The museum in Topeka reopens on Nov. 22 with free admission, special guests and activities. It will ask visitors to focus on a singular question: What is Kansas?

TOPEKA — When Sarah Bell became the director of the Kansas Museum of History in 2022 in the midst of a campaign to reimagine the museum’s gallery space, she focused her attention on a singular question.

What is Kansas?

She recalled on the Kansas Reflector podcast the day she sat down and began writing the question and answers, which would shape renovations at the 20,000-square-foot museum on the west edge of Topeka.

She thought of sunflowers, tornados, the Dust Bowl, Bleeding Kansas and the Wild West. She also thought about the stories of everyday people who led societal reforms, often with national implications, from the temp

See Full Page