A boy on horseback, Greeley County, Kansas
Date: Between 1920 and 1930
A boy sits on a horse in front of a sod building, Greeley County, Kansas.

A family in front of their sod house, Thomas County, Kansas
Date: 1885
A Thomas County, Kansas family and their dog pose in front of their sod home and outbuilding. The family is unidentified.

A family poses in front of their sod house, Thomas County, Kansas
Date: 1895
A Thomas County, Kansas family poses with their cattle, dogs, and buckets outside their sod home. The family is not identified.

Anderson sod house, Logan County, Kansas
Date: Between 1885 and 1890
This photograph shows three men with musical instruments and one man with a rifle on the roof of the Anderson sod house in Logan County, Kansas. Isabel, Matilda and Pete are posed in front of the house.

A sod house in eastern Beaver County, Oklahoma Territory
Creator: Steele, F. M. (Francis Marion), 1866-1936
Date: 1897
This is a view of a sod house in the eastern portion of Beaver County, Oklahoma Territory. In the foreground, a woman is pouring water into a livestock trough and there is a boy on a horse.

August Holfman's sod house, Greeley County, Kansas
Date: Between 1900 and 1910
August Holfman stands in from of his sod home northeast of Tribune, Greeley County, Kansas.

Band posed in front of a sod hotel, Beeler, Kansas
Date: Between January 01, 1880 and December 31, 1890
This sod house consisted of five rooms and was not finished at the time this photo was taken. A half way house where stage coaches stopped to change horses, passengers and receive meals. The stage coach went from Topeka to Denver.

Buffalo hunter's home, Sheridan, Kansas
Creator: Benecke, R.
Date: 1870
This is a photograph of a buffalo hunter's home on the Kansas Pacific Railway, Sheridan, Kansas. It is part of Benecke's series "On The Kansas Pacific Railway."

Burrell soddy, Ness County, Kansas
Date: Between 1886 and 1887
This photograph shows Frank, Henry and Otis Burrell with their dogs in front of the Burrell homestead in Ness County, Kansas. The sod house was located in northern Ness County and was built by Warren Burrell across the corner of three quarters of land.

Buzzard Roost schoolhouse, Jennings, Kansas
Date: Between 1880 and 1899
This black and white postcard shows students standing in front of the Buzzard Roost sod schoolhouse near Jennings, Kansas.

C.E. McGuire residence and farmstead, Thomas County, Kansas
Date: 1908
The C.E. McGuire family poses in front of their sod house 8 1/4 miles southwest of Colby, Thomas County, Kansas.

Charley Davis' family and home possibly in Haskell County, Kansas
Date: July 16, 1905
This is a photograph of Charley Davis with his family and their sod house possibly in Haskell County, Kansas. A windmill and out buildings are visible in the background.

Charley Davis home and farm in Haskell County, Kansas
Date: 1919
This postcard shows a house, out buildings, and cattle owned by Charley Davis in Haskell County, Kansas.

Commanding Officers' Quarters, Fort Dodge, Kansas
Date: June 1869
This illustration, from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, shows the first Commanding Officers' Quarters at Fort Dodge, Kansas. The military fort was established in 1865 by Captain Henry Pierce, a member of the 11th Kansas, to protect the United States mail and emigrant wagon trains on the Santa Fe Trail. The facility was located on the left bank of the Arkansas River on the "Long Route" of the Santa Fe Trail a few miles southeast of present day Dodge City, Kansas.

Construction of sod houses
Date: 1932
This collection consists of correspondence, plans, and specifications on the construction of sod houses. In 1932, the Kansas State Historical Society put out a call for information about and instructions on constructing a sod house, in order to create one in the museum when it was located at the Memorial Building in Topeka. The collection includes all correspondence received from this request, handwritten and typed reminiscences from around the country from men who built and lived in sod houses, as well as some of the standardized responses sent by the Society's secretary.

Dugout constructed on Lester Gunlock's claim, Greeley County, Kansas
Date: Between 1900 and 1910
A man poses with a team of horses beside the dugout erected on the land claim of Lester Gunlock, Greeley County, Kansas. A frame outbuilding, a flock of chickens, a bicycle and the family dog are also included in the picture.

Dugout home of Mrs. Norman Webster, Morton County, Kansas
Date: Between 1890 and 1895
This is a photograph of Mrs. Norman Webster's dugout home, Morton County, Kansas.

Dugout in Hamilton County, Kansas
Date: 1908
This photograph shows a family with their dugout and windmill in Hamilton County, Kansas.

Dugout, Norton County, Kansas
Date: Between 1880 and 1890
This photograph shows a family posed in front of their dugout in Norton County, Kansas. The dugout appears to have some sod walls. Patron provided information notes J.S. Humphrey (John S.) and son, Seldon Humphrey, pictured.

Elam Bartholomew residence, Rooks County, Kansas
Date: Between 1899 and 1905
This is an interior view of the Bartholomew's sod house. Elam and his wife Rachel are in the photograph. Elam Bartholomew settled in Rooks County, Kansas, in 1874. He was born in Pennsylvania and his family moved to Ohio and then Illinois. In 1873 he became engaged to Rachel Montgomery and in June 1877 traveled to Illinois for the wedding. They returned to Kansas in September of 1877. The Bartholomews lived on their farm on Bow Creek until 1929 when they moved to Hays. Elam Bartholomew was a well known botanist specializing in rust flora and he served as curator of the mycological museum at Fort Hays Kansas State College. He died in 1934. A diary for the years 1877 and 1878 is contained in Kansas Memory.

Family with their sod house, Decatur County, Kansas
Date: Between 1880 and 1889
This is a photograph of an unidentified family standing in front of their sod house near Norcatur, Decatur County, Kansas. Visible in the photograph is a windmill.

Farmstead in Thomas County, Kansas
Date: Between 1920 and 1929
A view of a farmstead featuring a sod home, a white frame home, and an automobile in Thomas County, Kansas.

First house in Dighton, Lane County, Kansas
Date: Between 1900 and 1910
Five men and a child pose outside a sod house, reported to be the first house built in Dighton, Lane County, Kansas. The sod house was built in 1879 by William A. Watson. The men in the image are, from left to right: William A. Watson, John H. Sc___, J.L. Wolf, Eugene Walker, Charles Lee, and C.F. Wolf.

F. J. Birdsall's parlor in Custer, Oklahoma Territory
Creator: Steele, F. M. (Francis Marion), 1866-1936
Date: 1897
View of an unidentified man and woman seated in the parlor of F. J. Birdsall's sod house in Custer, Beaver County, Oklahoma Territory. This photograph was taken using a flash light.

George Kerr's sod house in Rush County, Kansas
Date: Between 1870 and 1879
This is a photograph showing people posed in front of George Kerr's sod house in Rush County, Kansas.