Established in 1875, the Kansas Historical Society is a state agency, which safeguards and shares the state’s history.

The collections consists of books, State records, manuscripts, photographs, and audio-visual materials relating to physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, & veterinarians; military & general medicine; medical schools; pharmacies; patent medicines; John R. Brinkley, the famous “goat gland doctor”; nursing; medical organizations; agricultural veterinary medicine; Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad & other hospitals; and World War II veterans’ oral interviews mentioning health & medical care.

Also included in the collections are a notable amount of material on psychiatry, including records of the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, its founders, and associates. The society’s State archives holdings include licensing files; records of health- and veterinary- related State agencies; and records of State hospitals & other institutions.

The society's Kansas Museum of History holds an extensive collection of equipment from Kansas medical personnel, including quack medical devices confiscated by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Over 1700 manuscript collections, archival series, photographs, and other items relating to all aspects of medicine with related published materials and museum artifacts. Some records and collections have restricted access due to federal or State privacy statutes or donor conditions.