Riley County Historical Museum reports record attendance, new registrar contract and collections progress

Catherine Hensler, director of the Riley County historical museum, presented the museum's monthly staff report and an annual summary during the Jan. 12 county commission meeting.

Hensler told the commission that 2025 attendance totaled 17,166 — a record for the museum and its historic properties — and that volunteer involvement grew to 2,267 hours from 178 volunteers. Exhibits introduced in February 2025 remain on display, and December's candlelight tour at the Goodno House attracted about 93 attendees.

Hensler said the historical society has approved a part-time contract registrar for 2026 at $30,000; she emphasized the role will be paid by the historical society and is not a county-funded position. The contract post is intended to address a decades-long collections backlog and support curatorial work and reorganization of storage.

She also reported a recurring leak in the museum's storage area that was identified and appears to be resolved; staff moved most collections items out of the affected space before the second incident and only a few objects were impacted. The museum expects to commission a structural engineer for the Pioneer Log Cabin before soliciting repair bids.

Hensler highlighted programmatic developments including a new board game "playtest" event and a planned Spanish-language tour of the Goodno House. She reminded commissioners the museum is open daily except Monday, remains free to visit, and will host a "Celebrate Kansas" event Jan. 24 at the Wolf House Museum.

The presentation closed with an update that nearly 5,000 books from the research library have been evaluated for retention or deaccession and that the museum recently launched an online photo access platform now holding more than 13,500 images.