Annie (Le Porte) Diggs
Creator: Snyder
Date: Between 1890 and 1899
A portrait of Annie (Le Porte) Diggs, who was born in 1848 in Canada to an American mother and French father. Two years later the family moved to New Jersey, where she attended school. Diggs moved to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1873 and married Alvin S. Diggs shortly thereafter. While in Kansas, Diggs began to attend the local Unitarian Church and developed a strong sense of moral responsibility that prompted her to work for temperance and women's suffrage. During 1882, Diggs and her husband published the newspaper Kansas Liberal, and beginning in 1890 she was the associate editor of the Alliance Advocate. As a radical reformer seeking to wipe out injustice, Diggs also allied herself with the Farmer's Alliance, aiding in the creation of the People's (Populist) Party, serving on the Populist National Committee, and supporting the fusion of the Populist and Democratic parties in the 1898 election. Throughout this time she continued to work actively for women's voting rights and served in the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association. In 1898, she was appointed the state librarian of Kansas, and she was also elected president of Kansas Press Women in 1905. Diggs moved to New York City in 1906, where she worked on two publications: The Story of Jerry Simpson (1908) and Bedrock (1912). She relocated to Detroit, Michigan, in 1912 and died there on September 7, 1916.

Carry Amelia Nation
Creator: Nichols and Davidson
Date: 1901
Portrait of Carry A. Nation holding a hatchet and Bible.

Carry Nation poster
Creator: Gillin Print Company
Date: between 1901 and 1902
Large, rectangular color poster advertising an appearance by Carry Nation, a temperance advocate who gained notoriety by attacking saloons. Her activities began in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, in 1899. A hatchet was her symbol because she often used the tool to smash saloon fixtures. In Nation's autobiography, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation, she explained the genesis of this poster. While jailed in Topeka for smashing saloon fixtures in July 1901, Nation received a letter from James Furlong, manager of the Lyceum Theater in Rochester, New York. According to Nation, Furlong offered to bail her out of jail if she granted him some lecture dates. She agreed, was pardoned, and left almost immediately for a Chautauqua in Clarksburg, Ohio. Her lecture series continued across upstate New York.

Circular of the State Impartial Suffrage Association
Date: 1867
This circular describes the efforts to secure suffrage for blacks and women in the state of Kansas. The flyer indicates the Henry B. Blackwell of New York and Mrs. Lucy Stone were traveling in Kansas at that time. The Association was being organized in 1867. S. N. Wood was the corresponding secretary for the association. There is a hand written note on the back from H. C. Whitney, Lawrence, Kansas, indicating his willingness to speak for the group.

Door to the House of Representatives, Kansas Capitol, Topeka, Kansas
Creator: Farrow, W. F.
Date: February 1893
A photograph showing the House of Representatives door in the Kansas Capitol after it was broken by the Republicans during the Populist War, Topeka, Kansas. The second image shows a print of the same photo in a frame commemorating the 1893 session. The dispute began when both the Republican and Populist parties claimed victory in the Kansas House elections in 1892. A number of contests were still being disputed when the legislative session began in January 1893. The conflict between the parties reached a crisis when the Populists locked themselves in the House Hall. The Republicans used a sledgehammer to break down the doors to the hall. The governor requested support from the state militia. After a three-day standoff, Governor Lewelling was able to negotiate an agreement with the Republican speaker of the house, which amounted to a Populist surrender. The state Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the Republicans.

First National Temperance Camp meeting at Bismarck Grove
Creator: Riddle, J. R.
Date: 1878
View of the First National Temperance Camp meeting held at Bismarck Grove near Lawrence, Kansas.

House of Representatives' assistant sergeant at arms inTopeka, Kansas
Creator: Farrow, W. F.
Date: February 20, 1893
This is a photograph showing assistant sergeant at arms in the Kansas State House of Representatives in Topeka, Kansas, after peace was made between the Populists and Republicans at the conclusion of the Populist War. The dispute began when both the Republican and Populist parties claimed victory in the Kansas House elections in 1892. A number of contests were still being disputed when the legislative session began in January 1893. The conflict between the parties reached a crisis when the Populists locked themselves in the House Hall. The Republicans used a sledgehammer to break down the doors to the hall. The governor requested support from the state militia. After a three-day standoff, Governor Lewelling was able to negotiate an agreement with the Republican speaker of the house, which amounted to a Populist surrender. The state Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the Republicans.

Jeremiah ("Sockless Jerry") Simpson
Date: 1892
Jerry Simpson in an 1892 debate with Chester I. Long for the seat in United States House of Representatives. Simpson debated Long at Harper, Kansas.

Kate Richards O'Hare
Date: Between 1915 and 1920
A photograph of Kate Richards O'Hare a strident advocate and supporter of women's rights and the Socialist Party. She was born in Ada, Kansas, on 26th March, 1877. After a brief schooling in Nebraska, she became an apprentice machinist in Kansas City. While working in a machine shop she was introduced to labor unions. She came to believe that trade unions were vital to the welfare of the working man. At this same time, O'Hare joined the Socialist Party. She later moved to Girard and became a regular contributor to the Appeal to Reason, a Socialist newspaper. Her articles focused on the plight of workers and children. In 1902 Kate Richards married Frank O'Hare. They began a career of lecturing for the Socialist Party across the nation. As the war in Europe intensified, Socialists campaigned to keep America out of war. During a speech in North Dakota, O'Hare was arrested for disobeying the Espionage Act and speaking out against the war. She was sentenced to five years for violating the anti-sedition act but O'Hare only served 14 months.

Mary Elizabeth Lease
Creator: McInturff, A.
Date: 1892
This is a studio portrait of Mary Elizabeth Lease, the Joan of Arc of the Kansas Populists.

Populist group, Dickinson County, Kansas
Date: 1890s
These are members of the Populist party, in horse-drawn carriages and wagons, on a country road in Dickinson County, Kansas.

Susanna Madora Salter, Mayor of Argonia
Date: 1887
This is a portrait of Susanna Madora Salter, Mayor of Argonia, and first woman mayor in the United States. Born March 2, 1860, in Belmont County, Ohio, Susanna Madora Kinsey moved to a Kansas farm with her parents in 1872. Eight years later, while attending the Kansas State Agricultural College, she met and married Lewis Salter. The couple soon moved to Argonia where she cared for their young children and became an officer in the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Nominated on the Prohibition Party ticket by several Argonia men as a joke, Salter surprised the group and received two-thirds of the votes. She was elected in April 4, 1887, just weeks after Kansas women had gained the right to vote in city elections. The 27-year-old woman knew more about politics than her detractors realized. She was the daughter of the town's first mayor. Her father-in-law, Melville J. Salter, was a former Kansas lieutenant governor. Although she apparently performed her job well, Salter never sought another elected office. Within a few years, the Salters moved to Oklahoma where the nation's first woman mayor died in 1961 at the age of 101.

The Appeal To Reason, Girard, Kansas
Date: Between 1897 and 1912
This photograph shows bundles of the Appeal to Reason, newspaper ready for mailing at the depot in Girard, Kansas. The Appeal to Reason was an independent newspaper first published in Kansas City Missouri and later in Girard, Kansas, by it's founder Julius Wayland. The political publication consisted of three to four pages of articles and headlines about Socialism in America.

The key to culture
Creator: Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951
Date: 1928
Book edited by Emmanuel Haldeman-Julius of Girard, Kansas, describing the cultural distinctiveness of Buddhism and Confusionism found in Indian and Chinese society. Due to copyright restrictions, only the cover of the book is available in Kansas Memory at this time.

William Alfred Peffer
Creator: Prince, George (b. 1848)
Date: Between 1890 and 1897
This is a photograph of William A. Peffer, a Populist, who served in both the Kansas State Senate from 1874 to 1876 and the United States Senate from 1891 to 1897. In addition, he was an editor of several Kansas newspapers during his professional career.