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Barbara Burgess was a charter member of the Center for Kansas Studies and on the Washburn faculty since 1986. Advising students who choose to minor in Kansas Studies and promoting the classes in Kansas Studies have been important projects for her. 

Now Professor Emeritus, Dr. Burgess created a course “Kansas and the Media" where students studied Kansas media pioneers and the impact of the media on the history of the state.  She has studied Kansas territorial newspapers and has written articles and  presented  papers about the territorial newspapers and their impact on the state. 

Dr. Burgess wrote and edited a publication for the Kansas State Historical Society about the historical markers in the state. This publication, entitled “Kansas Historical Markers” is available free-of-charge at the Kansas State Museum of History and at all of the KSHS sites in the state. 

For over 25 years she has studied different aspects of the Oregon/California Trail in Kansas.  From the trail corridor to the journals written by people who traveled west on the trail, she has researched these subjects. She has written several articles and presented numerous programs on these topics. After studying 82 journals and letters written by travelers on the trail in Kansas between 1831 and 1854, she wrote about their experiences and about their descriptions of the trail environment in Kansas.  Part of this study was published as tour guides by the Kanza Chapter of the Oregon/California Trail Association for the 2003 OCTA Convention, held in Manhattan, Kansas. 

Email: barbara.burgess@washburn.edu
Webpage: http://www.washburn.edu/cas/massmedia/mass-media7.html

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