Kenneth Spencer Research Library Archival Collections

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Reminiscences of life on a farm near Junction City following migration west in 1869. Sixteen years on a Kansas farm, 1870-1886.

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This collection consists of orrespondence and documents involving Charles H. Branscomb, agent for the New England Emigrant Aid Company in territorial Kansas, dating from 1853-1886. Correspondents or individuals mentioned in the letters include James Gillespie Blaine (1830-1893), Amos Adams Lawrence (1814-1886), Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924), Charles Robinson (1818-1894), John Pierce St. John (1835-19140, and Charles Sumner (1811-1874).

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Correspondence with representatives of the American Settlement Company, a New York-based joint stock company, 1854-1856; with a manuscript biography of Samuel Ira Munger, dated January 1, 1877.

Overview Single handwritten letter, written by Edward Everett Hale to Abbott Lawrence, regarding the formation of the New England Emigrant Aid Company and requesting Lawrence to consider financially backing the company. The company was formed soon after the creation of the Kansas and Nebraska Territories, with the intention of settlers from the northeastern states going to Kansas to settle and help it become a free state, rather than a slaveholding state. Folder also includes envelope in which...

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Typescript copy detailing the account of the emigration trip of Heinrich Block and his family from Russia to the United States and their life in the United States from 1813 to 1896. The account was gathered from Heinrich's son Peter H. Block's history and translated by Paulina Foote sometime between 1900 and 1973.

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This collection contains letters to Horace James, dating from 1843-1845 and 1852-1857.

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John Bayless was president of the Susquehanna Western Emigration Company, formed in Kirkwood, Broome County, New York, December 7, 1854. This collection consist of papers concerning Highland, Kansas, 1840-1872.

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This collection consists of four letters from abolitionist John Brown.

Overview Handwritten travel narrative in German, typewritten German transcription, and typewritten English translation of Julius Gottlieb's journey from Bosen, Germany to Pleasanton, Kansas in 1884. Gottlieb wrote his narrative in 1885 and his daughter, Selma Kallis, made the transcription and translation at a later date. Kallis' translation includes explanatory footnotes. Also included in Gottlieb's papers are several items collected on his trip, such as a baggage claim check and a vaccination...

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Diary, January 17, 1857 to April 12, 1857; with a partial address and account book, ca. 1856-1857? Account of journey to Lawrence, starting from Richmond, Illinois. Various addressee, accounting notations, and itineraries are written at the front and near the end of the diary.

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Letter of recommendation from Joseph Baldwin, clerk of the Calvanistic Congregational Church, Fitchburg, Massachusetts to Rev. Samuel Y. Lum, Pastor, Plymouth Church, Lawrence on behalf of Mrs. Nancy Hunt (probably the wife of George W. Hunt, who had emigrated to Kansas Territory circa 1855). Dated Fitchburg, [Mass.], May 5, 1856.

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Project report, sound cassettes, and transcripts of interviews of thirty-one Hispanic and Latino immigrants to the United States, residing in Kansas City, Kansas. Interviews were conducted January-October, 2003.

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Includes a copy of "From Smaland, Sweden to Smolan, Kansas, Part II" written by Neva Entrikin for a Kansas history class at the University of Kansas in 1978.

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The first papers of the collection, dating from the 1830s to 1855, cover William Patton's residence in Missouri and receipts for purchases of enslaved persons. The latter portion of the collection includes papers from related families and kinsmen: Summers, Renfro. and Pryor Plank.

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This collection consists of microfilmed copies of the official records and correspondence of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, an organization founded to help individuals from the northeastern United States move to the newly opened Kansas territory in order to help the territory become a free state rather than a slaveholding state.

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Carman taught Romance Languages at the University of Kansas from 1918-1966. This collection contains correspondence, notes, maps, research and reference material, and manuscripts from Carman's career at KU, notably regarding populations with foreign language backgrounds in Kansas from the first Euro-American settlers to the mid-20th century.

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This collection includes letters written by Tovey to his wife Eliza, as well as a manuscript of Tovey's life in the Kansas Territory intended to help possible emigrants to the territory.

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Robert L. Gilbert immigrated to the United States from England in 1855 and arrived in Lawrence, Kansas later that year. This collection contains diaries, personal books, letters and official documents, and an autobiography, and photographs.

Overview The correspondence in this collection is primarily concerned with land sales, in Kansas, Nebraska and other states, financial matters, excursion trips to the Western states, and immigration to Kansas and Nebraska. Knox's legal papers are also included. Among Knox's correspondents were soldiers fighting in the Civil War in Kansas and Illinois volunteer regiments, his family (including a family history), requests for information regarding land in Kansas and Nebraska, and responses to Knox's...