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Used by permission. Tom Olin Collection. Ward M Canaday Center for Special Collections, University of Toledo Libraries.Signed 35 years ago this month, the ADA was the world’s first comprehensive civil rights law for people with disabilities — guaranteeing equal opportunity in public accommodations, employment, and more. But it likely wouldn't have passed without the relentless pressure of grassroots activists and Kansas Republican Bob Dole. -
Miles Willis/Getty ImagesBarbecue is as American as apple pie — and a huge part of Kansas City's identity — but the origins of the word "barbecue" is in the Caribbean.
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A University of Kansas historian is looking for answers to a mystery that's nearly a century old. Could DNA tests shed new light on the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case? -
An important prop from the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" is now on temporary display at the Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas. -
Uniting more than 200 sites across eastern Kansas and western Missouri, Freedom's Frontier preserves the story of the border war and the settlement of the western frontier. But the Trump administration has blocked funding for National Heritage Areas. -
Using the site "Find a Grave," volunteers search, photograph and upload grave markers of both the famous and the forgotten. One Kansas City-area genealogist calls them "the glue that holds genealogy research together." -
The Department of the Interior is requiring the National Park Service to post signs nationwide asking visitors for feedback on any information they feel misrepresents American history. One such sign was being installed at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in Missouri, a major Civil War site. -
Jim the Wonder Dog gained fame for his alleged ability to predict the future and understand commands in multiple languages. A museum in Marshall, Missouri, dedicated to the arcane canine will host costume, trick, and look-alike contests this weekend to celebrate. -
On Jan. 23, 1968, the USS Pueblo was attacked and captured by North Korea in what became known as the "Pueblo Incident." Basehor, Kansas, resident Steve Woelk was injured in the attack and survived captivity as a prisoner of war. -
The designation from the National Park Service opens up the Quindaro Townsite to new opportunities for federal funding and assistance. The ruins, now deteriorating, were once a haven for Black people escaping slavery and for Free State abolitionists. -
As the gay rights movement began picking up steam in the 1970s, Barbara Grier co-founded the largest lesbian publishing company in the world — right from her Kansas City home. Grier was bold, controversial, and unstoppable in her mission to make books reflect the people and love stories in her life. -
Founded by settlers in 1837, Hermann was dedicated as a place where German Americans could preserve their culture. Now its annual Hermann Wurstfest draws crowds with sausage sampling, competitions, and a Wiener Dog Derby. -
Bruce R. Watkins Drive took three decades to build, and resulted in the destruction of 2,000 homes and the displacement of thousands of Black residents. Kansas City officials and longtime residents hope a new federal grant can reconnect the neighborhoods torn apart by Highway 71, but mending old wounds won’t be easy. -
Artist and researcher Janna Añonuevo Langholz led the effort to establish a marker in Clayton, Missouri, where the 1904 World's Fair put nearly 1,200 Filipino and Indigenous people on display for fair visitors. More than a dozen people died from disease, malnutrition or suicide.
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The Kansas Historical Society’s archaeological field school this year gave volunteers a chance to dig into the state's territorial history at the site of an 1850s-era mansion near Lecompton. -
Museum curators are working to determine compliance with a federal law that requires tribes' consent to house artifacts. -
A new art project commemorating the Conley sisters will be unveiled in Kansas City, Kansas, this summer. The exhibit will help tell how the siblings and Wyandot Nation activists banded together to protect a burial ground in the early 1900s. -
The Kansas City Fire Department has responded to all kinds of emergencies since 1868, but some firefighters who died doing this dangerous work have been forgotten. Ray Elder is making certain all of them are remembered, and their names added to the Firefighters Fountain and Memorial. -
Sometimes the little places you pass every day hold much more significance than you realize. That's the case for a Stafford County, Kansas cemetery that holds the graves of some of Kansas' early Black residents. -
After early success as a stagecoach shop, Olathe is now classic suburbia dotted with shopping plazas and well-kept parks. Dive into the restaurant scene, history and natural splendor of this Johnson County suburb. -
Author Frances Levine tells the stories of a mix of women, each with different and very personal reasons for taking America’s first great international commercial highway to the West, in her book "Crossings: Women on the Santa Fe Trail." -
The exhibit includes 135 handmade antique dolls — some that were made by enslaved people — and about 60 period photographs showing dolls, children and adults posing for the camera. But not everyone involved in the Kansas City showing is completely comfortable with it. -
As Kansas City celebrates the Chiefs’ third consecutive Super Bowl appearance, the team name, logo, and some problematic fan customs like the “tomahawk chop” are once again being broadcast worldwide. But where did it all start, and how did the team avoid becoming the Kansas City Texans? -
Watermark West Rare Bookstore has overcome challenges for 40 years, including the internet upending the book business and a drop in rare book collecting. Owner Philip McComish doesn't know what the future holds for his historical repository.
