100 years ago in Kansas, July 18-20:

July 18, 1917

  • Kansas has one enlisted man for every 143 persons and ranked seventh among the states.

July 20, 1917

  • Allen, Chase, Ford, Douglas, Kearny, Montgomery, Ottawa, Woodson and Wyandotte counties escaped the draft because they exceeded enlistment quotas.
  • Winning With Wheat, a film produced for the Kansas Council of Defense, was being shown at all theaters in the state,  It was a modern version of the Biblical parable of the sower.
  • The Belgian Mission visited Topeka.

Blair Tarr is the Museum Curator of the Kansas State Historical Society. He oversees the three-dimensional collections of the Society, but has special interests in the Civil War, Wichita-made Valentine diners, and Leavenworth's Abernathy Furniture. In the last few years he has also done a lot of cramming on The Great War. He is a past president of the Kansas Museums Association and the Civil War Round Tables of both Kansas City and Eastern Kansas. He is currently a board member of the Heritage League of Greater Kansas City.