Wichita State’s University Libraries receives 2 millionth volume

When University Libraries at Wichita State University accepted their latest volume in its research collection, it wasn’t just any ordinary document.

The latest volume, the two millionth volume in its collections, is an original printing of the Wyandotte Constitution – the document later accepted as the Kansas constitution.

That constitution would eventually make Kansas a free, or slavery-prohibiting, state when it entered the Union on Jan. 29, 1861.

The constitution also had many firsts for the nation:

Funding for the Wyandotte Constitution volume, printed in 1859, was made possible by Michael Heaston, a rare-books dealer from Eastborough.

This story was originally published September 18, 2013 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Wichita State’s University Libraries receives 2 millionth volume."