Press Release: January 26, 2011

National Archives at Kansas City

National Archives to host Cowboys, Quacks, and Carousels: Stories of Kansas exhibition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information: Dee Harris, 816-268-8086

Kansas City, (MO)…On February 15, 2011, the National Archives will join in the sesquicentennial celebration of the State of Kansas in a new exhibition at the National Archives at Kansas City. Cowboys, Quacks, and Carousels: Stories of Kansas will present 150 years of Kansas history through intriguing stories and seldom-seen documents.

Cowboys, Quacks, and Carousels: Stories of Kansas offers visitors a glimpse at some of the people, places, and events that have become lasting vignettes in the timeline of Kansas history. The exhibition features letters, journals, maps, reports, receipts, court documents, postcards, photographs, and artifacts from the holdings of the National Archives at Kansas City, the Kansas Historical Society, the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, the C.W. Parker Carousel Museum, the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame, and private collections.

The exhibition is organized in four major themes: It’s a Hard Country, Traveling the Trails, Rails, Roads, and Skies, Business is Booming, and Fame, Fortune, and Fury. Beginning with early Federal records for Kansas Territory, It’s a Hard Country explores the process of making a life in Kansas, from native inhabitants to homesteading to living on the land in the twentieth century. Traveling the Trails, Rails, Roads, and Skies features people and events that helped to build the state, including the cattle trade, railroads, and airplanes. Business is Booming looks at economic growth in Kansas through the individuals and businesses that appear in Federal holdings from court cases to war resource records. Fame, Fortune, and Fury features a diverse cast of characters who have made Kansas their home, including such notable individuals as James Lane, Wild Bill Hickok, and William Allen White.

Additional information
Cowboys, Quacks, and Carousels: Stories of Kansas is a free exhibition organized by the National Archives at Kansas City. It is available for viewing at the National Archives, 400 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, Missouri until May 28, 2011. For additional information, call 816-268-8000 or visit: www.archives.gov/central-plains/kansas-city. Docent led guided tours are available for groups. To schedule a group visit call 816-268-8013 or email mickey.ebert@nara.gov.

The National Archives at Kansas City is one of 13 facilities nationwide where the public has access to Federal archival records. It is home to more than 50,000 cubic feet of historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by nearly 100 Federal agencies. Serving the Central Plains Region, the archives holds records from the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The facility is located at 400 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO 64108. It is open to the public Tuesday - Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for research, with the exhibits open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 816-268-8000 or visit: www.archives.gov/central-plains.

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NREKA 10-55

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