Digital Preservationist
To be useful, history must be made accessible. The digital age has made possible the distribution of primary documents to the general public and research community in a way never dreamed of by the editors’ of Territorial Kansas Newspaper editors. These newspapers recorded the unique and significant events that led to the overthrow of slavery as an institution in America. However, the daily grind of making the files for this site is a huge effort, and generally goes unsung.
The department who has continually made the preservation of the newspapers found on this website accessible is the Kansas City Kansas Community College Web Services. From the inception of the project in 1999, Web Services has performed an inestimable service to the research community through Web Services efforts.
We should all pay our respects to departments outstanding work, tedious, and time consuming work of creating PDF and .aspx files, over 18,000 of them, maintaining them, and transferring these files, to the new server at our college; all to preserve this project. It is not just a job, but a labor of love for the sake of knowledge. To be a part of this project is literally to be a part of history as Web Services is by their persistence in the preservation of these important primary documents.
All who have participated in the creation of this site are providing the public with a rare and needed point of access to the primary documents of Territorial Kansas History. Newspapers were the history archive for that period as no other documents survive aside from scant church and government reports, dairy and letter information. Thank you Web Services for your perseverance and commitment to Kansas history.