The High Plains Museum has relied on the kindness of donors since it was founded in 1959 to help preserve Sherman County history. If you have something you’d like to donate, we ask you to take a minute to read our mission statement to help understand our collecting focus:

The mission of the High Plains Museum is to promote, educate, and instill an appreciation of our Western Kansas High Plains heritage through the collection, preservation, exhibition, and educational interpretation of the objects, culture, and ideas representative of Goodland and Sherman County history.

It is the policy of the High Plains Museum to collect objects that are representative of life in Sherman County. Due to space and funding restrictions, the High Plains Museum is selective in what it accessions into its permanent collection.We are primarily interested in items associated with the history of Goodland and Sherman County, Kansas. There are some exceptions to this rule, including genealogies and vital records from other states. We urge you to contact us because your generous gift may fill a gap in our collections.

Here are some of the things we collect:

• Archeological materials (archeological materials must come from a recorded site in Sherman County)
• Books and periodicals
• Man-made objects of all kinds
• Personal papers (unpublished letters, diaries, etc.)
• Maps and architectural drawings
• Photographs and audiovisual materials

Have something really special, but want to keep it for yourself? We can copy photographs, maps, and manuscripts to make their content available to researchers (subject to possible copyright restrictions). You get to keep the original.