- Today on Inspire Kansas, history comes Alive and the stories of trailblazing women shine brightly at the New Kansas Museum of History.

That's coming next on Inspire.

- Inspire is sponsored by the Raymond C and Marguerite Gibson Foundation and by the estate of Ray and Anne Goldsmith.

- Hello, hello, hello and welcome to Inspire.

We are here at the newly renovated Kansas Museum of History and I'm here with the always beautiful Betty Lou, as well as Amy Kelly.

And we are so glad that you're here as well.

We're about to have a meaningful experience talking about women making history and the state of Kansas at the Kansas Museum of History.

Now the museum recently - Got a facelift including some really powerful tributes to history - Of our beautiful state.

And a lot of that history has to do with women dreaming, big breaking barriers and doing all the wonderful things that we know women do.

But it's not just about women.

This project has been going for three years.

The museum has been closed for three years, but as Sarah Bell, who has graciously welcomed us in here today, she is our museum director.

You're telling us that this has actually been in the plans for 10 years?

- Yes, that is correct.

So the first idea is to renovate the Can Museum of History started at least 10 years ago or more.

And it was really led by our previous executive director Jenny Chen, who up until her unexpected death in April of 2022 had been the visionary behind this new renovation of the museum.

But the actual physical renovation started just over three years ago in September of 2022.

It's when we closed our doors and started the physical renovation of taking out first all of the artifacts, of course, making sure those are protected and stored away and then deconstructing everything in here.

All of the exhibits were removed, all of the walls were taken out, all the carpet.

It was down to a 20,000 square foot big black box.

And I kept asking people, is it bigger or smaller than what you remember?

And we couldn't decide.

But then of course the process was getting everything back in here and we got to work with some wonderful partners, dimensional Innovations Di who did the design and fabrication of all the exhibits in here.

- Wow.

What are the major updates that we're going to see in this particular museum?

Because I still see the train, which makes me happy.

What are we looking to see that's new?

- So I think the top question I've been asked is, is the train still there?

- Yeah.

- And as a yes, don't worry, it is still there.

And in fact it'll be better than ever.

Currently right now the train is something that was been a long time favorite and we had let people into the passenger train car before this time around, we're gonna let people into both train cars.

Wow.

And so this is a brand new experience, a new way of interacting with this beloved artifact.

But in terms of other updates, so the old gallery was a chronological structure telling of Kansas history this time around, it's a thematic structure.

And so when visitors come to come into our space, they're going to be asked a question, what is Kansas?

So Kansas is Tornadoes Wizard of Oz, sunflowers, but so much more.

It's really the stories of everyday people doing extraordinary things.

And that's how we tell the stories here, grouped around four main themes.

Bleeding Kansas, making Kansas, connecting Kansas, and changing Kansas.

Wow.

Wow.

- That's awesome.

Okay, so including all these wonderful things that happen are trailblazing women bringing a jump right.

To the women.

So what, what kind of exhibits are there about, I know there's other exhibits as Betty Lou said, but what are the ones that are, it's specifically showcasing the powerful women of Kansas.

- So one of my personal favorites of the exhibits we have here is a section in changing Kansas on women's rights.

And so in that section we tell some of those stories, particularly of suffragists who fought for the right to vote as early as before.

Kansas was even a state with Corina Nichols in the 1850s, but all the way up to when Kansas women did get the right to vote in 1912.

But of course you can't have the story of suffrage without the story of temperance and prohibition, which is one of those stories where Kansas is often at the forefront.

And yes, we have Carrie Nation featured there as well.

And so her story intersects as does the women club movement, which was a really strong part of Kansas women really fighting for and pushing for education and was also a place where women were able to get together and advocate for those political rights.

So that is one of the areas that we really highlight women, but there are many other places as well.

- Well, I think we're very lucky to have had those movements because we were lucky enough to then get you interested in staying in Kansas as a KU graduate.

And your vision for this, you took over a plan that you had not seen before.

So engage us with that.

- Tell us.

Sure.

So a little bit of my own personal story with this is that the renovation started in early September of 2022.

And I actually started a few weeks after that and I tell people, yes, I did know a renovation was going on, but I had my son in July.

And so I stayed home with him for a few weeks for those 12 weeks before I was able to start.

And it was certainly a lot of change happening all at once and a lot to wrap my head around.

But the, being the director of the Kansas Museum of History has long been a dream job of mine.

And so it is really surreal for me that I was able to head up this project and to really take all of the planning and the vision that Jenny had set in place and to make this a reality.

And so one of the best things was getting to work with the extraordinary team of people we have here at the Historical Society and to see how so many different elements of what we do here from the museum artifacts to archeology objects to archival documents are featured within all these stories and woven together to tell Kansas history.

- Well, I wanna know William Allen White is a big name for a lot of us who are Kansan and love his works.

He said as Kansas so goes, so goes the nation, what exactly does that mean?

- So we also love William Ellen White here, and in case anyone is wondering, we do still have the printing press that he used in the Emporia Gazette where he actually published that 1896 piece.

What's the matter with Kansas?

But William Ellen White when he said that, I think it's something we've actually been grappling with as well here we've, we've had this idea that Kansas is often at the heart of these social reform movements that have national implications.

So when you, I've mentioned a couple with women's suffrage and prohibition certainly being two, but you have populism as well.

What William Allen White was grappling with at this time, that Kansas was at the heart of this relatively short-lived movement in the late 1890s that was centered here and a lot of activity was also happening in southeast Kansas.

Kinda an extension off of that with the socialist movement.

And sometimes you wouldn't think Kansas, that's a place where socialism, populism, temperance, suffrage was occurring.

But so often that was the case.

And I think a lot of people, if you look at the history of how our state was founded, we, our very foundation was over this idea was Kansas going to be a free state or a slave state?

It brought people here who were reform minded, who wanted to fight for a cause.

And that's one of the questions and the ideas that we want people to sit with.

What is the free state?

Who was that for?

And so you have people like John Brown and Kerry Nation who may be the most extreme versions of these strong beliefs, but certainly Kansas has produced and and drawn a lot of these reform-minded individuals.

And so you see how that hedge just continued through each generation.

You see those Kansans come through and really fight for those values and changing their society to what they believe is the best society.

- Okay.

With all those stories, and you've mentioned John Brown, Carey Nation where there's the Eisenhower and William Eng and, and there's many, many other people who are, are from Kansas.

How do you even begin to choose which stories to tell?

We have 20 20,000 square foot, you said that's not enough space to tell all of the stuff there to tell.

How do you make those selections?

- I agree it is not enough space.

I remember at the one point I thought, oh, this is too big.

And then I quickly changed my mind maybe more space.

So it's a great question and it's one that people ask us a lot.

We have 122,000 artifacts in our collection.

Oh my God, that is so many.

There's only about a thousand artifacts that we can put on display and, but what we really try to do when we're selecting stories is as much as possible, we wanna show history, not just tell it.

So we really let the artifacts, the material culture of Kansas drive the stories that we're choosing to display in the museum.

And that is also in part the archeology objects that we have, the archival documents.

We want the foundation of the stories that we're sharing to be rooted in that material culture.

There's a real power when you look at an object that William Allen White used or that carry nation, her dress that she wore, the hatchet that she carried.

Wow.

That you, you feel the past so much more than when you just read it in a book or, or get it in a different form.

And so that is how we start and we think about those priority artifacts.

And we think about, for example, if we want something like a 1955 grain truck from Allen County, Kansas, that takes up a big amount of space.

But what we know is that there's an emotional connection around that truck.

Oh sure.

That people will see that and say, Oh my god, grandpa, that's my Exactly.

I rode in that truck.

My grandpa drove that truck.

I still have a truck like that.

And so we knew, and that's the power of those artifacts.

And so that's where we started.

And from there we just continue to add to those stories.

And one last thing I'll say about that is sometimes we don't have material culture related to a story, but we decide we still want to make this a priority space.

And an example of this is what we did with a box car that we brought in to tell primarily the story of Mexican American families in the early 19 hundreds when they came up here to work on the railroad and the agricultural industry.

And they needed a place to live and there weren't a lot of housing options for them.

And so they, for a while lived in these boxcar homes.

And so we brought in a boxcar to tell that story and to show in this way, since we don't have as many artifacts to represent those stories, we're - Going to take a short break and we're going to have even more stories of trailblazing women and some of the guys too right here on inspire.

So stick around - And we are back to continue our conversation with Sarah Bell, who is the director of the Kansas Museum of History, the New Kansas Museum of History.

'cause it's been renovated.

This is really cool.

So for those of us who have been here before, what is the first thing that we will notice is different?

- So the first thing a viser will notice when they walk in is that they are greeted by two bison and this really beautiful display That is really something that we wanted to have this dynamic entrance this time around because we have the same entrance doors and exit doors like we did before.

But the entrance itself looks completely different.

Hmm.

We had a bison in the old gallery and he was joined by a friend.

This is a bison donated actually by the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.

Oh.

Because bison are herd animals.

And we just felt like it was important to show these two bison together.

And then we got to work with DI to make sure that they were set in a diorama display that was reminiscent of the var chalk out in western Kansas, in the little Jerusalem badlands and prairie grasses and flowers for this late summertime period.

So all of these little details has come together to set this scene.

But probably the best part is my three-year-old's favorite element, which we have little critters hidden in there.

So in addition to this bison, we have our rattlesnake, we have some prairie dogs and a few other hidden animals in there as well, which is really fun for kids to find.

- Oh, and I love the fact that we've got something for the kids, something for every age.

We were touching earlier on famous Kansans and you have the famous Kevin Wilmotts voice on the very - No way - Thing that we're in front of.

That's awesome.

So please - Explain.

It's awesome.

So I, it has been such a great honor.

I got, I've got to work with some of our most, most esteemed Kansans with this project, Kevin being one of them.

So we have this intro video when visitors walk in after they get through this first gallery that really situates you for the rest of the gallery.

And it's this video that ask this question why Kansas and Di asked us, so whose voice do you hear narrating this?

And I said, Kevin Wilmot and I, so I reached out to him and he, the Kansas answer to Morgan Freeman.

It was, and it was perfect.

I, it's, this video is still gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

And it's just such a great intro to what visitors can expect about, you know, why Kansas, what is it about this place that resonates with so many of us?

And while we're talking about video narration, we have another video at the very end of our gallery in a section called Celebrating Kansas.

And we really felt like it called for a female celebrity of Kevin's stature.

And so we got very lucky to work with Martina McBride, who is from Kansas and you know, doesn't live in here anymore.

But she graciously also agreed to narrate a video for us.

So that was really fun to get to work with both Kevin and Martina.

- Oh, I love it.

And if you don't mind expanding then on the what's for kids and what's for adults like?

- Sure.

- Yeah.

- So we, one of the things that we wanted to make sure is like this, there's something for everyone here.

And I think when you're in this space and you look around, just the colors and vibrancy of this space is so inviting for any ages, but especially for children.

And so there is from, from this first part, when you walk into that bison display and all the critters, you turn the corner, there's a teepee.

Yes, it's the same teepee from before, - But - This time we let you go inside it.

It is a perfect size again for a 3-year-old.

I've got a, a toddler viewpoint right now with my son.

But, so from there, there when you turn the corner you see the train, you see the truck vehicles are always great for, for kids.

But then we built a ramp and so this is probably one of our newest, most exciting features of what we did in this gallery.

So we've got 20,000 square foot of space and the ceilings are really tall.

And this time around I felt like we did a good job of using our vertical space this time.

Yes.

So this ramp was actually created this idea from our exhibits director that said, what if we could get people up to see the second floor of the log cabin?

And so from there we figured out how the ramp could be constructed to get people all the way up there.

And along the way we brought in that box car, we built a dugout, which is another one of my personal favorite exhibits where we tell the story of Nicodemus in particular of some fantastic artifacts.

And then you come up to that second floor of the log cabin and face to face with our 1914 Ren biplane, which I think is one of the most significant artifacts we had.

We've had in our gallery, we've actually had in our collection since the 1930s, but it's been in the gallery.

We would ask people in the old gallery, what do you think of the plane?

And they said, what plane?

What plane.

- Exactly.

- They'd walk right under it.

So there's no missing it now.

So I think that there is something for everyone.

And what I love about this museum is that we've layered information in such a way that even if you're a parent chasing that 3-year-old around, you'll still be able to grab a lot of different themes and ideas and visuals.

But whenever you have time to actually absorb it all, definitely come back and take it in.

- Yes.

So this is a place that you have to come back again and again 'cause you'll see something new every single time that you come.

I wanna talk about the mural that's been done.

Please tell us about this brand new mural that features what the Topeka tornado?

- Yes.

Oh, so what I have said is when you get a big ramp, you need a big wall and a big wall cause for a big mural.

And so we, Stan heard who had been, he had painted the mural that we had behind our train back in the late eighties.

And since then, he has certainly gone on to great fame both across the country and around the world for his crop art.

But we asked Dan, what would you think about coming back and painting a second mural for us?

And he agreed.

And so this time around he's featuring the 1960s and 1970s Kansas and it starts with a 1966 Topeka tornado.

Wow.

And I think that it's just so important for, and, and it really reflects what we're doing in this space, is that we wanted to have stories that resonate throughout history, including more contemporary stories or stories that aren't from like the 1880s, but also from the 1960s, 1970s that people can remember and say, I was there.

This is, this is my history.

This is my Kansas.

And Stan has just done such an extraordinary job of doing that.

And I talk about coming back and absorbing, I think there's something new in that mural.

You could come 10 times and get something new every time he, he's layered it in and he's actually still working on it.

So he's not finished yet.

Oh wow.

And so people will have to come back just to see what else he adds.

- Sure.

So you have done a great deal of work putting together, you know, you and your team obviously putting together this incredible museum with all this planning and all this work.

So what does tomorrow look like?

What's in the future for the museum?

- So we have, in 2026 we're going to be opening up a new special exhibit that features Kansas 1776, which is looking at Kansas during this time to honor the 250th anniversary of our country.

So that is probably the newest change is that we're gonna continue to have our special exhibit gallery that will continue to rotate exhibits out just like we had before.

The current one that's in I should mention is a partnership with a Kansas magazine in honor of their eighties anniversary this year.

Nice.

And it's just a great perfect pairing to the opening of the new museum because it just highlights all of the wonderful elements of Kansas and really wants to get you out to visit every corner of this state.

But Kansas Seventy's 1776 will open up in July of next year.

And then we will also be resuming our museum after hours program.

So every month on the second Friday, we're going to have a speaker here and we're going to pair it with opening up the museum for free for those hours in the evening.

And all of our speakers for 2026, we'll tie directly to the gallery in some way.

So we'll provide a tour and some additional insights for anyone who comes here for that.

- I think this is incredible.

Thank you so much for welcoming us in here.

Yes.

I know that we've just had a, an outstanding time.

And I wanna also just touch on the fact that every single thing, every word that's come in here has gone through her.

She has read everything she has edited everything she has punctuated, dramatically checked it.

Yeah.

So thank you.

I mean, words can't express and obviously it's a love of yours, so thank you very much.

It's a special Kansas Day inspired stay right there.

We'll be right back.

A newly created mural honoring women who played a significant role in the statewide and national struggle for women's voting rights was dedicated during the 2025 Kansas Day celebrations at the Kansas Capitol.

The mural entitled Rebel Women was the creation of artist Phyllis Garbe Coon of Manhattan, Kansas, who sought to tell the story of 13 major Kansas suffragists through her artwork.

The mural spans 60 years from 1859 to 1919, showcasing figures such as Clarina Nichols from Quin Doro, who achieved voting rights for women in school elections in 1859.

And Jane Brooks of Wichita, who served as the president of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association in 1919.

The upper part of the mural is adorned with numerous suffragists dressed in white while various symbols representing Kansas and women's actions fill this emotionally impactful piece.

A banner at the top displays the wording of the 1912 Kansas Constitutional amendment that granted women full suffrage.

The idea for the mural was the brainchild of Kansas Suffragist Memorial Committee, which was formed through the combined efforts of the League of Women Voters of Kansas and the Kansas American Association of University Women.

- Well, I think the biggest reason is that when you look at that and you see examples of courage and action, that that's what we want our young people to be able to, to do.

I think when we talked about what, what are our goals?

Well we wanna inspire the next generation.

And when you look at that and, and you see the courage and the hard work that it took, you could do hard work too.

And, and hopefully that's our, that's our goal.

That's what we want.

- You know, we have had mentors that inspired us in, in our generations.

And if it's time to go further back and see, you know, there, there's, there's somebody back there that got us to vote.

You know, it didn't happen last right in the sixties.

Right, right.

There was protests in the sixties, but they already had the vote.

They were protesting other things.

So it was time to acknowledge that with the centennial of the women directed by the role of Kansas and Kansans.

And it just was time.

- The committee's mission is to honor Kansas women who played a significant role in the statewide and national struggle for women's voting rights.

This public art piece aims to inspire reflection on Kansas' history, educate people about important Kansas figures, and instill these values in future generations.

- Ladies, we have had an incredible discussion today about the newly renovated Kansas Museum of History.

What were some of your takeaways?

I'm gonna start with you sister.

- Oh, I, I was a history major, so I, I love history.

What keeps resonating with me is that she says we have 122,000 artifacts.

- Right.

- But we can only show a thousand.

I'm like, I, I want, I wanna see all of them, you know, I wanna know what's more, what's, what are we missing and what are they rotating and how are we gonna see that because that's, yeah, that's, that was, that was the first thing of all the, of all the beauty.

That's the first thing.

I was like, there's more.

And I am, I'm so taken, you know, of course most of us have been here before.

I'm so taken at how open and spacious and beautiful is he very much like Kansas itself.

It's just, it's an incredible environment to be in.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And cataloging all those things.

My, I can't even goodness imagine the work that they have gone through and so shout out to everybody that was involved that, but the things that you see when you come in here, like you said, seeing the first thing I'm like, you know, so cool from being out on the tall grass or the cons, any of the prairies and you see them, it's like, that is Kansas.

And then the teepee, I wanna get in that I'm going there.

I know, me too.

- And I'm thinking like right over to the side of us is a picture of Amelia Earhart.

- Yeah.

- And it's those people, you know, the Amelia Earhart and the William Allen Whites and, and the Martin McBride.

Martin McBride.

Those are the people that make Kansas, Kansas to me.

And we've all had opportunities to leave the state and yet we are still here because we love it so much and I'm glad it's finally open.

- Yes.

- You know, 'cause three years was a long three years and so, but - I love the fact that Sarah paid homage to the former director - Yes.

Who - Is deceased because that is so important.

And to imagine coming in here, not having had that vision or knowing anything about it, but yet being able to take it and make it to what it is now.

I mean that speaks volumes.

- That is, it's hats off to Sarah Bell.

Sarah Bell, yes.

And all her, all of her team, we, there are right so many names.

Oh sure.

Yeah.

We probably can't even begin to, to identify and all of the people who, I mean all the money raised for the museum was privately raised.

There's some state dollars absolutely for some from some of the fixtures and things like that.

But the rest of it was all, you know, privately funded.

And so there are, I dunno how many thousands of, of donors that we have to think for this - Building.

And then she said 6 million here compared to what the Eisenhower five - An hours is what, 33 times - That.

- 30 million.

At least three times that Truman as well.

I mean, but this is right in our own backyard.

And I would like to encourage everybody to come and check it out because if people haven't previously, this is a great way to see what is Kansas, our peace of what is Kansas.

And they did a beautiful job.

This - Is wonderful.

Well, and that is all the time that we have for today.

And we wanna thank CE Bell again who was the museum director for the Kansas History Museum.

- And I'll bet you're inspired to come visit.

We do thank CE Bell and if you'd like to see this show again or any of the other information or past shows, tune into www.ktw.org/inspire.

- Inspiring women, inspiring trailblazers who continue to shape this country and inspiring U right here on KTWU.

See y'all later.

- Inspire is sponsored by the Raymond C and Marguerite Gibson Foundation and by the estate of Ray and Ann Goldsmith.