Atchison’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold just one old photo of Atchison. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Atchison was founded in 1854 and named in honor of Missouri senator David Rice Atchison, who, when Kansas was opened for settlement, interested some of his friends in the scheme of forming a city in the new territory. Senator Atchison was interested in ensuring that the population of the new Kansas Territory would be majority pro-slavery, as he had been a prominent promoter of both slavery and the idea of popular sovereignty over the issue in the new lands. However, not everyone agreed upon the location he had selected, and on July 20, 1854, Dr. John H. Stringfellow, Ira Norris, Leonidas Oldham, James B. Martin, and Neal Owens left Platte City, Missouri, to decide definitely upon a site. They found a site that was the natural outlet of a remarkably rich agricultural region just open to settlement. George M. Million and Samuel Dickson had staked claims near the river; Dr. Stringfellow …
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Atchison’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Atchison’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewBird's eye view of the city of At…, 1869: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Atchison
See all 37 →
Atchison, decade by decade
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Bird's eye view of the city of Atchison, Atchison Co., Kansas 186(9) (1869) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From Wikimedia Commons (1) and the National Register (5). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.