The Museum of World Treasures is a natural and cultural history museum founded in 2001 by Dr. Jon and Lorna Karadatzke. The museum features exhibits displaying a wide variety of natural and human artifacts from around the world. Exhibits cover topics such as the Cenozoic era (the period after the dinosaurs), Asian art and artifacts, World War II, European royal history, the American West, ancient history, and pre-hispanic art. The museum also features Ivan, a 38-foot long T-Rex skeleton (and other dinosaur specimens). If alive he would have weighed over 10,000 pounds. Ivan, who was found in the Hell Creek deposit in South Dakota—where many other dinosaur fossils have been found—is the only T-Rex found with a complete set of vertebrae. Next to Ivan is another interesting artifact: a portion of the Berlin Wall (it is too heavy and too tall to be in the World War II exhibit).
The Great Plains Transportation Museum is an all volunteer museum with the mission to preserve & convey the unique history of railroading in the Great Plains through acquisition, restoration, research, exhibition, and education. It features thirteen rolling stock including engines and cars on display outside; visitors are allow to climb inside many of these. Inside, several kinds of artifacts are on display including railroad prints, signs, lanterns, and tools.
The Dockum Drug Store Sit-in protest began on July 19, 1958, and lasted for a month. It was was one of the first organized sit-ins in the country. A group of young people led by Ron Walters, who was the president of the Wichita NAACP Youth Council at the time, decided to start the protest. The sit-in was ultimately successful after the owner finally relented because he was losing a lot of money. Other businesses in Wichita soon followed suit, leading to desegregation throughout the city. The sit-in inspired others in Oklahoma City and Greensboro, North Carolina, which took place soon after.
This bronze sculpture, created by artist Georgia Gerber, memorializes the months-long sit-in of African American college students in the former Dockum's Drugstore, which took place in July-August 1954. Ultimately, the sit-in was successful; the owner allowed the participants to eat at the counter and soon the city began to desegregate.
This local history museum is located in the old City Hall which was built in 1892. The building is one of the state's oldest and most impressive courthouses. Designed in the Renaissance Revival style by Willis Proudfoot and George Bird, it features an ornate stone decorative exterior and was given the nickname, the “Palace of the Plains”. As such, the building is significant for its architecture and the fact that it represents the city's development during the late 19th century. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The museum offers four stories of exhibits that showcase life in Wichita over the centuries, from Native American culture, to early settlers and railroads, to the birth of the aviation industry, and to more recent history. A wide variety of exhibits explore this history, such as the recreated early car garage featuring a 1916 Jones automobile, a typical 19th-cottage, and an early 20th century drug store. The museum also houses an internationally-acclaimed collection of silver-plated service ware.
The Lassen Hotel was built in 1918 by Henry Lassen, a flour miller and real estate investor. The Lassen was the largest hotel in Kansas at the time of its completion and the first high-rise hotel in Wichita. Famous guests to the hotel include Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Will Rogers, Knute Rockne, Jack Dempsey, and William Jennings Bryan. The Lassen is significant for its architecture and its association with the economic development of the city between World War I and the Great Depression. The architecture is a combination of Renaissance Revival and Late 19th and Early 20th Century Revivals. For decades the hotel was the city's premier hotel and convention center and during the 1930s was the home of the city's oldest radio station, KFH, which stood for "Kansas' Finest Hotel". It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Orpheum opened in 1922 and is historically significant as one of the first "atmospheric" theaters built in the country (in atmospheric theaters the auditorium ceiling is curved and decorated in such a way that it gives the illusion of an open evening sky). The interior was designed to mirror a Spanish courtyard. The theater's history followed the decline of urban downtowns as places of entertainment, losing business to suburban theaters that had less overhead and maintenance costs. Volunteers saved the theater from the wrecking ball in 1983 and began the process of restoring the historic theater. Today, the theater once again hosts some of the leading national acts and is one of the premiere attractions in central Kansas. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Built between 1912 and 1913, this monument pays tribute to Union soldiers and sailors who fought in the Civil War. The monument features Vermont granite with four bronze statues representing the four branches of the military-artillery, cavalry, infantry, and the navy. On the west side of the monument are the names of major battles as well as a medallion of the Woman's Relief Corps. The monument's base bears the inscription "The Union is Perpetual" and "Let us Have Peace," quotes from Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses Grant, respectively. At the top of the monument is a 14-foot statue of the Goddess of Liberty.
Located in the former home of Cavalry Baptist Church, the Kansas African American Museum opened in 1993. The church was built in 1917 and was one of the leading institutions in Wichita’s black community. The museum tells the history of that community; its schools, business, churches, and leaders. It also preserves and shares the cultural history of a community that was home to the first African American to win an Academy Award Martin Luther King Jr.’s lawyer. The museum also tells the story of business leaders, authors and artists, athletes, and many others.
The Dorado SS (248) memorial is located within Wichita's Veterans Memorial Park honors the submariners of Dorado SS (248) who were lost during World War II. The monument was dedicated by the US Submarine Veterans of World War II, Kansas Chapter in October 1996. The front of the monument includes a complete crew list and the words “In Honor of One of 52 Submarines on Eternal Patrol” appear at the base of the monument. Although submarines only represented 2% of the US Naval Forces, they destroyed 50% of Japanese shipping and more than 30% of their warships.
Created as part of a $20-million riverfront restoration project and dedicated in 1974, The Keeper of the Plains has become the symbol of the city of Wichita. This 45-foot steel sculpture by Kiowa-Comanche artist Blackbear Bosin stands at the junction of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers. The sculpture stands on a 30-foot tall platform adjacent to the Mid-America All-Indian Center. The Plaza includes elements that represent the four elements that make up life: earth, air, fire and water. Visitors to the city should consider watching the nightly lighting of the "Ring of Fire" around this platform, which burns nightly at 7p.m. from November to March and 9 p.m. from March to November. Surrounding the base of the statue are multiple displays which describe the local tribes that used to inhabit this area, as well as several fire pits which sometimes light up to illuminate the statue at night. The fire pits, which are known as the Rings of Fire, are lit mannually for public safety and run in 15 minute increments. They are generally lit once a night around 9 pm during the summer and sunset during the winter.
Exploration Place opened in 2000 and is located in a beautiful modern building on the Arkansas River. The museum features a theater and planetarium, as well as a dozen major permanent exhibits and rotating interactive exhibits that keep the museum a dynamic learning environment. Permanent exhibits include AgMagination, an interactive set of displays and simulations that teach about the history and future of Kansas agriculture. There is also a seven-foot-tall model of the human mouth, appropriately labeled "Big Mouth," that tests good oral health knowledge. There is also an exhibit called Bridging Art and Science which features local artists whose work incorporates some aspects of scientific thought. Among the most popular displays, Exploring Flight and Design, includes flight simulators and a giant "wind wall" made of thousands of tiny reflective discs that show air currents generated by a real airplane propeller and two wind generators mounted on a tower. Also popular is "Kansas in Miniature" - a small-scale recreation of early-1950s Kansas buildings, landmarks and more. There are also numerous temporary and traveling exhibits.
As its name suggests, the Mid-America All-Indian Center is a museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the culture and history of Native Americans, as well as the role they play in society today. The museum features a collection of 3,000 artifacts; these are rotated in new exhibits throughout the year. The museum also features activities and attractions outside, including a tipi, travois (a drag sled for horses and dogs), a wildlife learning center, and a medicinal garden. Events held at the museum include powwows and community nights. Educational programs are also offered including arts and craft classes. The museum was founded in 1969. Near the museum is one of the city's landmarks, the "Keeper of the Plains" monument.
Since the founding of the museum in 1935, the permanent collection of the Wichita Art Museum has grown to more than 8,000 objects. The collection is international, with an emphasis on American artists of the 19th and 20th century. It is particularly strong in works that reflect the cultural heritage of the Great Plains.
Old Cowtown is a living history museum with fifty-four historic and refashioned buildings that work to recreate a Central Plains cattle town in the late 19th century. Cowtown’s unique programming chronicles Wichita's transformation from a frontier settlement to a cattle town, as well as its subsequent transformation to an agricultural center and manufacturing city. Costumed staff portray buffalo hunters, traders, cowboys, blacksmiths, carpenters, and farmers. Guests can tour authentic and recreated stores, depots, banks, grain elevators, barns, saloons, newspaper shops, and much more. Children will especially enjoy the DeVore Farm, which features a working farm with machinery from the 1880s.
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
This tour starts at several downtown museums and includes stops at historic downtown buildings, civil rights landmarks, and several museums as it winds its way towards Wichita's Old Cowtown Museum.
