Kansas City’s Public Library: Empowering the Community for 150 Years

From the humble beginnings of a single bookcase in 1873, the Kansas City Public Library grew into a bedrock cultural institution with an ambitious mission of bolstering the people’s welfare, inspiring lifelong learning, and empowering citizens through knowledge. Across one and a half centuries, Kansas Citians ranging from Walt Disney to entrepreneur Ewing Kauffman, civil rights activist Alvin Sykes, Mayor Kay Barnes, and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II, have sought out the Kansas City Public Library’s resources for professional inspiration, personal respite, and community uplift.

Kansas City’s public library is an indispensable agent of community empowerment. On its 150th anniversary, its continuity of purpose--and its place at the heart of the city’s civic culture--is clearer than ever. Ever since its formative years in a wild western setting, and spanning decades of urbanization and social upheaval, the spectrum of the Library’s history is inseparable from that of Kansas City. Generations of patrons have sought out its resources for self-improvement, community uplift, or as a safe space to exist without obligation or payment. This meticulously researched book explores the Library’s record of achievement, the challenges it has weathered, the diverse backgrounds of its supporters, and, in some cases, its historical shortcomings. Today the Library enriches its community with innovative programming (recognized with a National Medal for Museum and Library Service from the Institute of Museum and Library Services), cutting-edge technology, and a commitment to serve all members of the community.

Jason Roe (PhD, University of Kansas, 2012) is Digital History Specialist at the Kansas City Public Library. He is a co-author of Wide-Open Town: Kansas City in the Pendergast Era (University Press of Kansas, 2018) and editor for the Library’s award-winning websites, The Pendergast Years: Kansas City in the Jazz Age and Great Depression (PendergastKC.org) and Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865 (CivilWarOnTheWesternBorder.org).

Matt Reeves (PhD, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2020) is Public Programs Manager for the Linda Hall Library and a humanities kid from a family of nurses. He was previously Education and Outreach Librarian for special collections at the Kansas City Public Library. He lives in Kansas City with his partner, Claire, and her two children, Elora and Chandra.