The Kansas Collection - Kansas Life

Manuscript and photographic holdings in the Kansas Collection are extensive, and provide resources needed for the study of social history. Holdings include the papers and images of Kansas and regional individuals and families, both the famous and less well-known, the records of schools, churches, clubs, societies, businesses, and county and local government. The following subject areas are among those well represented through manuscript and photographic holdings.

Architectural history Experiences of women Overland trail accounts Environmental issues Territorial Kansas Lawrence history African American experience Economic development

Individual collections may consist of a few items or several thousand and may contain a variety of material, such as correspondence, diaries, speeches, class notes, ledgers, account books, scrapbooks, certificates, and legal documents. Very few of the records for our manuscript collections are accessible on the KU Libraries online catalog at this time. Many are accessible by subject and names through the Kansas Collection card catalog. In addition, detailed manuscript finding aids are filed by the name of the collection in notebooks in our reference area. Kansas Collection staff are always on hand to assist researchers with manuscript questions.