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Kansas Historical Society - Websites

The Kansas Historical Society website was launched in 1993, through the efforts of Steven Chinn and Lynn H. Nelson. The site originally was hosted at the University of Kansas. Several websites were built as part of the Kansas Heritage Group and included the Kansas Historical Society, Kansas Pioneers List, One-Room School House project, Johnson County Genealogical Society, Sunflower Journeys, Early Kansas Imprint Scanners, Historical Directory of Kansas Towns, the Kansas Humanities Council, Abilene Community Network, and the Kansas Community Network.

The original website was developed by two students based on materials supplied by the Historical Society. This site was the first state or local history society online. Stephen Chinn took over the site management duties later in 1994. The Society's first web team was formed in 1993.

In 1998 the Society began hosting its own site and the URL became kshs.org. The site has grown to thousands of pages of information on Kansas history and has received numerous awards over the years. The site had major updates in 2003 and 2010.

In 2004 the Historical Society, in partnership with the University of Kansas, and with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, launched Territorial Kansas Online, a virtual repository for Bleeding Kansas history. The site offered hundreds of personal letters, diaries, photos, and maps from the time period.

In 2007 the Historical Society launched Kansas Memory, its online digital portal with primary sources on Kansas history. This award-winning site features thousands of items of photographs, documents, maps, and letters from the collections. The collections from Territorial Kansas Online were added to Kansas Memory.

Entry: Kansas Historical Society - Websites

Author: Kansas Historical Society

Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.

Date Created: April 2012

Date Modified: July 2017

The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.