Aaron Dwight Stevens
Creator: Reader, Samuel James, 1836-1914
Date: 1856
A cyanotype of Aaron Dwight Stevens, 1831-1860, from a drawing made by Samuel J. Reader of Shawnee County, Kansas Territory. Stevens, reported to be one of abolitionist John Brown's bravest men, used the alias Captain Charles Whipple while following Brown. Stevens was convicted of treason and conspiring with slaves for his part in Brown's October 16, 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and was hung at Charles Town, Virginia on March 16, 1860.

Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe depot Tecumseh, Kansas
Date: 1900-1930
This cyanotype postcard shows the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway Company depot in Tecumseh, Kansas. The one-story wooden structure no longer stands.

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company's bridge 230
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: Between 1880s and 1890s
This cyanotype photograph shows the construction of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company's bridge 230 CD from the west end.

Construction, Abo Canyon, New Mexico
Date: Between 1902 and 1907
A view of a tunnel cut between bridges 871.4 and 871.5 through Abo Canyon, New Mexico. Construction of the Atchison,Topeka & Santa Fe Railway bridges, tunnels, and tracks in Abo Canyon began in 1905 and the project was completed in 1908.

Dutch windmill in Lawrence, Kansas
Date: Between 1890 and 1899
This is a cyanotype showing the old Dutch windmill, which stood on West Ninth Street in Lawrence, Kansas. Construction on the windmill started July 1, 1863 by Andrew Palm and John H. Wilder. Fourteen men were brought from Sweden by Palm to build the windmill. It was destroyed in Quantrill's Raid and rebuilt in 1864. It was octagon shaped, four stories in height, and the basement had walls of stone six feet thick. The mill had four millstones, two for wheat and two for corn. The capacity of the mill was twenty bushels daily each of flour and meal. With the wind blowing at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour the mill would have eighty horse power. The mill ceased running in July 1885 and a fire destroyed it in 1905.

Henry and Mary Worrall playing guitars
Date: Between 1880 and 1902
Guitarist and artist Henry Worrall of Topeka, Kansas, plays music with his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harvey Worrall. Henry and Mary frequently performed together in Cincinnati, Ohio, before moving to Topeka, Kansas, in 1868. Worrall's celebrated solo guitar instrumentals "Sebastopol" and "Spanish Fandango" enjoyed great popularity in the nineteenth century. In the early twentieth century, Worrall's popular solo guitar pieces played a key role in the development of the guitar styles of southern rural folk musicians and country and blues musical idioms. Henry Worrall died in Topeka in 1902. Mary Worrall died in Topeka in 1915.

Henry Worrall in his studio
Date: 1887
A cynotype photograph of musician and illustrator Henry Worrall working in his studio at 715 Polk Street, Topeka, Kansas. An inscription on the back of the photo indicates that it was taken in 1887 and that Worrall was born in Liverpool, England.

Medicine Man Chief Wiskigeamatyuk
Date: June 1896
This is a cyanotype showing the second day of the Potawatomie Dream Dance ceremony. The final containment and capture of leader Potawatomie medicine man Chief Wiskigeamatyuk. He is standing center/right looking proudly upon his followers and a young Indian girl representing a superstitious prophet and holding a staff wand. The dance was believed to summon and restore power back to their people by chants and beating of a large drum. In his younger days, Chief Wiskigeamatyuk was known as The Smoke That Travels and gained a reputation for killing more Sioux and Pawnee warriors than any other of his society.

Star Lumber Company in Elkhart, Kansas
Date: 1914
Here are two cyanotypes of the Star Lumber Company in Elkhart, Kansas. The men in one of the photographs are identified as Lee Larrabee, left, Clyde Washburn, center, and Ralph Colvin, right.

Track construction, Abo Canyon, New Mexico
Date: Between 1902-1908
View of Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway track construction through the Abo Canyon, New Mexico. Construction of the AT&SF Railway bridges, tunnels, and tracks in Abo Canyon was begun in 1905 and completed in 1908.