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.

A potato harvest
Creator: North American Post Card Company, Kansas City, KS
Date: 1909
This photomontage or exaggerated postcard shows a group of men loading giant potatoes onto a wagon.

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.

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company covered hopper conditionaire car
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: Between 1969 and 1970
This black and white photograph shows potatoes being loaded into an Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe conditionaire car in Shafter, California. The orange covered insulated hopper, with its mechanical temperature control, shipped a variety of perishable products across the country.

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company covered hopper conditionaire car
Date: Between 1969 and 1970
This black and white photograph shows potatoes being loaded into an Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company conditionaire car in Shafter, California. The orange covered insulated hopper, with its mechanical temperature control, shipped a variety of perishable products across the county.

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company covered hopper conditionaire car
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: Between 1969 and 1970
This black and white photograph shows potatoes being loaded into an Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe conditionaire car in Shafter, California. The orange covered insulated hopper, with its mechanical temperature control, shipped a variety of perishable products across the country.

C.T.C. siding, Shafter, California
Date: June 4, 1952
View of activities at the C.T.C. siding in Shafter, California. A northbound Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway's passenger train is passing by on the main line, while an ALSO switch engine #2337 pulls a load of refrigerator cars, loaded with potatoes, on to the new long siding from a spur. Also visible are a man standing next to the switch engine, utility poles and lines, a portion of Central Valley Highway #43, and buildings in the background.

Cultivating potatoes, Valley Falls, Kansas
Date: Between 1900 and 1908
This black and white photograph shows a woman with children cultivating potatoes in a field near Valley Falls, Kansas.

Cyrus Kurtz Holliday to Mary Dillon Holliday
Creator: Holliday, Cyrus Kurtz, 1826-1900
Date: January 28, 1861
Cyrus K. Holliday wrote from La Porte, Indiana to his wife, Mary Holliday, in Topeka, Kansas Territory. On his way to Washington, D. C. he planned to collect a debt. A friend had given him railway passes to Pittsburgh. The contrast between the quality of life in the northern states and Kansas Territory saddened Cyrus, who quoted a verse. He gave instructions to Mary concerning the livestock and farmland. In a postscript, he emphasized that she save the eyes of potatoes.

Digging potatoes on Melvin Kelsey's farm in Shawnee County, Kansas
Date: September 1911
These photographs show people digging potatoes on Melvin Kelsey's farm in Shawnee County, Kansas.

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.

Drouthy Kansas
Creator: Worrall, Henry
Date: 1878
This painting by Henry Worrall, completed in 1878, challenges the assumption that Kansas was part of the "Great American Desert." Although there had, indeed, been a severe drought during 1860, Worrall believed that Kansas did not deserve this harsh reputation. In the foreground, his painting depicts the bountiful harvests of grain, watermelon, and potatoes, while the background includes rain showers and a rainbow stretching across the horizon. Although Worrall was a very productive artist, "Drouthy Kansas" quickly became his most famous work.

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.

Five exaggerated postcards
Creator: Martin, William H., 1865-1940
Date: 1911
Here are five exaggerated postcards showing fish, sweet potatoes, chickens, strawberries, corn, and cabbage. The postcards are titled "I caught these by myself," "We raise tons of sweet potatoes," "A load of fancy poultry," "Crateing immense strawberries," and "Bringing in the sheaves."

Guide thru Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas Showing the Township lines of the United States Surveys
Creator: J. H. Colton & Co.
Date: 1857
Map showing the township lines of the United States surveys by John Calvin Smith in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas. The map has an inset table of census statistics for 1850, including population, number of livestock, principal crops, products, and state finances. This map is provided through a co-operative project between the Lecompton Historical Society and the Kansas Historical Society. Partial funding was provided by the Ross and Margaret Wulfkuhle Charitable Trust and the Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area.

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.

Horace D. Hickok to Lorenzo Butler Hickok
Creator: Hickok, Horace D
Date: August 21, 1859
A letter from Horace D. Hickok, Olathe, Kansas Territory, to his brother Lorenzo Butler Hickok. Horace talks about the political activity in the territory and Missouri delegates coming to the Democratic Convention. He writes that people are returning from the Peak and the mines are paying from ten to twenty dollars per day. Horace is thinking about going to either Santa Fe or the Peak in the spring. He closes the letter and begins another one talking about making overalls and the Sunday sermon at church. Horace comments on Olathe's growth "like a pumpkin vine".

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.

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.

Loading box cars in Linwood, Kansas
Date: Between 1920 and 1930
This black and white photograph shows a view of three men loading sacks of Kaw Valley potatoes from a flatbed truck into box cars in Linwood, Leavenworth County, Kansas.

Loading potatoes
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: Between 1959 and 1970
A view of a man loading sacks of potatoes onto an Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway freight car.

Matilda and Junius Groves
Date: Between 1895 and 1905
This is a portrait of Matilda and Junius Groves, who were potato farmers near Edwardsville in Wyandotte County, Kansas. They farmed over 1,000 acres, and he was known as the "Potato King." The Groves shipped their produce all over the United States by railroad. Because of the quantity shipped, the Union Pacific placed a spur on the Groves' farm to load its produce. Junius Groves served as trustee for Western University in Quindaro, Kansas.

New England Kansas Relief Committee notices
Creator: Collamore, Geo. W
Date: 1861
These two written notices informed the recipient that their seed corn and potatoes were distributed by the New England Kansas Relief Committee. It also instructed the people to use the corn and potatoes wisely and to report harvest yield to the distribution agent. The notices were signed by George Collamore, agent for this committee.