John Brown and Lane, Kansas presented by Grady Atwater 86th Annual Meeting of the Members of the Franklin County Historical Society Sunday, January 29, 2023, 2 p.m. In person: FCHS Archives & Research Center, 2011 E Logan St, Ottawa, KS Online: Zoom and Facebook Live Handouts for this program: Annual Meeting program Wishlist Kansas-Missouri Border Map John Brown in Kansas Territory Map The Pottawatomie Massacre was over in a matter of hours, but it effects rippled throughout the world. Grady Atwater, site administrator for the John Brown Museum…
Read MoreAuthor: Diana Staresinic-Deane
April 1: Run For History 5K Run/Walk
Run for History 5K Fun Run/Walk Saturday, April 1, 2023, 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. Old Depot Museum, 135 West Tecumseh Street, Ottawa, Kansas Feel the spirit of the trains as you trace the paths of the former AT&SF and Missouri Pacific railroad lines during our April 1, 2023 5K Run/Walk, which kicks off at the 1888 Old Depot Museum! Whether you set your best time or enjoy a stroll with your friends, your $25 registration fee will help support the Franklin County Historical Society. Register early and receive a…
Read MoreGoppert Foundation gift funds paint restoration on historic caboose
If you’re driving down K-68 or pedaling your bike on the Prairie Spirit Trail, you won’t be able to miss the brilliant new paint job on the Old Depot Museum’s 1940s caboose. Thanks to a generous gift from the Goppert Foundation, the Franklin County Historical Society is restoring the exterior paint on the historic 1940s caboose parked on the rails at the Old Depot Museum. Work began this past weekend and will be completed this week, weather permitting. A long and interesting life on the rails Built at the Atchison,…
Read MoreNovember 1: W.H. “Dad” Martin, Photographer, Ottawa, Kansas (online program)
W.H. “Dad” Martin, Photographer, Ottawa, Kansas presented by Morgan Williams Tuesday, November 1, 2022, 7 p.m. Online via Zoom of Facebook Live The life and times of W. H. “Dad” Martin as a photographer, world’s champion creator and publisher of exaggeration photo postcards, highway sign manufacturer, and philanthropist in Ottawa, Kansas. Martin from 1908-1910 created over 60 exaggerated photographic images showing farming, fishing and hunting in Franklin County, Kansas. He produced, through his Martin Post Card Company, more that 8 million real photo postcards in Ottawa, Kansas. The program will…
Read MoreOctober 21: Chamber Coffee @ FCHS Archives & Research Center
Chamber Coffee Friday, October 21, 2022, 8 a.m. FCHS Archives & Research Center 2011 East Logan Street, Ottawa, Kansas 66067 We’re excited to share our new location with you! Join us for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Franklin County Historical Society’s Archives & Research Center and learn more about how we hope to use our new space. For more information, call (785) 242-1232 or e-mail Diana Staresinic-Deane.
Read MoreNEW DATE – October 23: Dress for Success: Nelly Don and American Fashion (in-person program)
Dress for Success: Nelly Don and American Fashion Presented by Marla Day Sunday, October 9, 2022, October 23, 2022, 2 p.m. Greenwood Community Center 2705 Florida Rd, Pomona, Kansas 66076 NEW DATE: Due to an unforeseen illness, this program has been postponed and will be held on Sunday, October 23. You can’t mention 20th-century women’s wear without thinking of Nelly Don. The Parsons native built a fashion empire on the vision that women deserved affordable, stylish clothing regardless of means or status. From humble beginnings, Don built a company that…
Read MoreSummer 2022: 1859 Dietrich Cabin Tours
1859 Dietrich Cabin Tours First Saturday in June, July, & August, 10 a.m. to Noon Dietrich Cabin is reopening for tours! Originally located southwest of present-day Princeton, Dietrich Cabin was built in 1859 by German immigrants Jacob and Catherine Dietrich, who came to Franklin County in 1857. A century later, descendants of the family donated the cabin to the Franklin County Historical Society, and the cabin was moved to City Park. The cabin represents the story of the Dietrich family and hundreds of other early settlers who came to Franklin…
Read MoreAugust 14, 2022: Tattooed: The Tale of Maud Wagner
Tattooed: The Tale of Maud Wagner presented by Lisa Soller August 14, 2022, 2 p.m. Ottawa Memorial Auditorium, 301 South Hickory Street, Ottawa, Kansas Born in Emporia, Kansas, in 1877, Maud Stevens left home at the age of 19 to join the circus. While working as an aerialist and contortionist at Louisiana Purchase Exposition (also known as the St. Louis World’s Fair), she met and married Gus “The Globe Trotter” Wagner, a “most artistically marked up man” who would collect more than 800 tattoos during his lifetime. Soon covered in…
Read MoreJuly 17, 2022 Program: Architecture of the People’s Houses
Architecture of the People’s Houses presented by Murl Riedel Sunday, July 17, 2022, 2 p.m. Ottawa Memorial Auditorium, 301 South Hickory, Ottawa, Kansas Kansas has 105 county courthouses and hundreds of city halls, plus a few more state capitals than you might expect. The manifestation of the greatest ideals occurs in these buildings, where the work of the people’s democracy is in action. The designs of these buildings tell us about the evolution of local government in the state. Larger societal issues, such as the Free State and the Civil…
Read MoreMay 7, 2022: New traveling exhibit tells story of self-rule among Indigenous nations
Image: Members of the Kiwigapawa (Kickapoo) tribe standing outside a tent, dressed in Euro-American clothing. 1909. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/97512086/ A new traveling exhibit explores how Indigenous nations expressed autonomy during their years in “Indian Territory” Kansas. “Living Sovereignty: Sustaining Indigenous Autonomy in ‘Indian Territory’ Kansas” will open at the Old Depot Museum on Saturday, May 7. For generations before European and American settlement, Indigenous nations and tribes embodied sovereignty—the right to self-rule. Maintaining that sense of self-rule and self-government through years of interactions with the…
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