Abbie Bright correspondence
Creator: Bright, Abbie, 1848-1926
Date: 1861-1903
Abbie Bright was born on a farm near Danville, Pennsylvania, on December 17, 1848. She had three brothers, Dennis, Hiram and Philip, all of whom enlisted in the army when the Civil War broke out. Abbie had three sisters, Rebecca, Peninah, and Mary, all of whom aided the war effort. In 1870 Abbie traveled to Indiana and Kansas to visit Hiram and Philip and wrote an account of her trip in a diary (also available on Kansas Memory as record unit 223662). While in Kansas she acquired 160 acres as an investment. This series of correspondence includes letters describing the brother's wartime activities. There are also letters to and from other individuals who were involved in the Civil War. These writings make a significant contribution to Civil War research. Other letters pertain to Philip and Abbie Bright's westward migration. Philip moved to Wyoming, Kansas, Texas, and Arizona but died in 1873 and the letters at that time mostly concern his death. The 1902 and 1903 correspondence apparently regards the sale of Abbie's land in Kansas. A complete transcription is available by clicking on "Text Version" below.

Carte du chemin de fer Atchison, Topeka et Santa Fe, aves ses ramifications
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: 1874
This advertising circular and map published by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad is written in French. It promotes immigration and land development in the Arkansas River Valley in the State of Kansas. One side of the brochure describes the territory and the advantages of further development of three million acres of land. The reverse side has a map of the central portion of the United States, from New York City on the East coast to Colorado and New Mexico. An itinerary describes how to travel, by railroad, to the Arkansas River Valley, from twenty-seven cities in the East and Midwest. Etchings of the Cow Creek valley in Rice County, Kansas, and the Arkansas River valley at Great Bend, Kansas, accompany the map.

Commissioners of Deeds : North Carolina
Creator: Kansas. Governor (1879-1883 : St. John)
Date: 1880
A letter from John M. Sherwood asking Kansas Governor St. John to be appointed Commissioner of Deeds for the State of Kansas in North Carolina.

Company A, 308 Battalion, Tank Corps at Camp Greene, North Carolina
Creator: Seitz, George A.
Date: December 07, 1918
This is a panoramic photograph showing members of Company A, 308 Battalion, Tank Corps at Camp Greens, North Carolina. Seated in the front row middle is Lieutenant Andrew J. Zahn, company commander.

Correspondence with Other States
Creator: Kansas. Governor (1865-1868 : Crawford)
Date: 1867-1868
These letters, spanning 1867 to 1868, are from out of state officials regarding general correspondence to Kansas Governor Samuel Crawford. They wrote about legislation, mainly on resolutions and ratifying amendments. The correspondence came from Kentucky, Colorado, Arkansas, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.

Creek Bowl
Date: Unknown
This complete Creek bowl was donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1915. The Creek Indians, also called the Creek Confederacy or the Muscogee, lived in southeastern America in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida. The majority of the Creek people were later forcibly removed to Oklahoma. The bowl's rough surface has not been glazed or painted, but does show firing clouds, darkened areas on the surface of a vessel caused by uneven firing.

Creek Bowl
Date: Unknown
This complete Creek bowl was donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1915. The Creek Indians, also called the Creek Confederacy or the Muscogee, lived in southeastern America in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida. The majority of the Creek people were later forcibly removed to Oklahoma. The bowl's rough surface has not been glazed or painted, but does show firing clouds, darkened areas on the surface of a vessel caused by uneven firing.

Evelyn Jean Baysdon
Date: Between 1949 and 1951
This is a photograph of Evelyn Jean Baysdon. Evelyn was born in 1934 in Robeson County, North Carolina. She married Marlin Benton Dailey on November 11, 1950, and resided on the Dailey farm near McLouth, Kansas. More information on Evelyn can be found in "A History of the Dailey Family (Jefferson County)", p. 45-50 and p. 129-131, call number BBB D141 P89.

Harold R. Fatzer to J. Lindsay Almond Jr.
Creator: Fatzer, Harold R
Date: July 13, 1951
In this letter, Attorney General of Kansas Harold Fatzer responds to a letter by J. Lindsay Almond, Attorney General of Virginia. Almond had inquired about a school segregation suit against the Topeka Board of Education. Fatzer mentions a similar case in South Carolina, Briggs v. Elliott, and states that the plaintiffs in the Topeka case were arguing that segregation violated their rights under the 14th Amendment. Virginia would later join Kansas as one of the five states represented in the case Brown v. Board of Education. This case reached the U. S. Supreme Court, and in 1954 segregated school facilities were declared unconstitutional. Attached to this letter is Almond's initial inquiry.

Jim Stokes video interview on experiences in World War II (transcript)
Creator: Stokes, Jim (James, Jr.)
Date: June 15, 2007
Jim Stokes enlisted in the Navy in 1943 and served until 1947 on the USS Erben, Third Fleet. He was originally classified 1-E, which meant that he could not be drafted or enlist. He wanted to be in the Navy and the interview describes what he had to go through to get his draft status changed. He also describes these confusion about being drafted into the Army at the same time his Navy enlistment was being processed. He trained at Tufts College, Medford, Massachusetts, and Cornell in Ithaca, New York. He was sent to San Francisco because he assigned to the USS Erben, a destroyer. He participated in campaigns in Okinawa and Tokyo, Japan. Interviewed by Brian Grubbs on Jun 15, 2007, Stokes talked about military experiences in the Second World War. Stokes was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, August 11, 1922, and was attending North Carolina State University in engineering when the war began. He used the G. I. Bill to finish college. The 2005 Kansas Legislature passed a bill funding the WWII Veterans Oral History grant program. This transcript is from one of the community institutions receiving grants. The transcript of the interview is presented here; the original video copy of the interview is available through the Watkins Community Museum of History (Lawrence) and through the Kansas State Historical Society.

John "Buck" Newsom video interview on experiences in World War II (transcript)
Creator: Newsom, John "Buck"
Date: May 23, 2007
John "Buck" Newsom received an appointment to the Naval Academy after one year at Duke University. He graduated in February 1941 and was sent to the Pacific Fleet. He first served on the USS Hopkins DMS-13, for 2 1/2 years. He was the Chief Engineer and later the Gun Boss. During WWII, he was at numerous locations in the Pacific. He retired from the Navy just before the start of the Vietnam War. He was interviewed by Deborah Pye on May 23, 2007. Newsom was born in Durham, North Carolina in 1919. After his military career, he worked for Centron Films in Lawrence, Kansas, and as a professor of Naval Science at Kansas University. The 2005 Kansas Legislature passed a bill funding the WWII Veterans Oral History grant program. This transcript is from one of the community institutions receiving grants. The transcript of the interview is presented here; the original video copy of the interview is available through the Watkins Community Museum of History (Lawrence) and through the Kansas State Historical Society.

John R. Brinkley's farm near Tuckaseege, North Carolina
Date: Between 1930 and 1939
A photograph showing the entrance to Dr. John R. Brinkley's farm near Tuckaseege, Jackson County, North Carolina.

Lawson Wilson to Lewis Allen Alderson
Date: December 1831-November 1832
These three letters are from Lawson Wilson in Lincoln County, North Carolina, to his friend, Lewis Allen Alderson, a student at the University of Ohio in Athens. In his letters, Wilson reminisces about time spent in Athens and seeks news about his old acquaintances. Wilson states that "Nullification has been making a great noise in the South," regarding the ability of individual states to abolish federal laws, particularly relating to tariffs and slave laws in South Carolina. He also mentions that the gold mines in the region are making "a great bustle" and congratulates Alderson on his recent marriage. Alderson moved to Atchison, Kansas, in 1858 and was a prominent Baptist minister. He died in Atchison in 1881.

Part 12: Exodusters, in first annual report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics
Creator: Kansas Bureau of Labor
Date: 1886
This excerpt of the Kansas Bureau of Labor report includes only Part 12, the portion of the report focusing on the Exodusters in Wyandotte, Kansas. The report includes transcribed testimonies of Exodusters as well as a detailed table showing statistics compiled from seventeen families, including their location, ages, health, and occupations. The report also includes a few references to Exodusters in Topeka.

Report of the majority, in report and testimony of the select committee to investigate the causes of the removal of the Negroes from the southern states to the northern states, in three parts
Creator: United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Negro Exodus
Date: 1880
This report, written by the majority party of the Senate select committee investigating the Exodus, outlines the majority's conclusions about why Southern blacks were emigrating to the North during the post-Civil War period. This committee, composed of majority and minority parties, had taken testimony from hundreds of people having direct knowledge of the exodus movement. In essence, the majority party (the Democrats) concluded that blacks in the South had not emigrated due to "any deprivation of their political rights or any hardship in their condition" in their home state. Furthermore, the report maintained that aid societies in the North (such as the Freedmen's Aid Association of Topeka) were working with the Republican Party to encourage black emigration for purely political means. The majority party was composed of three senators: Daniel W. Voorhees (Dem., Indiana), Zebulon B. Vance (Dem., North Carolina), and George H. Pendleton (Dem., Ohio).

Report of the minority, in report and testimony of the select committee to Investigate the causes of the removal of the Negroes from the southern states to the northern states, in three parts
Creator: United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Negro Exodus
Date: 1880
This report, written by the minority party of the Senate select committee investigating the Exodus, outlines the minority's conclusions about the reasons for black emigration to the North during the Reconstruction period. This committee, composed of majority and minority parties, had taken testimony from hundreds of people having direct knowledge of the exodus movement. In essence, the minority party concluded that the Northern Republican Party and emigrant aid organizations had not persuaded blacks in the South to emigrate to the North. Instead, the unfavorable condition of life in the South had caused this mass exodus. The minority members were William Windom, a Republican senator from Minnesota, and Henry W. Blair, a Republican senator from New Hampshire.

Testimony of A. A. Harris, in report and testimony of the select committee to investigate the causes of the removal of the Negroes from the southern states to the northern states, in three parts
Creator: United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Negro Exodus
Date: 1880
A. A. Harris, a white resident of Ft. Scott, Kansas, gave this brief testimony on March 29, 1880, before the Senate select committee investigating the causes of the Exodus. Harris described his contact with the black Exodusters in his area, including their difficulty finding employment. The committee also asked Harris to speak in some detail about the general treatment of African-Americans in Kansas, including any discrimination against them, particularly in the world of politics. This committee was composed of three Democratic senators and two Republican senators: Daniel W. Voorhees (Dem., Indiana), Zebulon B. Vance (Dem., North Carolina), George H. Pendleton (Dem., Ohio), William Windom (Rep., Minnesota), and Henry W. Blair (Rep., New Hampshire). Senators Blair and Vance asked the questions presented in this testimony.

Where Kansas stands
Date: 1916
This good roads promotional brochure published by the Kansas Good Roads Association argues that Kansas' position as a national leader in farm production makes good roads a necessity.