Saturday, October 2, 2010

Hurrah for the Kansas Historical Society!

According to the Summer 2010 Reflections, a publication of the Kansas Historical Society, thousands of records have already been digitized by that organization, and there are plans to digitize all of their Civil War collections. By going to the website for the Kansas Memory project you can see that many documents are now available. Documents can be accessed in a number of ways such as by subject, by collection name, by date, etc. In a casual perusal I noticed the following goodies have already been digitized: a postwar account written by Asbury Thornhill to the National Tribune that describes his capture in the Indian Territory and his captivity at Camp Ford in Texas; letters by Cyrus Leland of the 10th Kansas Cavalry; a letter written by H. M. Simpson describing Quantrill’s attack on Lawrence, Kansas; the correspondence of Henry A. Strong of the 12th Kansas Infantry; Samuel J. Reader’s diary and autobiography describing the Bleeding Kansas years and his service as a militiaman during Price’s raid into Missouri; and the letters of Samuel Worthington who served in the 11th Kansas Cavalry. There are many additional documents and photographs available online on the website. Perhaps someday researchers will no longer need to use either microfiche or microfilm!

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