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.

Alfred Mossman Landon
Date: c. 1936
This photograph shows Alfred Mossman Landon with daughter, Nancy Jo, and son, John Cobb, at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, Kansas. Landon served as tthe 26th Governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1937.

Apple harvest at Edward L. Knapp's Spring Glen Farm in Maple Hill, Kansas
Date: 1899
Two photographs of a group of men at Spring Glen Farm, owned by Edward L. Knapp in Maple Hill, Kansas, processing harvested apples. They are identified as: Edward Knapp, Archie Wylie, unknown, Floyd Harkins, and unknown. The little girl, seated, is Ethel Knapp.

Apple tree, Shawnee County, Kansas
Date: 1936
This black and white photograph shows drought damage to an apple tree in Shawnee County, Kansas.

Do you believe in keeping Kansas kash in Kansas?
Creator: Kansas Publicity Bureau
Date: Between 1910 and 1930
A small leaflet encouraging people to "Buy Kansan." It states that Kansas is first in many things such as college students, wheat, zinc smelting, and apple seedlings. It also compares the recent solar eclipse to Kansas' future growth.

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.

Emigrants' guide to the Kansas Pacific Railway lands
Creator: Kansas Pacific Railway Company
Date: April 1871
A railroad company advertisement to emigrants promising cheap, abundant and good land for agricultural purposes.

Fourth annual Sumner County fair, Wellington, Kansas
Date: September 17 - 20, 1894
This poster advertises the fourth annual Sumner County fair to be held at Wellington, Kansas. Highlights include livestock, agricultural crops, horse racing, and musical entertainment events. Fair officers are H. C. St. Clair, president, and I. N. King, secretary.

I.L. Diesem's individual agricultural exhibit, fair, Finney County, Kansas
Creator: Wolf, Henry L. 1850-1924
Date: 1892
The photograph shows I.L. Diesem's agricultural exhibit at the fair in Finney County, Kansas. The agricultural products are on different shelves and some are on the ground. The photograph also shows how some products are in jars, baskets, and buckets on the shelving unit. Also in the center of the photograph there are straw models of Diesem's home.

James M. Hunter to Thomas Nesbit Stinson
Creator: Hunter, James M.
Date: December 5, 1854
James M. Hunter, writing from Westport, Missouri, informed Thomas N. Stinson about a joint land speculation deal involving lots in Tecumseh, KT. Hunter alluded to Governor Andrew Reeder's involvement in the speculative venture.

John James Ingalls to Elias T. Ingalls
Creator: Ingalls, John James, 1833-1900
Date: April 3, 1860
Ingalls devoted much of his April 3, 1860, letter from Sumner to the territory's agricultural prospects, which were still not particularly good: "Corn, pork, and hides" were Kansas's only exports, and they were not very profitable as prices were low. "Considerable attention," wrote Ingalls, "is being paid to the hemp crop" and the wheat seemed to be doing pretty well; various kinds of fruit also "flourishes. . . . I have never seen finer apples than the farmers across the river bring to market. . . . But little is raised in Kansas yet, though much attention is being given to 'orchardizing' this spring." Ingalls was actually considering a move to the Gold County (Colorado) for better business prospects.

Kansas. Modern queen of the prairie
Creator: Moore, Roy R.
Date: Between 1940 and 1942
This silent film promotes the agricultural industries in Kansas. Clip one includes wheat and beef cattle. Clip two includes hogs, horses, dairy cattle and corn. Clip three includes grain sorghums, potatoes, poultry, garden crops (cabbage, watermelons, peas, and apples), hay, irrigation, and fish. Photographed by Steve Smith.

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.

Kansas state fair, Wichita, Kansas
Creator: Kansas State Fair Association
Date: October 1-5, 1895
A poster promoting the Kansas State Fair to be held at Wichita, Kansas. The poster includes a color illustration of fruits and vegetables.

Loading apples on a truck
Creator: Kansas Division of Economic Development
Date: Between 1950 and 1959
This photograph shows men loading baskets of apples on a truck.

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.

Ninth annual exposition and fair, Manhattan, Kansas
Date: September 24 - 27, 1878
This poster advertises the ninth annual exposition and fair at Manhattan, Kansas. Highlights include livestock, agricultural crops, horse racing, baby judging contest, musical and other entertainment events.

Orchard on the Bartlett farm east of Garden City, Kansas
Date: Between 1890 and 1900
The photograph shows what may be an apple orchard on the Bartlett farm east of Garden City in Finney County, Kansas. The photograph also shows two men standing in the orchard.

Silas Smith's second wife: a popular story complete in one volume. Souvenir edition
Creator: Cobb, E.M.
Date: 1908
This promotional pamphlet was produced by the Union Pacific Railroad, highlighting the beauty and picturesque scenery of the Butte Valley in California.

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.

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.