Buttons from the Pottawatomi Mission, 14SH325
Date: 1850-1861
These buttons were recovered from room 3 at the Pottawatomi Mission in Shawnee County during excavations by Kansas Historical Society archeologists and crew in 1975. Buttons shown are manufactured of white glass, bone, and rubber in two- and four-hole styles. One button was made by the Novelty Rubber Company. The Mission was built in 1850 with the purpose of teaching Potawatomi children reading, writing, and trade skills. After closing in 1861 the building served multiple purposes. The building and the surrounding land was purchased by the State of Kansas in 1973 and it remains on the grounds of the Kansas Historical Society.

Child's Shoe Sole from the Pottawatomi Mission, 14SH325
Date: 1850-1861
This shoe sole was recovered from the Pottawatomi Mission in Shawnee County during excavations by Kansas Historical Society archeologists and crew in 1975. The sole is 7.25" long, 2.25" at its widest point and 1.5" at its narrowest. This would be a child's size 10 by today's standards. The nearly straight sides indicate it was made prior to 1861. The Mission was built in 1850 with the purpose of teaching Potawatomi children reading, writing, and trade skills. After closing in 1861 the building served multiple purposes. The building and the surrounding land was purchased by the State of Kansas in 1973 and it remains on the grounds of the Kansas Historical Society.

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.

Johnston Lykins
Date: Between 1840 and 1860
Johnston Lykins was a well-known missionary, physician, and translator who worked with the Pottawatomi and Shawnee Indians who had moved to Indian Territory (present-day Kansas) after the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. In 1831, after serving as a missionary to the Indian tribes in Indiana and Michigan, Lykins and his first wife Delilah (McCoy) Lykins moved to Indian Territory. Lykins and his father-in-law, Isaac McCoy, established the Shawnee Indian Baptist Mission in present-day Johnson County, Kansas. In addition to his responsibilities as a physician, Lykins worked as a translator and developed a system of Indian orthography that allowed the Shawnee people to read and write in their native language. He edited and published the first paper printed in Shawnee, called the Sinwiowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Sun). In the spring of 1843, Lykins founded a mission among the Pottawatomi near what is today Topeka. Due, perhaps, to inter-denominational conflicts and other problems with the mission, Lykins left the Pottawatomi mission and moved to Kansas City, Missouri. He served as the second mayor of Kansas City in 1854, and he remained in residence there until his death in 1876.

Marbles from the Iowa and Sac and Fox Mission, 14DP384
Date: 1845-1905
These three marbles were recovered from an excavation at the Iowa Sac and Fox Mission in Doniphan County by Kansas Historical Society archeologists and Kansas Anthropological Association volunteers. Two marbles are made of unglazed German hand-painted porcelain. One has black lines quartering it, and the other has a blue floral motif. The other is a ceramic marble that has Bennington style decoration. The Presbyterian Mission was built in 1845 and closed in 1863. After that part of the building was razed, the rest was used as a residence until 1905. The State of Kansas acquired to property in 1941.

Museum construction scene, Topeka, Kansas
Creator: Kansas State Historical Society
Date: September 24, 1982
This is a photograph of the museum construction site taken from the interstate in Topeka, Kansas. In the background to the right, the Potawatomi Mission can be seen. The museum is located at 6425 SW 6th Ave.

Needlepoint
Date: between 1837 and 1854
Needlepoint design showing a chalice or loving cup on a book, sewn on perforated paper. This needlepoint was made by a Native American student at the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission. Fannie Simerwell, a Baptist missionary, taught the students domestic skills, including sewing and needlepoint.

Needlepoint
Date: between 1837 and 1854
Needlepoint design showing a bouquet of pink and purple flowers, sewn on perforated paper. This needlepoint was made by a Native American student at the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission. Fannie Simerwell, a Baptist missionary, taught the students domestic skills, including sewing and needlepoint.

Needlepoint
Date: between 1837 and 1854
Needlepoint design showing a female figure, sewn on perforated paper. This needlepoint was made by a Native American student at the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission. Fannie Simerwell, a Baptist missionary, taught the students domestic skills, including sewing and needlepoint.

Needlepoint
Date: between 1837 and 1854
Needlepoint design showing a woman with a basket of flowers, sewn on perforated paper. This needlepoint was made by a Native American student at the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission. Fannie Simerwell, a Baptist missionary, taught the students domestic skills, including sewing and needlepoint.

Needlepoint
Date: between 1937 and 1854
Needlepoint design possibly showing a cat and a kitten in a landscape, sewn on perforated paper. This needlepoint was made by a Native American student at the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission. Fannie Simerwell, a Baptist missionary, taught the students domestic skills, including sewing and needlepoint.

Needlepoint bookmark
Date: between 1837 and 1854
Needlepoint bookmark, sewn on perforated paper and backed with silk. This needlepoint was made by a Native American student at the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission. Fannie Simerwell, a Baptist missionary, taught the students domestic skills, including sewing and needlepoint.

Needlepoint pattern
Date: between 1837 and 1854
Needlepoint pattern hand-colored on paper. This pattern might have been made by a Native American student at the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission or Fannie Simerwell, a Baptist missionary who taugh sewing and needlepoint at the school.

Potawatomi Mission, Topeka, Kansas
Date: September 15, 1961
Three photographs of the Pottawatomie Indian Mission, which operated from 1848-1861, managing with limited funds and staff. After the mission closed, the original stone building was transformed into a barn for Prairie Dell Farm which was then purchased with its surrounding acreage in 1974 by the Kansas Historical Society for their headquarters.

Pottawatomie Baptist Indian Mission
View of the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission, in Shawnee County west of Topeka, Kansas.

Pottawatomie Baptist Indian Mission
View of the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission, in Shawnee County west of Topeka, Kansas.

Pottawatomie Baptist Indian Mission, Topeka, Kansas
View of the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission, in Shawnee County west of Topeka, Kansas.

Pottawatomie Baptist Mission
Date: Between 1930 and 1960
View of the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission, Topeka, Kansas.

Pottawatomie Baptist Mission
Date: Between 1880 and 1900
View of the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission in Shawnee county, Kansas, looking southwest from Murray Hill. The Robert Ives Lee house is in the foreground, he purchased the property from the Baptist Mission Society.

Pottawatomie Baptist Mission
Date: Between 1880 and 1890
View of an outbuilding at the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission.

Pottawatomie Baptist Mission
Date: Between 1880 and 1890
View of an outbuilding at the Pottawatomie Baptist Mission.

Robert Simerwell, Quarterly Statement to the American Baptist Publication Society
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: September 1, 1860 - December 1, 1860
This quarterly statement was written by Robert Simerwell, a missionary colporteur with the American Baptist Publication Society. It contains the dollar amounts for the number of books on hand, his salary for one month, and the amount from book sales, among other items.

Robert Simerwell to Annie Simerwell
Creator: Simerwell, Robert, 1786-1868
Date: November 21, 1853
In this letter to his daughter Annie Simerwell, Robert Simerwell discusses the happenings at the Potawatomi Baptist Manual Labor School near present day Topeka, Kansas a year before the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Simerwell explains that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is expected back in April of 1854 to discuss treaties with the Native Indian tribes in the area, and he believes that "most of them will sell, and the whites will enter their country." The second page is a letter from Annie's mother about some of the daily chores.

Shawnee County
Creator: Root, George A. (George Allen), 1867-1949
Date: 1936
This is a map of Shawnee County, Kansas showing roads and trails, ferries, Indian villages, missions, towns, townships, cemeteries, Indian reservations, railroads, rivers and creeks, and other points of interest.

Township 11 South, Range 15 East, plat maps
Date: January 06, 1866
The U.S. Surveyor General began surveying Kansas after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Plat maps were created at that time to document the surveys. The plats show public lands within the territory divided by range, township and section. Townships were measured in six mile increments starting from the Kansas-Nebraska border. Ranges were numbered in six mile increments east and west from the Sixth Prime Meridian, which crosses through present day Wichita, Kansas. This system is still the basis for legal land description in the state. The Kansas Historical Society acquired a collection of these original plats previously held by the Kansas Secretary of State. The National Archives and the Bureau of Land Management also hold copies of the plats. These two maps show the east and west sides of township 11 south, range 15 east. On the east side, the Kansa "Half Breed" lots are on the north bank of the Kansas River; the west map shows part of the Pottawattomie Reservation, including the Pottawattomie Baptist Mission in the northwest quarter of section 32, which is still standing today on the grounds of the Kansas Historical Society. The town of Indianola, which later became part of North Topeka, is shown on the east portion of the maps.