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Community History Archives

Community History Archive Partner

Coffey County Library

Burlington, Kansas

Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Burlington.

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15Titles

Explore publications and collections from the past.

1864 to 2008Dates represented

See individual titles for available dates.

510,390Archive pages

Historical pages reported for this collection.

Explore local history

Discover the people, places, and stories of Burlington, Kansas.

Explore the past of Burlington, Kansas through newspapers in the Coffey County Library's digital archive. Its fifteen titles include material from 1864 to 2008.

You can open the archive using the link below.
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  • Selected titles

    In the collection shared by Coffey County Library, you will find “Allegre Rexall Capsule” and “The Waverly Gazette”.

  • Free and open access

    No subscription or payment required.

  • A closer look

    A familiar name or event takes on another dimension in the newspaper coverage of its time, alongside the stories that mattered to the readers of that issue.

Reporting from the time can reveal how people described the events, work and concerns of their day, placing a local story within the history unfolding around it. Whether you are tracing a family connection, exploring a local event or sharing history with a class, there is more to discover than names and dates alone. Explore the archive online for free, without a subscription.

Explore the collection

Titles in this collection

Browse fifteen titles and 510,390 digitized pages, with material from 1864 to 2008. This collection is shared through Coffey County Library's partnership with Advantage Archives. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.

If you are tracing a family connection or exploring local history, the titles below offer a place to begin and a thread to follow.

Allegre Rexall Capsule

1,842 pages from 1981 to 1990

Coffey County Today

57,678 pages from 1983 to 1998

Gridley Star

620 pages from 1905 to 1907

Halls Summit News

482 pages from 1921 to 1922

Hampden Expositor

8 pages in 1864

Lebo Courier

980 pages from 1889 to 1891

Lebo Enterprise

67,198 pages from 1891 to 1986

Lebo Leader

5,142 pages from 1931 to 1943

Lebo Light

1,964 pages from 1884 to 1889

Lebo Star

6,824 pages from 1908 to 1923

The Coffey County Republican

7,218 pages from 1998 to 1999

The Daily Republican

258,984 pages from 1922 to 1983

The Gridley Gleam

30,680 pages from 1982 to 2008

The Gridley Light

36,562 pages from 1922 to 1975

The Waverly Gazette

34,208 pages from 1922 to 1976

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About the Library

About Coffey County Library

Coffey County Library promotes discovery, lifelong learning, and collaboration by offering valuable resources, superior service, and inspiring environments. With its various branches, including the Burlington Branch, the library serves as a cornerstone of education and cultural enrichment for the community.

Coffey County Library photo 1

Library History

The History Of Coffey County Library

Coffey County Library has a long history of serving the informational and educational needs of the residents of Coffey County, Kansas. Through its commitment to promoting literacy and providing access to valuable resources, the library has grown into a vital institution for the community, offering a range of programs, services, and digital resources that cater to patrons of all ages.

Partner Story

Mission Statement

"We promote discovery, lifelong learning, and collaboration by offering valuable resources, superior service, and inspiring environments."

Partner Story

Burlington Branch Vision

"A valued resource today, tomorrow, and forever."

Local History

Did You Know?

Did you know that Coffey County Library has preserved hundreds of historical records and newspapers, making them available to the public through its online archive? These records are essential tools for understanding the rich history of Coffey County.

More ways to explore and share local history

Research Guidance

Look for the story behind a result

A family name, a familiar street or a story passed down through generations can lead to a closer look at the history of Burlington. The digital archive shared by the Coffey County Library offers a place to begin. When using historical newspapers, try alternate spellings and nearby dates, then read the surrounding page to place a local story in its time. Compare later reporting or another available title to explore different perspectives rather than treating one account as the whole story. Search a person, place, or event with a second term, then compare the date and context of each result. A repeated name needs more evidence before it identifies the same person or connects two parts of a story.

After recording the issue and page, search a second term tied to the result and compare the surrounding dates and accounts. Keep matching names provisional until the place and context fit. This can turn one result into a better question without turning a repeated name into a confirmed story.

Capture the title, date, and page or item location for a detail you may want to revisit. Label your interpretation as your reading, not the source's own words. Keep enough context with the note that another reader can retrace it.

Review collection titles

Community Partnership

Keeping local history a community resource

This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of the Coffey County Library, its community, and Advantage Archives. Together, these partnerships preserve local sources and give people a way to explore, learn from, and share the history around them.

Advantage Archives covers ongoing archive hosting, storage, development, and maintenance. The institution and its community do not pay a subscription, seat license, annual support contract, or other recurring archive-service charge. Local history remains a community resource, not a subscription to maintain.

Would you like to see more of your community's history preserved and accessible? Start a conversation with your library, newspaper publisher, historical or genealogical society, museum, or school about the materials they would like to share and a possible partnership with Advantage Archives.

Learn about partnerships
Read All About It

Stories, research tips, and archive news

Read All About It connects archive research with the people and institutions preserving local history. Explore partner and community stories, project updates, research ideas, and perspectives on digitization, education, and working with primary sources. Use the articles as a starting point for your next question or a new way to share a discovery.

Newest published articles

March 18, 2025

It’s Your Community’s History, So Why Rent Something You Own?

We believe that history belongs to the communities where it was made - not locked behind paywalls or inaccessible due to budget restrictions. Subscription-based services and large content aggregators are generally more concerned with "content" and less concerned with the history that content contains. Their models typically involve a reoccurring charge for a plan that renews annually or licensing agreements with the library based on population served or circulation numbers. You are essentially Renting Access To YOUR History.
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