‘Heirloom’ book celebrating Wichita’s 150th about to be released by historical museum
The Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum has a surprise gift for fans of local history and old photos depicting Wichita’s past.
The museum’s staff has for about three years been quietly working on a hefty “heirloom” book, meant as a celebration of the city’s 150th birthday in 2020, and it will release the book on Saturday — just in time for holiday gift giving. It’s called “A Spell Created: A Sesquicentennial History of Wichita and Sedgwick County.”
The hard-cover book, which is 10x14 inches, has 356 pages and weighs six and a half pounds. It costs $95 and will go on sale Saturday after a special book release event scheduled for 3 to 5 p.m at the museum, 204 S. Main.
Eric Cale, the museum’s director, said the book is an update of the last “go-to” book the museum published back in 1970. Titled “Wichita Century,” it was a hard-cover book with a bright red cover that was published to celebrate the city’s centennial. Only 5,000 were published, and copies can still be found floating around antique stores and estate sales.
“It’s been the go-to book for the last 50 years,” Cale said. “We were interested in doing a similar book, but it had to be twice as long as the first one. There’s a demand for it that’s been unfilled for 50 years.”
The book’s production was a collaboration between the museum’s longtime curator, Jami Frazier Tracy, and her predecessor, Judith Heberling, who now lives in Pennsylvania. The duo combed the museum’s collection, which includes more than 10,000 photographs, and carefully chose which ones to use. The list includes 425 images, including several rarely seen photos from Wichita’s past that can’t be founding floating on the Internet.
“A Spell Created” is not written in chronological order but rather explores various aspects of the city’s rich history, from its settlement in 1870 through its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Included are spreads on topics like the Wichita Street Fair and Carnival, a big to-do that happened annually in downtown in the early 1900s. There are also sections about the arrival of automobiles in Wichita and about early filling stations, early theaters and early newspapers, including The Wichita Eagle.
The story of Carry Nation is included, of course, along with a photo of the bar the early temperance advocate famously destroyed, and there are sections on aviation, agriculture and trade. Readers also can find photos and stories about early homes in Wichita, about Ackerman Island and about the Riverside Boathouse, as well as tales about and photos of early Chinese, African-American and Mexican-American residents of Wichita.
The book also has photos of items included in the museum’s collection, such as documents, furnishings and trinkets that survive from Wichita’s earliest days. Its color cover features a painting of the museum’s home, once the Old City Hall, painted by artist Stephen J Bauer in 1992.
“It’s really kind of a culmination of 80 years of our work, both collecting artifacts and interpreting the history through them,” Cale said.
The museum will celebrate the release of the book from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, with remarks scheduled for 4 p.m. The book will be on sale during the event, and after that, copies will be available in the museum’s gift shop, which is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Admission to the museum is $5 for adults, $2 for children, free for museum members and their guests.
This story was originally published December 6, 2021 at 1:03 PM.
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