Local history scholarship is often decades old, hidden behind paywalls or not easily accessed. The Library has an opportunity to inspire new research and link citizens with well-crafted analysis of historical topics that inform everyday life. Similarly, primary sources for other outlets frequently are scattered across many repositories and cannot be accessed or interpreted by patrons without tremendous effort. We can connect related materials by placing them in a repository alongside scholarship and contextual features.

With the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Center for Midwestern Studies, the Library issued a call for papers, convened 18 scholars and hosted the “Wide Open Town” symposium to generate written work and public engagement around the interwar period of Kansas City history, attracting over 800 patrons. Participants are publishing a volume of essays and an ambitious, freely accessible website. This project further features the digitization of thousands of primary source materials from area archives.

Modeled on the Library’s award-winning website www.civilwaronthewesternborder... and symposium projects, the project engages the public in Kansas City’s history of jazz, mobsters and machine bosses, which is often referenced in popular discourse but not always understood. The Library is utilizing the excellent collections of local archives, libraries and museums and drawing connections with disparately-held materials from the era. We are not just convening and curating but also generating new understandings of Kansas City’s past.