Advertisements for W. W. Gavitt Medical Company, Topeka, Kansas
Date: 1902
These images show advertisements for the W. W. Gavitt Medical Company located at 5th and Madison Streets in Topeka, Kansas. The first image is an advertisement for Gavitt's System Regulator, advertised to cure "all blood, stomach, kidney, and liver troubles." The second image is a group of advertisements for three different businesses owned by W. W. Gavitt: a business of investment bankers and brokers, a medical company, and a mercantile company. The W. W. Gavitt Medical Company manufactured "standard and proprietary remedies."

Baker's Medicine sales truck, Greenwood County, Kansas
Date: Between 1920 and 1929
This photograph shows a medical sales truck with a sign reading, "Baker's Medicine, Extracts, and Spices" in Greenwood County, Kansas. Boxes on the truck are labeled, "Baker's Condition Powder." Also visible is a man standing to the left of the truck, a woman seated on the truck's running board, and a girl standing to the right of the truck. An unidentified building is visible in the background.

Beckman general store, Randolph, Kansas
Date: Between 1935 and 1945
An interior view of the H. C. Beckman General Store, Randolph, Kansas. The gentlemen behind the counters are H. C. Beckman (left) and Clyde Beckman (right). The woman in the aisle is Dessie Peter.

Beckman general store, Randolph, Kansas
Date: Between 1935 and 1945
An interior view of the H. C. Beckman General Store in Randolph, Kansas.

Business directory, Coronado, Kansas
Date: Between 1880 and 1889
This image shows a photographic business directory titled, "Coronado, the Railroad Town of Wichita County, Kansas." There are 25 photographs of business buildings with a list of the businesses below the pictures. Business number 2 (pictured on the top row, second from the left) is listed as "A. J. Wright Drugs, Stationery, Perfumes, Holiday articles." Other businesses listed include a bank, hardware stores, grocery stores, general merchandise stores, a church, livery barns, a contractor, a barber shop, lumber yards, a law office, a hotel, a meat market, and a blacksmith.

Dad's Beanery, Marysville, Kansas
Creator: Hawkins, Omar F. (Omar Finlay), 1890-1967
Date: 1912
This is a view of two men seated on a bench and a restaurant employee in front of Dad's Beanery at 110 North 7th Street in Marysville, Kansas. Located less than a block south of the train depot, the two seated men are very likely salesmen. A sandwich board sign at the sidewalk's curb indicates the restaurant offered short-order meals at all hours and sold soft drinks, cigars, and tobacco. By 1939, Dad's Beanery would have been replaced by the Depot Cafe built on this same corner.

Dangers of self-drugging with proprietary medicines, by Edward Bumgardner, Lawrence, Kansas
Date: June 24, 1902
These images show the essay titled "Dangers of Self-Drugging With Proprietary Medicines," by Edward Bumgardner of Lawrence, Kansas. The essay was part of a prize contest on topics for the public good, published under the Latin heading, "Pro Bono Publico." The essay expresses criticism of the advertising, sale, and use of so-called "patent medicines," and reports on the high levels of alcoholic and narcotic ingredients that often made up such remedies. The essay concludes by calling upon newspaper publishers to stop printing advertisements for such medicines, for legislation requiring the ingredients of medicines to be listed on the labels, and for physicians to lead a crusade against such dangerous drugs.

Dr. H. C. Perdue's Neosho County Advertiser, Erie, Kansas
Date: Between 1887 and 1889
This pamphlet titled The Neosho County Advertiser was published by Dr. H. C. Perdue, M. D., in Erie, Kansas. It contains approximately 50 pages of descriptions of medical cures and other advertising. Descriptions of Dr. Perdue's Ague Cure and other medical treatments are on pages 2-28, and other advertisements are on pages 29-49, plus the inside and outside of the back cover. Besides information on Dr. Perdue's medical practice, there are numerous advertisements for drug stores. Drug stores listed in the advertisements (and their town locations, all in Kansas) include: Palace Drug Store, Erie; Ira Steinberger Drug Store, Erie; New City Drug Store, Erie; Dr. C. E. Steadman, Druggist, Osage Mission; I. N. Wherrett General Merchandise and Drugs, Vietsburg; M. Devine, Druggist, Osage Mission; Baldwin House Drug Store, Thayer; W. R. Kramer, Druggist, Chanute; John McCarthy, Druggist, Galesburg; and Mrs. Samuel Whelpley, Druggist, Morehead. Druggists listed as references for Dr. Perdue include Charles H. Eaton and J. T. Brown, both of Erie. Other businesses and professions advertised include attorneys, real estate agents, merchants, banks, doctors, clothing stores, millinery and dress making stores, grocery stores, jewelry stores, candy stores, cigar stores, meat markets, bakeries, livery stables, abstracters, tree nurseries, buggy harness stores, carpenters, hardware stores, fur dealers, barber shops, lumber companies, monument dealers, dry goods, dentists, hotels, and furniture stores.

Drug stores on Main Street, Ottawa, Kansas
Date: 1898
These photographs show four drug stores on Main Street in Ottawa, Kansas. The first photograph shows two drug stores right next to each other: C. L. Cowdery's Drug Store on the left, and the J. E. Youngberg Drug Company in the middle. An ice cream and soda shop is on the right. The second photograph shows the C. L. Becker Drug Store in the building second from the right. Other businesses visible include the C. B. Jones Shoe Store on the right, and the Dress Cutting Academy and The Up to Date store to the left of the drug store. The third photograph shows the S. H. Lucas Drug Store in the third building from the left. Other businesses visible on the block include The Racket; Mitchell Wagons; Topping Hardware Company; Davenport, Lathrop and Company; and J. D. Chamberlain Groceries, Bakery, and Feed. Several people are visible in front of the stores, and several horse-drawn buggies and carriages are visible on the street.

Franklin, Crawford County, Kansas
Date: 1905-1939
These 147 images include photographs, newspaper clippings, and original records from the town of Franklin, in Crawford County, Kansas. It is located on U.S. Highway 69 alternate, approximately 7 miles north of Pittsburg, Kansas. The post office was established in 1908 and now operates as part of the post office in Arma. The town was struck by an EF-5 tornado in 2003 and much of the town has been rebuilt since that. Historically, Franklin was a coal mining town, and the major coal companies in the area were Western Coal and Mining, and Central Coal and Coke. The subjects of these materials include: schools, churches, businesses, coal companies, musicians, miners, the unions and strikes--including the Amazon women's march--and baseball, soccer, and basketball players.

Fred Massey store, Iowa Point, Kansas
Date: Between 1900 and 1905
This is an interior view of the Fred Massey store, Iowa Point, Kansas.

Frictionless Metal car
Creator: Lawrence Studio
Date: Between 1900 and 1919
This black and white photograph from a glass plate negative shows a couple standing beside an automobile that is advertising "Frictionless Metal" a perfect bearing metal that was manufactured by the Frictionless Metal Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee. On the back of the photograph, "J.T. Pate auto in park" is written.

Gavitt's Drug Manufacturing Company display, Topeka, Kansas
Date: Between 1890 and 1919
This photograph shows a display for Gavitt's Drug Manufacturing Company in Topeka, Kansas. Signs in the display advertise, "Over 100 Standard and Proprietary Remedies," and a "Modern Medical Tablet Machine." William Gavitt ran a large mail-order medicine company.

Gem Market, Topeka, Kansas
Date: 1916
Interior view of the Gem Grocery Store showing employees, 502-504 West 10th, Topeka, Kansas.

Griffin and Son Men's Furnishings and Drugs, Nortonville, Kansas
Date: Between 1915 and 1920
These two photographs show an exterior and an interior view of Griffin and Son Men's Furnishings and Drugs in Nortonville, Kansas. In the exterior photograph a horse and carriage is visible outside the store. In the interior photograph the general merchant J. R. Jeffrey is seen standing next to display cases of items for sale.

Hall's Company store, Topeka, Kansas
Date: Between 1935 and 1939
A photograph showing fountain pen salesmen at Hall's Company store located at 623 Kansas Avenue, Topeka, Kansas. It was reported that the store carried the largest and most complete stock of Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman, and Wahl pens in the state. The salesmen are idenitfied as: Steve Smith, Herbert Kendall, Omar Romary, Sam Crow, Ray Becker,and Jack Crow, manager.

Hockaday Motor Cycle Company
Date: 1909-1910
Business advertisement contained in the Automobile Club of Wichita's "Year Book" for 1909 to 1910. "Woody" Hockaday, a automobile dealer from Wichita, launched a campaign to mark Kansas auto routes. Later in 1918, he published a road map showing 33 marked highways in the United States.

Interior of a grocery store in Neodesha, Wilson County, Kansas
Date: 1918
This photograph shows the interior of a store, possibly the Baldwin Grocery Store, in Neodesha, Wilson County, Kansas. Two employees are standing beside glass cases and shelves full of merchandise.

Interior view of a bakery, Fredonia, Wilson County, Kansas
Date: 1900-1915
This photograph shows two men and a woman, possibly employees, standing inside a bakery in Fredonia, Wilson County, Kansas.

Interior view of the Crosby Department Store
Date: Between 1960 and 1970
These are three interior views of the Crosby Brothers' Department store located in the 700 block of Kansas Avenue, Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas. Pictured are the shoe department, mezzanine eating area, and a bird's eye view of the first floor showing phonograph albums and greeting cards.

J. Bishop Dry Goods store, Neosho Falls, Woodson County, Kansas
Date: 1911
These two photographs show groups of men standing in front of the J. Bishop Dry Goods store in Neosho Falls, Woodson County, Kansas. In the first photo, some of the men are identified as Joseph Bishop, James Linn, the Chief Clerk, and Mr. Tiedeman, a salesman.

J.R. Watkins Medical wagon, Eureka, Kansas
Date: Between 1900 and 1919
This black and white photograph shows a couple standing beside a J.R. Watkins Medical wagon with sampling cases near Eureka, Kansas. The medical company, founded in 1868 by Joseph Ray Watkins from Plainview, Minnesota, sold medical liniments and salves from the back of a horse drawn wagon. The company may have sold supplies for animals as well as humans because a bucket in the front of the photograph is labeled "stock tonic" and the wagon has "stock and poultry tonic" on it.

J.R. Watkins Medical wagon, Eureka, Kansas
Date: Between 1900 and 1909
This black and white photograph shows a group of gentlemen, possibly a salesman and customers, standing beside a horse-drawn J.R. Watkins Medical Company wagon near Eureka, Kansas. There is also a young boy in the photograph. The company, founded in 1868 by Joseph Ray Watkins from Plainview, Minnesota, sold medical liniments and salves from the back of a horse-drawn wagon. One sign indicates they sell stock and poultry tonic. There are several cloth sacks and buckets on the ground beside the wagon.

Leigh R. Webber to Miss Brown
Creator: Webber, L. R.
Date: March 8, 1862
A letter written by Leigh R. Webber from Fort Scott, Bourbon County, Kansas, to Miss Brown, a daughter of John Stillman Brown, a Unitarian minister who lived west of Lawrence, Kansas. Webber describes the march from Kansas City, Missouri, to Fort Scott, Kansas, describing landmarks along the way and discussing the soldiers' state of exhaustion. He continues a discussion from a previous letter regarding his father's death. Webber also describes camp life and future plans to march on to Fort Smith.

L. W. Halbe Collection
Creator: Halbe, L. W. (Leslie Winfield), 1893-1981
Date: 1908-1912
The L. W. (Leslie Winfield) Halbe photo collection consists of 1500 glass plate negatives produced by Halbe during his teenage years. Halbe lived in Dorrance, Russell County, Kansas, and began taking photographs of the region with an inexpensive Sears and Roebuck camera when he was fifteen years old.