There are only a few weeks left to see Kauffman Museum’s award-winning “Voices of Conscience: Peace Witness in the Great War,” the current special exhibit.
And that time period will include two special Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum programs, on April 26 and May 24.
Dr. Prisca Barnes-Simmons, Wichita, presents “The Dockum Drugstore Sit-in,” April 26 at 3 p.m. in the museum auditorium (this program, supported by Humanities Kansas, was originally scheduled for Feb. 8).
The first student-led lunch counter sit-in in the United States happened at the Dockum Drugstore in downtown Wichita, at 104 S. Broadway where the Ambassador Hotel now stands, in the summer of 1958.
One of several ways that story has been recounted is in Barnes-Simmons’ children’s book, People, Pride and Promise: The Story of the Dockum Sit-in.
“Voices of Conscience” remembers the witness of peace-minded people against the First World War, 1914-18, and the themes of nonviolent protest and dissent in Barnes-Simmons’s presentation echo those found in the special exhibit.
Barnes-Simmons is a passionate advocate for equity and social justice who, in 2009, founded Storytime Village Inc., a nonprofit organization with a mission to serve low-income Kansas children and families, with a focus on reading and literacy. She has published two other children’s books in addition to People, Pride and Promise.
On May 24, the day “Voices of Conscience” closes, Sara Judge Keckeisen, Topeka, will speak on “The Cost of Conscience: One Mennonite Family’s Experience in World War I,” also at 3 p.m. in the Kauffman Museum auditorium.
When the United States entered World War I, the federal government instituted a military draft. Federal and state officials applied heavy pressure on citizens to support the war effort.
As a result, the homes, lives and safety of members of the pacifist Mennonite communities in central Kansas, and of one family in particular, were put in extreme danger. This is the story of how they coped when their constitutional rights were violated at every turn.
Keckeisen grew up in western Pennsylvania and northeastern Wisconsin and studied history and library science as an undergraduate and graduate student.
She worked at the Kansas State Historical Society as a reference librarian, family history librarian and cataloger for 30 years, retiring in 2019. She is the author of numerous articles on Kansas history and archaeology and five family history books (a sixth is in process), including a history of the Koop family of western Oklahoma, singer John Denver’s Mennonite ancestors.
Sara Keckeisen is married to Bob Keckeisen, who directed the Kansas Museum of History for 30 years until his retirement.
“Voices of Conscience” opened at Kauffman Museum in 2017, after premiering at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Mo., during the symposium “Remembering Muted Voices: Conscience, Dissent, Resistance and Civil Liberties in World War I through Today,” Oct. 19-22, 2017.
It spent the next eight years as a traveling exhibit. Since February 2018, “Voices of Conscience” has traveled to locations in 12 states and two Canadian provinces. Among the 24 host locations have been virtually all the Mennonite colleges as well as museums, heritage centers and churches.
The American Association for State and Local History gave “Voices of Conscience“ an Award of Excellence in 2020, making Kauffman Museum the only entity in Kansas to win an AASLH award that year.
David Kreider, who retired as Kauffman Museum exhibit technician in late 2025, frequently traveled with “Voices of Conscience” over the years. “It has had a remarkable journey since its creation,” he said.
“It has been gratifying to see host sites add companion exhibits sharing the stories and artifacts from people in their own community who had a World War I peace witness,” Kreider added.
“The exhibit also helps people reflect on who are the voices of conscience in our communities today.”
Regular Kauffman Museum hours are Tues.-Fri. 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 1:30-4:30 p.m., closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission to “Voices of Conscience” and the permanent exhibits – “Of Land and People,” “Mirror of the Martyrs” and “Mennonite Immigrant Furniture” – is $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 6-16, and free to Kauffman Museum members and children under 6. The museum store is open during regular museum hours. See kauffmanmuseum.org or the museum Facebook page for more information.
