Stuff about Lawrence, Kansas

I started this on tumblr years ago, to fill some unexpected downtime and, having lived here a long time, to try and get the definitive story behind various elements of the Lawrence landscape. I originally called it “Explain like I’m not from Lawrence” because it’s usually visitors or people new to Lawrence who ask the questions about the stuff that we’ve long since stopped noticing. But when the controversy about the name of Pinckney Elementary school erupted in 2020, I came back to this space to again get the definitive story out about not just a place but about some of the long forgotten motivations and influences of the people who created this town from scratch.

Moving forward I hope to keep doing more of the same: digging a little deeper, trying to bring in more voices, and finding the full story. Anything and everything, from the most well known stories this town tells about itself to the smallest and most quirky detail, anything that has been hiding in unexamined records and collections for decades, that’s what I’m hoping to find for true Lawrence.