The popular JCHS  Journal is just published. The 32-page full color issues includes articles about Harry Truman, Phog Allen, Walt Disney, early Independence and Kansas City in the 1940s.

One of the rich unusual collections held by JCHS are several volumes of scrapbooks about Kansas City banker and civic leader William T. Kemper Sr. and his family.

The history of Wayne City River Landing will be celebrated with a new community festival in Sugar Creek in August.

The festival -  August 7-9th, 2014 -  will commemorate one of the first riverboat landings west of the Mississippi. Wayne City Landing, also known as the Upper Independence Landing.

There is an interesting architecture/neighorhood renewal project unfolding in the heart of Kansas City, Mo.
The project is starting to restore a stone castle just south of the historic 18th and Vine District.

The new movie Jawhawkers tells the story of Philadelphia-born future basketball star Wilt Chamberlin's decision to play basketball under the legendary coach Phog Allen who was coach at the University of Kansas.

While Forrest Clare "Phog" Allen made his name - and established his legendary status as a KU coach - he actually spent most his youth in Independence, Mo.

JCHS board member James S. “Jimmy” Johnson III died Jan. 13.

He was a longtime educator and re-enactor of African-American life during the Civil War era. He was 66.

Volunteers at the Clay County Archives and Historical Library have completed an impressive task - compiling 812 biographical narratives of Civil War soldiers buried in the county.

Details include their birth and death dates, unit and rank, and place of burial.

JCHS has revived publication of its popular Journal with publication of a 32-page full color issue - the first journal since the spring of 2010.

The journal includes articles about county courthouse, George Caleb Bingham, Kansas City gospel music, a grasshopper plague and several other features.