KANSAS  is a state with many faces: big cities and small towns, hills and hollows, plains and prairie. She has wide open country and chalk canyons, fordable creeks and fishable rivers, small back roads and multi-lane Interstate highways. This variety even extends to the state's endless skies -- splashed with brilliant stars at night, painted with ever-changing clouds by day.

Two extraordinary photographic contributions to KanColl reflect these many faces. The first, "Mark Dunn's Flint Hills," presents views of what is easily one of the most beautiful places on this Earth. Mark earlier contributed a photographic tour of Virgil, Kansas; here, he captures some of the moods of the Flint Hills, as well as some striking views of August storm clouds. These images mesmerize us with their beauty and awesome strength.

The second selection is a single photograph, taken by Florence Betz on a Sunday afternoon in the early 1940s with a small Brownie camera. Seems to us that in this hand-tinted photograph you can glimpse part of the soul of Kansas -- a moment out of time. To really get the full effect of this photograph, you must see the full-size version -- the thumbnail picture above does not do it justice.

So come with us on a stroll -- gazing at the Flint Hills, wondering at those mighty stormclouds, and resting a moment by Florence's wheat field -- enjoying just a few of the many faces of Kansas....

A LITTLE EXTRA from Director Dick Taylor:  The railroads and Kansas have a long history together. Tracks and trains are as much a part of the state as windmills and fencerows. Take a moment, if you wish, to savor the sight and sound of a fast freight threading through a Kansas landscape .... just click on this picture --