Arma mining camp, Crawford County, Kansas
Date: 1905-1943
Photographs and postcards of the mining camp, businesses, community interests, residents, and buildings in Arma, Kansas. The city of Arma was incorporated in 1909 and is located in Crawford County about nine miles north of Pittsburg. Previously the area was known as Rust, a small coal camp laid out in 1886. The town was inhabited by miners from many of the surrounding mines. Arma continues today and is home to a few businesses, a grade school and a high school.

Mormon trail
Date: Between 1910 and 1940
These accounts describe travel on the Mormon trail, which went from Independence, Missouri, through several southeast Kansas counties, eventually exiting the state through Washington County. This trail was primarily used by Mormons who were heading west to settle in Utah during the 1840s through the 1860s

Samuel J. Reader's autobiography, volume 1
Creator: Reader, Samuel James, 1836-1914
Date: 1901-1908
"Autobiography of an old Jayhawker" gives an early account of Samuel James Reader's childhood and family (1849-1856) written when Reader was in his sixties. This autobiography is of particular interest because the first volume of Reader's diary, which covered a similar time period, was destroyed by a fire. It also includes a number of illustrations drawn by Reader. It describes his life in Virginia and Illinois, before he came to Kansas. In the early pages, Reader writes about a cousin Sydney Rigdon who was a Mormon and lived in Nauvoo, Illinois.