which was active in the Battle of the Blue in 1864.

Police nightstick
Date: between 1904 and 1909
Cylindrical turned mahogany nightstick with red tassels. Belonged to Frank L. Randall (1860-1909), a police officer on the Kansas City, Kansas police force.