This collection consists of news clippings collected by Sara Robinson, Charles Robinson's wife, and compiled into scrapbooks. The clippings treat the lives of Charles Robinson, John Brown, James H. Lane, and numerous others prominent in Kansas history. There is biographical information about Lawrence residents, local and regional history.

This collection consists of letters and notes from Samuel F. Tappan sent to William E. Connelley regarding Tappan's involvement with and recollection of the territorial border wars in Kansas. The letters were written a half-century after the fact.

These volumes are compilations by members of the Watson Library staff of newspaper clippings dated 1861-1959 about James Lane and his descendants.

This is an account of the artillery piece originally captured by Col. Alexander Doniphan during the Mexican War. The cannon is reputed to have "fired the first shot" against slavery as well as in support of the cause. It is now on permanent deposit with the Douglas County Historical Society, Lawrence, Kansas.

The collection of correspondence, documents, and addresses of Charles Robinson, housed in the Kansas Collection, is mainly from the period 1854 to 1861. Robinson was a resident agent for the New England Emigrant Aid Company and an advocate for the Free State, anti-slavery cause. There are items on the founding of the University of Kansas. There are also letters from Mrs. Robinson to F. W. Blackmar, the biographer of Governor Robinson.