KGI Online Library Blog

The State Library of Kansas' KGI Online Library is pleased to announce the addition of 46 volumes to its collection of the Journals of the Annual Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Kansas stretching from 1892 to 1942.

Some of the books were digitized from the State Library's paper collection but the bulk of the set came on loan to us through the generosity of the Kansas Historical Society.  We are again grateful to KHS for sharing their resources with us in order to provide online access to the public.

So what was the Grand Army of the Republic?  Here's the first paragraph of an extensive article on the GAR found on the Kansas Historical Society website:

"The Kansas Department of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) initially organized December 7, 1866, for the purpose of furthering the interests and preserving the memory of veteran Union soldiers in Kansas. The Veteran Brotherhood, State of Kansas, preceded the Kansas GAR and provided its initial foundation. After a period of delinquency, the Kansas Department reorganized March 16, 1880. The department held the first state encampment at Topeka in 1882 and by 1891 boasted more than twenty thousand members with over five hundred posts. The state encampment at Emporia, 1943, was the department’s last. In 1945, the state Legislature made its last annual appropriation to the Grand Army for publishing the commander’s reports, an appropriation it began in 1899. By 1957 the Legislature assigned custody of all Grand Army records and artifacts to the Kansas State Historical Society."  (click here for the full article)

You can view the Journals of the Annual Encampments here:



We feature here a different agency or division of a large agency and its publications within the Kansas Government Information (KGI) Online Library:


The Kansas Corporation (KCC) is the regulatory agency that oversees rates for major utilities, petroleum exploration and production, as well as some facets of transportation in the state. The primary function of the agency is to protect the public's interest through the resolution of jurisdictional issues.