The Cloud County Historical Museum is located in

Concordia, Kansas Concordia is a city in and the county seat of Cloud County, Kansas, United States. It is located along the Republican River in the Smoky Hills region of the Great Plains in North Central Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ...

. The Museum preserves and exhibits objects and documents of historical items representing early-day Kansas. It is housed in the former 1908 Carnegie library building and an annex.

Exhibits

Martha Washington letter

On February 2, 2011, the museum announced that it had found in a drawer a letter from

Martha Washington Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 21, 1731 — May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural ...

to her husband

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

. The letter was authenticated in 1920 but then forgotten in storage for nearly a century.

Camp Concordia

Records are on display of

Camp Concordia Camp Concordia was a prisoner-of-war camp that operated from 1943–1945. Its location is two miles north and one mile east of Concordia, Kansas. The camp was used primarily for German Army prisoners during World War II who were captured in battl ...

, the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

military prisoner of war camp located in Cloud County. There are also original paintings of former prisoners of war on display and many other items of interest about Camp Concordia.

Hand-carved brick mural

The museum is now home to one of the largest hand-carved brick murals, located outdoors on the side of the museum annex building. The mural, named "The Whole Wall Mural", depicts various events and places in Cloud County history. It was designed and carved by Catharine Magel, with the assistance of Mara Smith, Jane Saunders and others.

Other records

Other records, churches, organizations, schools, and businesses. Displays of glass cutting, rare coins and books, rock and gem shop, micro-film of county newspapers and many others too numerous to list.

References

External links

Official site

{{Coord, 39, 34, 15, N, 97, 39, 31, W, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark_region:US-KS Museums in Cloud County, Kansas History museums in Kansas