After completing a Web site on Kansas University history, Henry Fortunato is ready to tackle a bigger topic — the history of the entire state.

Fortunato, a graduate student at KU, is partnering with the Kansas State Historical Society and KU’s Hall Center for the Humanities for a new Web site, “This Day in Kansas History,” which is set to launch early next year.

“What we’re doing here is we’re making history accessible,” Fortunato said. “It’s readable history, rigorously researched, and you drive — you pick what you read.”

The new site — which will be at www.kansashistoryonline.com — is similar to a site Fortunato completed last year on KU history at www.kuhistory.com. A prototype for the new site can be viewed at www.kuhistory.com/kansas.

Both sites highlight several historical events that occurred on a given date, with in-depth articles available on some issues. They also include Web links to original documents and other materials.

Articles, which are approved by an advisory committee of Kansas historians, are written by KU graduate students. The varied topics include the Brown v. Board of Education case, Bleeding Kansas, the evolution of Abilene as a cowtown and the extinction of the buffalo.

“Kansas is a gigantic place,” Fortunato said. “This is such a rich place for local history with national ramifications.”

Victor Bailey, director of the Hall Center for the Humanities, said the success of the KU history site indicated the state history site also would be popular. The KU site had 160,000 page views through the end of June by 35,000 individual users.

“It does suggest that if so many people are enthused to go to the KU site, by extrapolation there will be many more interested in the Kansas site,” he said.

¢This Week in KU History¢This Day in Kansas History prototype¢Hall Center for the Humanities¢Kansas State Historical Society

The site will be unveiled next year before the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which is May 30. It also will promote the Kansas Humanities Council’s chautauqua, which will run next summer and highlight territorial history. It will be in Lawrence June 25-29.

The Humanities Council earmarked $10,000 for the history Web site. Julie Mulvihill, the council’s program director, said the site would provide new information during a time when Kansas history would be in the spotlight.

“Henry and his committee have worked quite hard on working on a format that works in a couple of ways,” she said. “You can go by date and get a snippet of Kansas history. Or if you have a deeper interest, you can get a more scholarly type of material to read. It’s interesting information accessible to the general public.”

A prototype of the This