Kansans Tell Their Stories

In the fall of 2004, the Kansas Humanities Council issued the first Kansans Tell Their Stories initiative. This was an opportunity to encourage our communities to examine the immigrant and ethnic history of our state. The response was overwhelming. With continued support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State of Kansas, KHC has funded over 50 projects. The projects funded mirror the make-up of our state and include oral histories of Southeast Asians settling in Garden City, a Low German language preservation project in Marshall and Washington counties, and an exhibit on the Kickapoos in Kansas. With each of these projects, we have the opportunity to have a clearer, more complete, picture of what it means to be a Kansan.

More Kansans Tell Their Stories projects are planned for the near future, including a chance for you to share your story with us. Click here for a list of projects.

Kansans Tell Their Stories is supported by We the People, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Visit the Kansans Tell Their Stories exhibition

The Kansans Tell Their Stories traveling exhibition highlights eight Kansas stories collected as part of KHC's Kansans Tell Their Stories initiative. Click here for a tour schedule.

Watch the Kansans Tell Their Stories Short Films

Each Kansans Tell Their Stories short film features a unique Kansas story told from a local perspective. Click on the links below to view the short films.

The Kansas State Penitentiary: An Institution and a Neighbor Part I & Part II (11 mins. total)
Presented by the Lansing Historical Museum

A Drive Through History Along the Post Rock Scenic Byway (8 mins.)
Presented by the Amazing 100 Mile Tourism Coalition

Bauer, Baker, and Baldwin City: Electrifying a Small Town's Identity (11 mins)
Presented by Baker University

Clyde Cessna: From the Ground Up (11 mins)
Presented by the Kingman County Historical Society

Additional Kansans Tell Their Stories project:
In 2007, KHC funded "Standing Up By Sitting In," a Kansans Tell Their Stories oral history project on the participants of Wichita's 1958 Dockum Drug Store student sit-in that resulted in the desegregation of all Rexall lunch counters in the state of Kansas. These interviews have been used to create the documentary Dockum Sit-in: A Legacy of Courage on KPTS, Wichita's public television station. Click here to watch a preview.

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National Oral History Project in Kansas!

StoryCorps Door-to-Door came to Kansas as part of the Kansas Humanities Council's ongoing statewide initiative called Kansans Tell Their Stories. This initiative invites Kansas communities, and their residents, to preserve and interpret their local stories. In addition to providing grant opportunities to non-profits statewide, KHC conducted a special Chautauqua featuring the Kansans Tell Their Stories theme. For four days in Medicine Lodge and Baldwin City, “Famous Kansans” took the stage, telling of their life and times. Carry Nation, William Allen White, Langston Hughes, and Dr. Brinkley shared with us stories of famous Kansans, while everyday Kansans recorded their own oral histories with the national StoryCorps project. Click here to learn more.

KHC was pleased to partner with the Kansas Health Foundation, KHC's statewide StoryCorps partner, and Kansas Public Radio, sponsor for the StoryCorps stop in Baldwin City.

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Listen to the Kansas Humanities Council's StoryCorps Stories on KPR

StoryCorps Door-to-Door, a national oral history project, came to Kansas in June 2007 as part of KHC's Kansans Tell Their Stories initiative and the Famous Kansans Chautauqua. Kansas Public Radio sponsored StoryCorps in Baldwin City and the stories are available on the Kansas Public Radio website. Click here to listen.

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