Lee Pendergrass Collection

Lee Pendergrass was the historian-in-residence at Fort Hays State University from 1979-1981. In 1979 the Kansas Committee for the Humanities and Fort Hays State University sponsored a historian-in-residence program. It was funded by a one year matching grant that was designed to bring humanities programs to northwest Kansas. As the historian-in-residence, Dr. Pendergrass was responsible for offering historical knowledge, training and expertise to interested parties, such as museums, historical societies, and community organizations. He also offered oral history, family history and research techniques to individuals and museums. Dr. Pendergrass said that most of these museums, because they were so rural, lacked basic understanding of museum operation and management, exhibit preparation and design, archival arrangement and preservation, and many other tasks associated with museums. Dr. Pendergrass wrote an article about his experience in being the historian-in residence in Northwest Kansas in the journal The Public Historian, Volume 4, No 1 (Winter 1982). The article is titled “Taking History to the Public: The Kansas Historian-in-Residence Program.”