Frank Carlson Library

"Have you ever dreamed of being a cowboy? Who of us hasn't? The mere mention of it brings to mind images of boots and saddles, horses and cattle, and being in the great outdoors. This much is true, cowboy stories never cease to hold our attention, and "The Vanishing Cowboy" is an especially captivating narrative. Weaving a historical text with contemporary photographs taken on location at some of the largest and last-remaining working ranches in the...

Best known for his Civil War photographs, Alexander Gardner also documented the construction of the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division (later the Kansas Pacific Railroad), across Kansas beginning in 1867. This book presents recent photographs by John R. Charlton of the scenes Gardner recorded, paired with the Gardner originals and accompanied by James E. Sherow's discussion. Like most rephotography projects, this one provides fascinating information...

The first African American photographer to be hired full time by Life magazine, Gordon Parks was often sent on assignments involving social issues that his white colleagues were not asked to cover. In 1950 he returned on one such assignment to his hometown of Fort Scott in southeastern Kansas: he was to provide photographs for a piece on segregated schools and their impact on black children in the years prior to Brown v. Board of Education. Parks...