Capital Punishment in Kansas
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:00:00 CST
The death penalty has always been controversial in Kansas. Executions were first halted in 1872, after the legislature passed a law requiring the governor to sign off on all execution orders. Capital punishment has continued to stir controversy, not only in the political arena, but in the hearts and minds of Kansans....

  Stormy Weather: tornadoes in Kansas
Wed, 23 2008 10:00:00 CST
Since long before Euro-American settlement, strong winds have been a constant feature of the central plains region and the area now known as Kansas. The name Kansas was borrowed from the Kanza Indians who called themselves “the people of the south wind.” This podcast features three stories about Kansas tornadoes recorded by visitors to the Forces o...

  A Happy Home: Martha Farnsworth Diary
Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:00:00 CST
Martha Farnsworth was a prolific diary writer, recording her daily experiences from 1882 through 1922 with only minor gaps. This podcast features entries from Martha's diary that describe her second marriage to another postman named Fred Farnsworth. Because of the unhappiness of Martha's first marriage, Martha is anxious about remarrying. She is ...

  Young Love: Martha Farnsworth Diary
Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:00:00 CST
Martha Farnsworth was a prolific diary writer, recording her daily experiences from 1882 through 1922 with only minor gaps. This podcast features entries from Martha's diary that describe her courtship and first marriage to John W. Shaw, a post man in Topeka, Kansas. In these entries, Martha is in her early twenties and describes her involvement w...

  Over There: Martha Farnsworth and WWI
Wed, 28 May 2008 10:00:00 CST
Martha Farnsworth was a prolific diary writer, recording her daily experiences from 1882 through 1922 with only minor gaps. Martha , with some assistance from her second husband Fred taught a Sunday School class of boys at the first Christian Church in Topeka. Martha taught the same boys year in and year out and these boys became their family. M...

  Grasshoppers! Plague of the Prairie
Wed, 14 May 2008 10:00:00 CST
In the mid 1870s, settlers trying to establish homes and farms in Kansas had to deal with grasshopper invasions that would destroy crops. This pod cast will feature excerpts from a reminiscence that provides a word picture of an invasions in 1874 and from a diary that contains numerous references to these insects in May of 1875....

  Shawnee Missions, 1830-1854
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:00:00 CST
After the treaty of 1825, the Shawnee Indians were removed from Ohio to the Indian Territory west of Missouri. In response, three Christian missions were built in the vicinity of the Westport Landing on the Missouri River. The records from these missions are some of the earliest manuscripts in the Kansas Historical Society collections....

  Child Labor: "...it is better for children to learn to work when they are little"
Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:00:00 CST
Children's lives have changed dramatically in America in the last hundred years. Today we take it for granted that children will attend public school and not work full-time, but in the early 1900's, laws regulating child labor were still evolving. Hear what Kansas parents and business owners had to say about these laws when they first took effect...

  Before They Were Famous
Wed, 2 Apr 2008 10:00:00 CST
In 1872, Henry Raymond arrived in Dodge City, Kansas, to join his brother Theodore and friends to hunt buffalo to make money. The friends happened to be the Masterson brothers--Bat, Jim, and Ed--who all later became lawmen in the Dodge City area. This podcast is based on Henry Raymond's diary that provides short daily entires about the lives of t...

  The B-B-Blizzard, Kinsley, Kansas
Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:00:00 CST
In January 1886 a fierce blizzard struck south central Kansas. Over 200 people were stranded in Kinsley, Kanasas, population 600+. Snowbound for almost a week, the passengers in cooperation with the two local newspapers, the Kinsley Graphic and the Kinsley Mercury, published a one issue newspaper titled the B-B-Blizzard on January 23, 1886. This...

  Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: “...you see everything as done good is done by white people."
Wed, 04 Mar 2008 10:00:00 CST
From 1991 to 1996 the Kansas Historical Society participated in a grant project that funded eighty oral interviews with people involved in or affected by U.S. school desegregation cases that culminated in the U. S. Supreme Court case, Brown versus Board of Education Topeka. This podcast features excerpts from an interview with Christina Jackson, wh...