After you have finished reading this brief introduction about the amazing “find” of the scrapbook collection, click on the “Clippings” menu button above to view detailed clippings.

          What a treasure!  When Bonnie Hansen heard from Virginia Rickel that her grandmother, Ethel Bowling Palmer, had kept scrapbooks and filled them with articles about Loula Long Combs, she had no idea the immensity of this find.  Virginia invited Bonnie, Barbara and Linda to come look at these books.

          It was unbelievable!  Three scrapbooks of horse pictures, articles and memorabilia.  The articles dated 1910 to 1950.  All in excellent condition.  Most were from magazines, local newspapers and many were reports on the Kansas City American Royal Horse Show results.  There was an article about the death of Chief of Longview, a Saddle bred Champion and a note of how “sorrowful” the show was when Captivation retired.  Mrs. Palmer had attended many of the shows noted.  Even admission tickets were there.  Also included was a personally autographed picture Mrs. Combs had sent Ethel which included the mailing label addressed in Mrs. Combs’ writing.

          When Ethel Palmer was in her twenties, she was a small builder of homes in the Northeast Kansas City area-3900 block of Sunrise Drive.  She lived in the northeast area until the 1930’s.  She was an avid gardener but her first love was horses.  She didn’t know Mrs. Combs personally but she would watch her exercise her horses on the streets around Corinthian Hall on Sunday afternoons.

          Bonnie, Linda and Barb were in awe over the books and it didn’t take them long to realize these artifacts needed to be preserved.  Esteemed Kansas City photographer, Roy Inman was approached and offered his archival services at a very reasonable price to our newly-founded group.  Due to a generous donation from Sally Lamar Ellis, RALHS was able to have Roy take well over one hundred images to be put on a disk for permanent preservation.  Some images have been placed on our web site, and selected items will be used for display and our newsletters.

          We want to thank Sally Ellis, Virginia and Roy for making this possible.  Virginia wants to encourage people to make scrapbooks of historical articles and pictures to preserve area history and events.  It is becoming a “lost” hobby.

          And we can’t thank you enough, Ethel, for all your painstaking work!  What a tremendous gift this is!