A handbook of useful information for immigrants and settlers
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: 1880-1889
Published by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, this pamphlet encouraged agricultural settlement on railroad lands in Kansas by glorifying the state's natural resources including water, soil, mineral deposits and plant life. Printed by the Kansas Farmer in Topeka, Kansas.

Arkansas Valley Guide, Southwest Kansas
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: 1878
This circular would be free to any address. Its purpose was to promote the development of the Arkansas River Valley in southwest Kansas. It tells of the agricultural progress of the nine counties in the Valley from 1872 to 1878. These counties are Harvey, McPherson, Sedgwick, Reno, Rice, Barton, Pawnee, Edwards, and Rush. Statistics shown for grain crops are for wheat, corn, rye, oats and barley. For livestock, statistics are for horses, mules, milk cows, other cattle, sheep and swine. Other subjects covered are timber, fruit trees, and hedges; water power; climate, and fruit growing. Examples of purchase prices and terms of sale are presented.

Charles Waters' crew threshing oats, Thomas County, Kansas
Date: 1951
Charles Waters' crew threshing oats, Thomas County, Kansas.

Corn, wheat and oats on farms in the states on the tributory to the Union Pacific Railroad, March 1, 1913
Creator: Union Pacific Railway Company
Date: August 14, 1913
Union Pacific Railroad Company Agricultural Bulletin (No. 109). Union Pacific Railroad promotional advertisement showing aggregate yields for specific crop categories from 1912 and early 1913 for areas west of the Mississippi River.

Deputyship in the Grain Inspection Dept.
Creator: Kansas. Governor (1915-1919: Capper)
Date: 1915
This file includes correspondence relating to the deputy's role in the Grain Inspection Department. Correspondence included in the file is an application and questions about the position from L. A. Bailey of Girard, Kansas. This is part of a bigger collection of Governor Arthur Capper correspondence.

Drought report to Governor Landon
Creator: Kansas. State Board of Agriculture. Division of Water Resources
Date: August 28, 1936
This report by Ogden Jones, a geologist for the State Board of Agriculture, includes detailed information about the effects of the drought that struck Kansas during the 1930s and spawned the Dust Bowl. Jones cites precise figures about water levels in major rivers and wells, in addition to information about crops such as winter wheat, sorghum, oats, hay, rye, and fruits (apples, grapes, etc…). The report also contains maps.

Edmund Burke Whitman to National Kansas Committee, expense sheet
Creator: Whitman, E. B. (Edmund Burke), 1812-1883
Date: February 28, 1857 - August 14, 1857
This expense sheet, which was in account with E. B. Whitman, an agent of the committee, lists expenses and supplies sent to aid the free state inhabitants of Kansas. The items sent include (among others) wheat, oats, corn, beans, potatoes, garden seeds, bedding, and clothing.

Eighth biennial report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 1891-1892
Creator: Kansas State Board of Agriculture
Date: 1893
This biennial report from the Kansas State Board of Agriculture contains two parts and the page numbering starts over at the beginning of Part II. The volume contains a section on each county, providing summary information about the history of the county, a description of the landscape, crops, livestock, schools, and churches. A large number of tables with statistics about Kansas residents and crop yields, broken down by county, are also included. Other chapters are devoted to interesting subjects such as apiculture, artificial forests, loco weeds, and chinch bugs.

Frances Martinek shocking oats, Rossville, Kansas
Date: 1920
This picture shows Frances Martinek shocking oats on July 5, 1920. This photograph is provided through a pilot project to host unique cultural heritage materials from local libraries on Kansas Memory and was accomplished by mutual agreement between the Northeast Kansas Library System, the Rossville Community Library, and the Kansas Historical Society.

Handbook of Pottawatomie and Riley Counties, Kansas
Date: Between 1880 and 1889
This handbook was published by the Modern Argo, Kansas City, for potential immigrants to Pottawatomie and Riley counties in Kansas. A short description of Davis County is also included. This pamphlet encouraged agricultural settlement by extolling the virtues of this 'beautiful Kansas (river) valley'. Crops grown in the area included corn, wheat, oats, and rye. A number of stock farms, such as Juniatta Stock Farm and Woodside Stock Farm, are described in the booklet. The booklet contains information about dairying operations and orchards. There are descriptions of the towns of Manhattan (including the State Agricultural College), Wamego, Louisville, Westmoreland, Milford, and Belvue. Some illustrations of farms and businesses are also included.

History of Kansas and emigrant's guide
Creator: Chapman, J. Butler
Date: 1855
The title page of the printed volume indicated that it contained "a description geographical and topographical--also climate, soil, productions and comparative value with other states and territories, including its political history, officers-candidates-emigrant colonies-election, abolition, squatter and pro-slavery contentions and inquisitions; with the prospects of the territory for freedom or slavery." Mr. Chapman was a resident of the territory and the information in the booklet was compiled by traveling through Kansas Territory in 1854. The description covers most of the territory and includes information about Native American tribes and lands.

Kansas Agricultural Summary, 1937-1938
Creator: Kansas State Board of Agriculture
Date: 1939
This published report contains information about field crop statistics, precipitation totals, yields from wheat, corn, oats, hay, alfalfa, and sorghum crops, and information about livestock. These statistics range from 1866 until 1938. The report is included in the Thirty-First Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture (1937-1938).

Kansas. Resources, population, industries, opportunities and climate
Creator: Union Pacific Railway Company
Date: 1909
This Union Pacific Railroad pamphlet highlights the natural and human resources found in Kansas at the time of publication.

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.

Map of the Spring Hill and Deer Creek Farms, Strong City, Kansas
Date: Unknown
The Spring Hill and Deer Creek farms in Chase County, Kansas, were owned by Bernie Lantry. This map shows Strong City, Kansas, various structures (houses, corrals, quarries, etc.) and where various crops were planted. The legal descriptions for the areas shown on the map are Townships18 S and 19 S in Range 8 E. The map also shows how the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway crossed the property as well as the Cottonwood River and Fox Creek. The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve includes much of the land that was part of the Lantry Ranch. The original of this document is owned by the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

Principal crop yields of Kansas by counties for 1911
Creator: Union Pacific Railway Company
Date: August 10, 1912
This Union Pacific Railroad agricultural bulleitn shows aggregate statistical crop yields and population figures for each Kansas county in the entire state. Union Pacific Railroad Company Agriculture Bulletin (No. 103).

Second biennial report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 1879-80
Creator: Kansas State Board of Agriculture
Date: 1881
This biennial report from the Kansas State Board of Agriculture includes information on livestock and other agricultural topics. Also covered are county statistics for population, acreages, assessed valuation of property, and a listing of churches for each county. Maps of each county show railroads, waterways, post offices, and school houses.

Secure good homes in a rich country
Creator: Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Railroad Company
Date: 1873
This small pamphlet encourages the purchase and settlement of land in eastern Kansas stretching from Lawrence southward to the Kansas line and owned by the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Railroad. The land is rich in bituminous coal, good building stone, fire clay and flagging stone as well as being good for general agriculture, fruit growing, sheep raising, and cattle grazing.

Seventh biennial report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 1889-1890
Creator: Kansas State Board of Agriculture
Date: 1891
This biennial report from the Kansas State Board of Agriculture contains two parts and the page numbering starts over at the beginning of Part II. The volume contains a section on each county, providing summary information about the history of the county, a description of the landscape, crops, livestock, schools, and churches. A large number of tables with statistics about Kansas residents and crop yields, broken down by county, are also included. Other chapters are devoted to interesting subjects such as apiculture, artificial forests, loco weeds, and chinch bugs. Proceedings and other activities of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture are in Part II.

Southern Kansas. Letter in the march number of "camp's emigrants' guide to Kansas," from a New York farmer
Creator: Worden, Allen M.
Date: March 8, 1880
This railroad advertisement features a published letter from a New York farm emigrant, lauding the agricultural bountifulness of Kansas to prospective settlers. It was written in Iola, Allen County.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, pleasure resorts of Southern Colorado
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: Between 1870 and 1900
This map of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway system shows the company's lines from northeast Kansas to eastern Colorado, including Kansas City, Atchison and Leavenworth, Kansas, to Pueblo and Denver, Colorado. This document promotes travel to the resort communities in Southern Colorado and the gold and silver mine districts in the San Juan Valley of Colorado. The reverse side of the map tells of the agricultural development of seven counties in Kansas including Harvey, McPherson, Sedgwick, Reno, Rick, Barton and Pawnee.

The wheat crops of Kansas and Nebraska
Creator: Union Pacific Railway Company
Date: August 15, 1903
This Union Pacific Railroad agricultural bulletin shows statistical crop yields for all the Kansas counties for the years 1902 and 1903. Copied form Union Pacific Railroad Company Agricultural Bulletin (No. 17).

Thirtieth Biennial Report, Statistics by county showing population, acreage, production, and livestock, 1935-1936
Creator: Kansas State Board of Agriculture
Date: 1937
This published report contains statistics compiled by the State Board of Agriculture pertaining to crop conditions, livestock, and other farm products for all Kansas counties. It was copied from the Thirtieth Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, to the Legislature of the State for the Years 1935 and 1936. The most useful sections for seeing the impact of the Dust Bowl on agriculture are the sections for the counties of Finney, Ford, Grant, Haskell, Hodgeman, Morton, Seward, and Stevens in western Kansas.

Thirty-first Biennial Report, Statistics by county showing population, acreage, production, and livestock, 1937-1938
Creator: Kansas State Board of Agriculture
Date: 1939
This published report contains statistics compiled by the State Board of Agriculture pertaining to population, crop conditions, livestock, and other farm products in western Kansas during the Dust Bowl years of 1937 and 1938; copied from the Thirty-first Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, to the Legislature of the State for the Years 1937 and 1938. The most useful sections for seeing the impact of the Dust Bowl on agriculture are the sections for the counties of Finney, Ford, Grant, Haskell, Hodgeman, Morton, Seward, and Stevens in western Kansas.

Three routes to California and its rewards via the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: 1884
This brochure gives an overview of California with its history, physical description, farming, orchards, vineyards, stock raising, mining and principle cities. There is a large map of California. There is also a smaller map of the United States with the three routes to California via the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe marked.