KANSAS CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY’S 150TH ANNIVERSARY TO BE CELEBRATED AT JACKSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL DINNER

Feb. 26, 2024

The Kansas City Public Library’s 150th anniversary will be celebrated during the Jackson County Historical Society’s Annual Dinner, scheduled Friday, March 22.

The Society also will honor several individuals for championing local history.

The Annual Dinner, to be held at the Midwest Genealogy Center, 3440 S. Lee’s Summit Road in Independence, will begin at 6 p.m. swith a cocktail hour and the Society’s annual silent auction.

Following a brief business meeting and the installation of officers, dinner will be served at 7 p.m., with the program beginning at 7:45 p.m.

The Kansas City Public Library will be observing its 150th anniversary with several events and programs throughout 2024. The Society will salute this institution and its service to the community since 1873.

Also to be honored is Steve Noll, who served as the Society’s executive director from 2004 through 2017, as well as board member and treasurer from 2018 through 2020. 

In 2017 Steve, with his wife Marianne, acquired the Wilborn Photograph Collection and donated it to the Society. The collection is considered to be perhaps the largest archive of Kansas City area images from the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Society staff members and volunteers continue to process Wilborn images and post them on the Society website, jchs.org, for digital review and purchase.

Others being honored include Suzanne Hogan, creator and host of “A People’s History of Kansas City,” a podcast for KCUR-FM; Dan White, longtime Kansas City photographer whose photos were showcased in “Click: TWO Decades/ONE Community,” an exhibit recently installed in the Englewoods Arts Center in Independence, and Terence O’Malley, author and filmmaker who recently released “Nelly Don: The Musical Movie,” based on Nell Donnelly Reed, the Kansas City women’s dress designer.

Volunteers for the Society Archives and Research Library, as well as for the 1859 Jail Museum, owned and operated by the Society, also will be honored.

Individual tickets to the Annual Dinner cost $80. Several different sponsorship levels are available; for more information, go to jchs.org/annualdinner