Local History

Henry Perry, the man who first assumed the title of Barbecue King of Kansas City, was born on March 16, 1874, in Shelby County, Tenne...

Lucile Bluford – namesake of the Library's L.H. Bluford Branch – was a local civil rights leader and helped make...

The Library's Missouri Valley Special Collections has two coloring books available for free download that celebrate...

We’re celebrating the 100th birthday of Kansas City jazz legend Charlie Parker. Known as “Yardbird,” or just “Bird,” he was born in K...

One hundred years ago the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving women in the U.S. the hard-won right to vote. In co...

Henry Perry, the man who first assumed the title of Barbecue King of Kansas City was born on March 16, 1874, in Shelby County, Tennes...

For more than two decades, the Kansas City Landmarks Commission has donated hundreds of historical images to the Library’s Missouri Valley Speci...

One hundred years ago the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving women in the U.S. the hard-won right to vote. In co...

It’s fall, y’all, and the Library is kicking off the Halloween season with a monstrously good mashup of haunted local history tales, scary story recom...

This installment of “What’s Your KCQ” is a story of gambling, gangsters, and geography. Reader William Renegar wanted to know, “Was t...