The Kansas City Research Center, located on the campus of the University of Missouri–Kansas City, collects, preserves, and makes available for study many unique materials related to the history and culture of the Kansas City metropolitan area, western Missouri, and the Midwest. The Center's approximately 14,000 cubic feet of holdings cover a wide range of topics, including architecture and the built environment, minority communities, municipal government, religion, and transportation, to name a few.
Highlights of the Kansas City collections include:
- More than 17,000 sets of architectural drawings spanning the late 1890s through the 1980s that record the history of Kansas City's built environment and provide insight into its architects, whose influence spread throughout the Midwest. Holdings also include work from the nationally recognized landscape architectural firm of Hare and Hare.
- The Jewish Community Archives, consisting of personal papers, organizational records, photographs, and oral histories documenting the vibrant history of the region's Jewish community and institutions.
- The Native Sons and Daughters of Greater Kansas City Records, which contain letters, organizational records, scrapbooks, photographs, maps, and ephemera assembled by the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas City to illuminate the growth and development of Kansas City and its founders.
