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, Tennessee. By 1908, he was in Kansas City selling smoked meats to downtown workers from a stand in the Garment District, eventually relocating to the east si...

Lucile Bluford – namesake of the Library's L.H. Bluford Branch – was a local civil rights leader and helped make The Kansas City Call one of the most important African-American newspapers in the nation. During July, The Library celebrates Bluford’s impact on t...

The Library's Missouri Valley Special Collections has two coloring books available for free download that celebrate the lives and contributions of local women in our region's history. Read about the legacies of these notable Kansas City women and get digital copies of the coloring book...

We’re celebrating the 100th birthday of Kansas City jazz legend Charlie Parker. Known as “Yardbird,” or just “Bird,” he was born in Kansas City, Kansas, on August 29, 1920, and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, during its peak years of jazz culture. Discover more about Parker’s impact on Kansas City an...

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 commemoration of the centennial, the Library’s Missouri Valley Special Collections has produced a coloring book profiling local women who took part in the...

Henry Perry, the man who first assumed the title of Barbecue King of Kansas City was born on March 16, 1874, in Shelby County, Tennessee. By 1908, he was in Kansas City selling smoked meats to downtown workers from a stand in the Garment District, eventually relocating to the east sid...

For more than two decades, the Kansas City Landmarks Commission has donated hundreds of historical images to the Library’s Missouri Valley Special Collections – digital photographs and slides that contribute greatly to the MVSC’s efforts to document the city’s architectural history.

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 commemoration of the centennial, the Library’s Missouri Valley Special Collections has produced a new coloring book profiling local women who took part in...

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 recommendations, spooky special events, and frightfully fun family festivities.  

This installment of “What’s Your KCQ” is a story of gambling, gangsters, and geography. Reader William Renegar wanted to know, “Was there once a gambling establishment on Southwest Boulevard on the state line that was part in Kansas and part in Missouri?” There’s a story in his family about a relative,...