The original item was published from December 4, 2015 11:36 AM to December 4, 2015 11:40 AM
One of the most important tools for researchers of Kansas government and political history are the Journals of the Kansas Senate and Kansas House of Representatives. The Legislative Journals are a detailed description of the activities of
the Kansas Legislature during legislative sessions, special sessions
and budget sessions.
The KGI Online Library has a growing collection of scanned Senate/House Journals online. At present we have volumes available from 1861-1862, 1913-1966. This covers the initial years of statehood and the Civil War, the two world wars, the Great Depression and Dust Bowl Days, the Cold War, the post-WWII days of development, the Korean and Vietnam conflicts and the beginnings of social change in the 1950s and 1960s.
OK... so these volumes are not the sort of thing most of us would curl up with for a good read... BUT... they are indexed and text searchable allowing viewers to seek out issues, people and events that shaped not just Kansas but the nation as a whole during six decades.
A description of the collection with a link to the documents is available at:
http://cdm16884.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16884coll95/id/0/rec/1
Once there, click on the link at the top to access the collection itself. Some volumes were combined Senate/House Journals while most were separated by each legislative body. Also... for many years the State Legislature only met for regular session during odd numbered years.
The Hathitrust Digital Library has the Kansas Senate and House Journals online from 1861-1921 filling the gap.
Senate Journals (The years listed on the Hathitrust pages are misleading. Click on their links to see the full run of what's available)