When Kansas was not yet 15 years old, the attendees of the 1875 Kansas Editors’ and Publishers’ Convention formed the Kansas State Historical Society “for the purpose of saving the present and past records” of Kansas history. One of the first goals of this society was to collect and preserve the NEWSPAPERS of the state. Thanks to that 1875 initiative, Kansas has a FANTASTIC collection of newspapers. (Kansas Digital Newspapers – Background)
Over the years, that newspaper collection was converted to microfilm. This collection of over 70,000 rolls of newspaper microfilm can be accessed at the Kansas State Historical Society Archives in Topeka, KS. With the advent of the Internet, the Kansas Digital Newspapers (KDN) program was begun. This program seeks to digitize and make these newspapers available online.
- 2009 grant from the National Digital Newspaper Program to digitize 42 newspaper titles from 28 cities that are available thru Chronicling America
- Additional grants in 2011 and 2013 added additional titles to the collection on Chronicling America
- In 2013, the Kansas Digital Newspapers program began working with Newspapers.com to digitize the pre-1923 papers
- Pre-1923 Kansas newspapers available for FREE using the “Kansas Historical Open Content” link (no login required!)
- ALL Kansas State Historical Society newspapers on Newspapers.com are available FREE to Kansas residents after they verify their residency by entering a Kansas driver’s license number or Kansas state ID number.
- Those living outside of Kansas may access the 1923 and later Kansas newspapers on Newspapers.com by logging into Newspapers.com with an Ancestry or Newspapers.com account.
As a genealogist with deep Kansas roots, I am very thankful for the foresight of those who worked to create this fantastic newspaper collection. I am also thankful for all of the efforts to digitize this collection!
