This formal portrait represents John Alexander Martin, 1839-1889, a newspaper publisher and civil war veteran from Atchison, Kansas. He is a free state activist and helps to organize the Kansas Republican Party. Actively involved in the development of Kansas politics, Martin is chosen as secretary to the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention. In 1861 he is elected to the Kansas Senate serving District two of Atchison, Kansas. After the Civil War Martin's continues his political ambitions. He narrowly misses, in 1878, the Republican nomination for governor. However, in the November election in 1884, Martin is elected as the tenth governor of Kansas. He serves from January 12, 1885 to January 14, 1889. Martin's administrating is noted for giving women the right to vote in local and city elections. The state militia becomes the Kansas National Guard, and a bureau of labor and industrial statistics is created.