The McPherson Museum of

McPherson, Kansas McPherson () is a city in and the county seat of McPherson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 14,082. The city is named after Union General James Birdseye McPherson, a Civil War general. It i ...

, is a local history museum that preserves the historical and cultural heritage of the McPherson community.

The museum

In 1968, McPherson College and the city of McPherson formed a public-private partnership for the purposes of establishing a museum, and collections held by the college and the city were moved into the Vaniman home located at 1130 East Euclid. In 1985, the McPherson Museum and Arts Foundation was established to operate the museum. A new facility was built in 2013 and the museum moved all of its collections to the current location, at 1111 East Kansas Avenue.

Collections

The origins of the McPherson Museum collections dates back to 1890 when the faculty and students of McPherson College began building a collection of

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

and

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

specimens. These collections were held and displayed at various locations on the college campus. In 1967, the Jacob Strausz family of Moundridge, Kansas, donated their collection of over four-hundred pioneer artifacts to the city of McPherson with the stipulation that a museum be established to exhibit the collection. In 1968, the city of McPherson and McPherson College merged their two collections to create a museum for the benefit of the entire McPherson community. The collections have been enhanced since 1968, and today the collections of the McPherson Museum consist of approximately 25,000 items and include such areas as geology, paleontology, pioneer history,

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

Native American history The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...

, and

local history Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context, often concentrating on a relatively small local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of history. Local history is not merely national history writ small bu ...

References

External links

* http://www.mcphersonmuseum.com/ {{Coord, 38.370, -97.6503, display=title University museums in Kansas History museums in Kansas Museums in McPherson County, Kansas Natural history museums in Kansas Paleontology in Kansas Museums established in 1968 1968 establishments in Kansas