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The Abby Lindsey Marlatt papers include records from her academic career and personal life. They are divided into series covering her academic work, personal life, correspondence, and publications and art.

The academic series covers her undergraduate coursework at Kansas State College (KSC), graduate work at the University of California-Berkeley, and employment as associate professor at KSC. Types of material included are assigned work, study materials, notes, quizzes, and exams. Also, this series contains items from her academic year teaching at the Beirut College for Women in Lebanon.

The materials in the personal series include documentation of her life outside academia, including information about her church, travel documents, newspaper clippings, and programs, as well as a few personal effects such as a driver's license, budget book, and guest register.

The correspondence series represents much of Abby’s adult life, although the bulk is from the late 1930s though the late 1950s. Exchanges with her parents and friends include letters, telegrams, and postcards covering topics that include her personal and professional activities, as well as social issues such as pacifism, race relations, rationing, and religion.

The publications and art series contains books and artwork from Abby's collection usually focused on Kansas and KSC.

This collection features many pieces of correspondence. In addition, there are items concerning Francis Lewis’s activities in Cooperative Extension and 4-H. There are family expense books, receipts, canceled checks, bank statements, and other statistical financial information, plus photographs, awards, and ribbons. A major portion of the collection deals exclusively with the registered bull records. This material begins with the start of the herd to the dispersal auction in 1987. Another part of the records is ranch-related correspondences from the time John M. Lewis owned the herd to the final days of Walter’s control of the farm. Most of these letters consist of requests for bull prices and information, bull shows, bull sale confirmations, and association with the American Polled Hereford organization.

The Correspondence Series consists of nine boxes of personal letters from Robert and Martha Lewis to their parents. The letters begin when each child were students at Kansas State University, and continue through their academic pursuits. Also in this series is ranch-related correspondence to John and Walter as foremen of the herd. These letters are arranged alphabetically by the name of the person or company and in chronological order within each. Boxes eight and nine contain letters related to various subjects such as international, awards, hotels, publications, university, legal, and cattle organizations.

The second series concerns Francis Lewis. It begins with her time as a student at Kansas State Agricultural College and continues with her involvement in 4-H and a meats instructor/judge. Printed items in her collection concern meat cooking, judging, showing, and education. These items include brochures, pamphlets, books, and charts. There are various items dealing with meat judging contests including scorecards, statistical information, team placement information, and some unidentifiable material. Also contained are family expense booklets and receipts.

The third series comprises Walter and Francis’s judging for the Herford and Polled Hereford Association in arenas and shows in various countries which drew contestants from around the world. The fourth series is the Financial Series. Because of the nature of the records, this series includes both family business and ranch business. There are credit card records, canceled checks, bank statements, farm receipts, and Cooperative receipts. The fifth series is Cattle Records/Documentation. Within this group is a wide range of cattle records dealing with registration, births, deaths, sales, purchases, history, and transfer of the majority of the Lewis herd. There are various records, some complete and some incomplete, from the Polled Hereford Association Application Records to the Guide Lines Program records. This series also contains printed material associated with Walter Lewis, “Farm Management Records,” miscellaneous farm records, and weekly planners and calendar books pertaining to both Walter and Francis.

Photographs make up the sixth series. This includes family members, awards, shows, and cattle. The photos are organized by subject, although a portion of the collection is unidentified. The seventh series is Artifacts, primarily those of Walter Lewis. They include pins from shows in the United States along with some foreign countries. Also included are buttons representing Walter’s activities. Other items include an assortment of name tags and ribbons from both Walter and Francis. Whenever possible, a few of these items, such as the pins and buttons, have been photocopied for easier identification and retrieval.

The Alice C. Nichols papers (1922-1962) contain correspondence, notebooks, tax records, book typescripts, drafts of articles, newspaper clippings and printed material. These items document the time in which Ms. Nichols established herself as a writer from the age of nine until her death in 1969, with special emphasis on the year 1954 when her most notable publication, Bleeding Kansas, was published.
The papers are housed in five boxes constituting two linear feet. The papers are divided into five series: 1) correspondence, 2) notebooks and notes, 3) financial records, 4) literary productions and 5) printed material. Each series is arranged chronologically.
The correspondence series includes the years 1942-1961. it contains both personal and business letters. The personal correspondence is generally congratulatory during the time Ms. Nichols wrote and published Bleeding Kansas.The business correspondence deals with magazine editors of Country Gentlemen, Men's Wear, American Home, Collier's, Ladies' Home Journal and Farm Journal with whom Ms. Nichols collaborated when she worked for the United States Department of Agriculture as food guide editor. The majority of the business correspondence is with Oxford university Press, publishers of Bleeding Kansas. Some notable correspondents include Milton Eisenhower when he was President of Pennsylvania State college and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Correspondents from Kansas include Robert Conover of the English Department of Kansas State College and the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society.
The next series, notebooks and notes, include notes for two literary works ("A Group of Joe Nelson" and "The Self Possessed"), geology notes, class notes, and notes taken from a meeting in Liberal, Kansas. Financial records, series three, are from 1947 to 1956. The contain U.S. and New York State income tax returns, profit shares from Western Printing and Lithographing, inc., a royalty account at Oxford university Press and the results of a trip to the Saratoga Racetrack.
The literary productions series is divided into five sub-series: 1) books, 2) photostats, 3) articles, 4) article summaries and 5) drafts. Two complete typescripts and one carbon copy are included in the books sub-series. The two books, both written by Ms. Nichols, are entitled D.A. Fay and One Destiny. Within the photostats are maps, newspapers and illustrations proposed to be included in Bleeding Kansas. The 27 articles are primarily children's short stories. They were written when Ms. Nichols was employed by Artist and Writers Guild, Inc.
The summaries of articles by Ms. Nichols include seven articles written about such topics as the Reformation, free will, letter writing, medieval church, and modern science. They were apparently completed just before Ms. Nichols' death in 1969. The drafts are hand and typewritten stories, predominately unfinished, with one finished work: "Heracitus on Essays in Optimism".
The series of printed material has five sub-series. The are 1) magazines and articles, 2) newspapers (Nichols Journal), 3) newspapers (originals), 4) newspapers (photocopies) and 5) miscellaneous. Magazines and articles are printed articles from the Century Magazine, each on a different topic, which Ms. Nichols used in her ten-year research process for Bleeding Kansas. The second sub-series contains one issue of The Nichols Journal, Ms. Nichols first publications. She published the small newspaper in Liberal, Kansas when she was nine years old.
The third and fourth sub-series (newspapers, originals and photocopies) cover the years 1947-1961. The highlight the publication Bleeding Kansas and include reviews, autograph sessions with Ms. Nichols and summaries of her book. Also included in the newspapers sub-series are articles about the history of Liberal and Ms. Nichols' parents. Cities represented among the newspapers are Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit and Atlanta.
The miscellaneous sub-series of publications houses such items as a bookjacket of Bleeding Kansas, a program from the Mid-America Regional Writers Conference held at Kansas State College and a briefing from the United States Court of Appeals, U.S. against James W. Elwell and Co., Inc. and Charleston Stevedoring Company, et.al.

Collection primarily contains amateur radio club QSLs, administrative/program materials, and station logs. Meeting minutes, the club constitution, and licensing material is included. Also in the collection are brochures, guides, and other publicity for the club itself.