Keith’s Kansas Kollectibles
My husband Keith shopped his way through Kansas. In this blog, I will share some of Keith’s Kansas Kollectibles! We started our trip with a stop in Atchison, stopped in Salina, Manhattan, and ended our trip in Abilene.
Atchison Finds
On our way to the Winter Red Power Show in Salina, we stopped in Atchison to tour the Amelia Earhart stops. We visited the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum which just recently opened in 2023. Amelia Erhart had many firsts. She was the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic, May 20-21, 1932. She also set the women’s altitude record, and the women’s speed record. Amelia was the first woman to make a solo round trip of the United States. The story we all know is that on July 2, 1937, she and navigator, Fred Noonan, during her around the world flight disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.
Keith has always been fascinated with flying and in fact had his pilot’s license when we got married. so the Amelia stops were perfect.
While most think that Amelia’s plane ran out of gas and landed in the ocean, her mother always thought she had been captured by the Japanese, it is interesting to note that recently they found a plane that they think could be hers.
At the gift shop Keith bought a print of Amelia Erhart at the airplane controls.
Salina Finds!
We saw lots of amazing art and attended the Red Power Winter Show. That is an International Harvester Collectors gathering. While Keith bought a few things at the auction, they didn’t have Kansas roots.
Manhattan!
In this cool college town, we toured the Flint Hills Discovery Center, here we learned the story of the amazing Flint Hills and how this fragile ecosystem was developed by the Native American People through grazing. Fascinating! We also stopped at the Midwest Dream Car Collection . I would have loved to bring home the lovely 1965 Lamborghini tractor on display, but sadly they wouldn’t let me have it!
Keith was partial to this beautiful Cord that we too had to leave behind! These are just two of the amazing machines on display!
While in Manhattan I also stopped at the Riley County Historical Society and toured the Goodnow Historic Site which covers pre-Civil War history. During this trip it was emphasized that the Civil War really started in Kansas with the law that states could mandate whether or not it was a slave state. The Goodnows left a secure life to come to Kansas and help fight and abolish slavery.
Abilene, where the shopping really kicked into gear!
When Keith saw how many antique shops there were in Abilene, I knew I was in trouble! He loves farm items and at the Vintage Bling and Antique Things shop he found his Bailor wrench made by the Bailor Plow Company, with Kansas connections. The shop is more a jewelry and glassware store, but he spied a box of wrenches and voila, finds! He scored a Walter Wood and Chattanooga Plow wrench in addition to the Bailor wrench.
This Kansas Company was located in Atchison Kansas eventually. It started when S.E. Bailor built and experimented with a two-row cultivator in Beatrice, Nebraska. The Bailor Plow Co. in 1910 was in Atchison, and the company went bankrupt in 1921. This was a company he had heard of but had never researched it before.
There are two cool antique malls on Buckeye Street that caught my farmer husband’s attention. They are the Abilene Downtown and Antique Mall, and the Buckeye Antique’s Mall. He made several return trips almost always with something new in hand. His Kansas find was a yardstick for the Abilene Truck and Tractor, Inc. . This International Harvester Dealership was in business in Abilene just south of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home. The company was open from 1966 to 1970.
More Abilene Finds
Besides finding items at stores, Keith picked up a few more at some of our wonderful tourist stops. We were blessed to have William Snyder, the curator at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home, provide us with a tour. We saw the house where President Eisenhower grew up, the library and museum, and his memorial where he and wife and child are buried. We learned and saw so much about this President that served during wartime as a General, then moved us through the Cold War.
At the gift shop there, Keith had to have a poster of the Allied Air Command poster!
Keith also selected a couple bumper stickers, and a copy of the note that President Eisenhower wrote in case the D-Day invasion mission failed.
Beauty and history at the Seely Mansion and more!
The lovely Seeley Mansion, that was named in “8 Wonders of Kansas – Architecture”, was amazing. The home was built in 1905 by Jacob L. Krueger for Dr. A.B. Seelye. “Dr” Seeyle created several medicines and spices selling first door to door, then with salesmen going from city to city.
The home sports twenty-five rooms and is built in the Georgian Revival style. Most of the home’s furnishings were purchased at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. On the website they share, “The furnishings cost more than the $55,000 that was spent building the 11,000-square-foot home. The home features the original Edison light fixtures and Tiffany-style mantel. Frank Lloyd Wright suggested remodeling the interior in the 1920s. The home was featured on the History Channel’s Mysteries at the Mansion. Visitors even get to bowl on the 1904 Box Ball Alley, which was purchased at the World’s Fair.”
One funny fact we learned was that although not allowed to the front door because he and his brothers were deemed “ruffians” by Mrs. Seeyle, Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered ice and produce to the Seelye Mansion backdoor when he was a young boy. This home was so lovely that Keith had to have a print of the beautiful mansion!
At the Dickinson County Historical Society, although I would have loved to take home the 1923 IH truck I fell in love with, I settled for a couple cool ornaments.
At this stop, they have many items including antique equipment that made Keith quite happy. Besides the equipment, they have a C.L. Parker carousel. This turn of the century carousel was built in Abilene! The barn onsite houses the IH truck, so ornaments of the barn and carousel seemed fitting!
Valentine’s Day
It was Valentines while we were on our trip. When I found the cool Bombshell Salon and Boutique, he let me pick something out, so I got a chance to bring something home too!
Kansas turned out to be Keith’s Kollector paradise! What finds have you found lately?
