A New Deal For Public Art In the Free State Sunday, May 6, 2024, 2 p.m. FCHS Archives & Research Center, 2011 E Logan Street, Ottawa, Kansas 66067 Register for online access via Zoom Between 1934 and 1943, the U.S. Treasury Department commissioned over 1,600 pieces of public art for newly constructed post office buildings across the United States. In the state of Kansas, twenty-nine of these murals and other artworks were installed in twenty-six post offices as a part of this New Deal arts program. For eight decades, thousands…
Read MoreTag: Kansas History
March 3: Carnegie Libraries of Kansas (program)
Carnegie Libraries of Kansas presented by Christine Steinkuehler Sunday, March 3, 2024, 2 p.m. In person: FCHS Archives & Research Center, 2011 E Logan St, Ottawa, Kansas 66067 Online: Register for Zoom Once the richest man in the world, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) donated a substantial portion of his fortune to the construction of more than 2,500 libraries around the world. 65 of those libraries—including 59 public libraries and 7 academic/university libraries—were built in Kansas. In her presentation, Christine Steinkuehler will explore how these buildings democratized access to libraries and created…
Read MoreFebruary 4: Army of Amazons: Women’s Fight for Labor Rights in Kansas Coalfields (87th FCHS Annual Meeting)
Army of Amazons: Women’s Fight for Labor Rights in Kansas Coalfields presented by Linda O’Nelio Knoll 87th Annual Meeting of the Members of the Franklin County Historical Society Sunday, February 4, 2024, 2 p.m. In Person: FCHS Archives & Research Center, 2011 E Logan St, Ottawa, KS 66067 Online: Zoom or Facebook Live In December 1921, thousands of women in southeast Kansas rose up to fight injustice in the area coalfields. These women were immigrants from Eastern European nations as well as Kansas born. After a months-long strike by the…
Read MoreSmithsonian Exhibit and Events Coming to FCHS August 19-October 1
Skip to Special Museum Hours Skip to Events: August 19: Grand Opening Celebration August 27: ‘We the People of Kansas…” The Story of Kansas’s Founding Documents, 1820-2020 September 5: The Governor Next Door: Elected Officials From Franklin County September 12: Madame Mayor: The First Women Mayors in Kansas September 19: The Pig in the Swimming Pool: Voices During the Creation of USD 288 September 24: Charles Curtis: The First Native American Vice President How far would you go to exercise your right to vote? In 1858, a group of Franklin…
Read MoreMarch 5: Retelling Sod and Stubble
Retelling Sod and Stubble Presented by Ken Spurgeon Sunday, March 5, 2023, 2 p.m. In person: FCHS Archives & Research Center, 2011 East Logan Street, Ottawa, Kansas Online via Zoom & Facebook Live Many Kansans have read SOD AND STUBBLE, John Ise’s incredible “non-fiction novel” about German immigrant Henry Ise and his devoted wife, Rosie Haas Ise, who with tenacity and devotion fight to craft a home for their family on the plains of Kansas. The book, which includes additional material by Von Rothenberger, is known for its realism. This…
Read MoreJanuary 29: John Brown and Lane, Kansas, subject of 86th Annual FCHS Meeting presentation
John Brown and Lane, Kansas presented by Grady Atwater 86th Annual Meeting of the Members of the Franklin County Historical Society Sunday, January 29, 2023, 2 p.m. In person: FCHS Archives & Research Center, 2011 E Logan St, Ottawa, KS Online: Zoom and Facebook Live Handouts for this program: Annual Meeting program Wishlist Kansas-Missouri Border Map John Brown in Kansas Territory Map The Pottawatomie Massacre was over in a matter of hours, but it effects rippled throughout the world. Grady Atwater, site administrator for the John Brown Museum…
Read MoreNovember 1: W.H. “Dad” Martin, Photographer, Ottawa, Kansas (online program)
W.H. “Dad” Martin, Photographer, Ottawa, Kansas presented by Morgan Williams Tuesday, November 1, 2022, 7 p.m. Online via Zoom of Facebook Live The life and times of W. H. “Dad” Martin as a photographer, world’s champion creator and publisher of exaggeration photo postcards, highway sign manufacturer, and philanthropist in Ottawa, Kansas. Martin from 1908-1910 created over 60 exaggerated photographic images showing farming, fishing and hunting in Franklin County, Kansas. He produced, through his Martin Post Card Company, more that 8 million real photo postcards in Ottawa, Kansas. The program will…
Read MoreSummer 2022: 1859 Dietrich Cabin Tours
1859 Dietrich Cabin Tours First Saturday in June, July, & August, 10 a.m. to Noon Dietrich Cabin is reopening for tours! Originally located southwest of present-day Princeton, Dietrich Cabin was built in 1859 by German immigrants Jacob and Catherine Dietrich, who came to Franklin County in 1857. A century later, descendants of the family donated the cabin to the Franklin County Historical Society, and the cabin was moved to City Park. The cabin represents the story of the Dietrich family and hundreds of other early settlers who came to Franklin…
Read MoreAugust 14, 2022: Tattooed: The Tale of Maud Wagner
Tattooed: The Tale of Maud Wagner presented by Lisa Soller August 14, 2022, 2 p.m. Ottawa Memorial Auditorium, 301 South Hickory Street, Ottawa, Kansas Born in Emporia, Kansas, in 1877, Maud Stevens left home at the age of 19 to join the circus. While working as an aerialist and contortionist at Louisiana Purchase Exposition (also known as the St. Louis World’s Fair), she met and married Gus “The Globe Trotter” Wagner, a “most artistically marked up man” who would collect more than 800 tattoos during his lifetime. Soon covered in…
Read MoreJuly 17, 2022 Program: Architecture of the People’s Houses
Architecture of the People’s Houses presented by Murl Riedel Sunday, July 17, 2022, 2 p.m. Ottawa Memorial Auditorium, 301 South Hickory, Ottawa, Kansas Kansas has 105 county courthouses and hundreds of city halls, plus a few more state capitals than you might expect. The manifestation of the greatest ideals occurs in these buildings, where the work of the people’s democracy is in action. The designs of these buildings tell us about the evolution of local government in the state. Larger societal issues, such as the Free State and the Civil…
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