photo by: Wichita Eagle

John R. Brinkley with this son "Little Johnny"

photo by: Wichita Eagle

John R. Brinkley was involved in Kansas politics. It is generally believed that he entered the 1930 Kansas gubernatorial race to build popular support to offset the investigation being conducted by the Kansas State Medical Board. He announced his candidacy as an independent on September 23, 1930, too late for this name to appear on the ballot. Brinkley campaigned diligently, using his radio station to instruct listeners on the write-in procedure. The race was close, with numerous Brinkley votes discarded for spelling and marking errors. The final totals for 1930 were 188,278 for Brinkley and 217,171 for Harry Woodring. Brinkley also ran for governor of Kansas in 1932 and 1934.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

John R. Brinkley was born on July 8, 1885, in Jackson County, North Carolina. He grew up in that area and attended medical schools in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., before setting up a medical practice in Milford in 1917. He had received a degree from the Kansas City Eclectic Medical University on May 7, 1915. Brinkley took the Arkansas state medical board examination and received a license to practice in Kansas because of a reciprocity agreement between the two states. In addition to his medical practice, Brinkley operated a drugstore stocked with patent medicines. Shortly after moving to Milford, Brinkley reportedly transplanted a goat testicle into a human. The operation, aimed at sexual rejuvenation, was declared a success and gained Brinkley his “goat gland doctor” reputation.

photo by: Lowell Observatory | Wichita Eagle

Clyde Tombaugh uses the Zeiss Blink Comparator at Lowell Observatory near Flagstaff, Ariz., to search for Pluto in 1930.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

Clyde Tombaugh poses with this telescope, through which he discovered Pluto, at the Lowell Observatory on Observatory Hill in Flagstaff, Ariz., 1931.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

John R. Brinkley with his wife, Sarah Burnett, and son, John. Brinkley's rise to fame and fortune was as precipitous as his eventual fall. At the height of his career he had amassed millions of dollars and fancy cars, and yet he died sick and nearly penniless as a result of the large number of malpractice, wrongful death and fraud suits brought against him.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

View looking north toward Fairmount College (now Wichita State University). The picture shows both Fairmount Hall and Fiske Hall.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

The Amazon Army was a group of several thousand wives, sweethearts and female relatives of striking miners who marched in December 1921 across the coalfields of southeast Kansas in courageous protest against unfair labor laws and practices.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

William Allen White, known as the “Sage of Emporia” for defending the First Amendment to fighting the Ku Klux Klan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper editor was the primary voice of the American heartland for almost five decades.

photo by: Kansas State Historical Society | Wichita Eagle

Topeka Ku Klux Klan members pose by an automobile at a 1924 rally in St. Joseph, Mo.

photo by: Kansas State Historical Society | Wichita Eagle

Members of the Ku Klux Klan carrying a flag at a gathering.

photo by: Kansas State Historical Society | Wichita Eagle

Ku Klux Klan members burning a cross sometime between 1920 and 1929.

photo by: Kansas State Historical Society | Wichita Eagle

Both male and female workers at a 1934 Wichita canning kitchen can meat that will eventually be distributed to relief clients suffering during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s. This program was supervised by the Kansas Emergency Relief Committee.

photo by: Kansas State Historical Society | Wichita Eagle

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway's steam-powered locomotive engine #3770. The 3736 Class, Northern-type 4-8-4 was purchased from Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1937. The boiler pressure was 300 pounds, drivers 80", and the tractive effort was 66,000 pounds.

photo by: Marion Renner | Wichita Eagle

Clouds of dust roll over the northwest Kansas town of Zurich in the 1930s. The pictures are looking north across Kansas Highway 18.

photo by: Alvena King | Wichita Eagle

Vintage postcard showing a dust storm in western Kansas in 1935.

photo by: Alvena King | Wichita Eagle

Vintage postcard showing a dust storm in Garden City in 1935.

photo by: Alvena King | Wichita Eagle

Vintage postcard showing a dust storm in Garden City in 1935.

photo by: Alvena King | Wichita Eagle

Vintage postcard showing a dust storm in Garden City in 1935.

photo by: Beech family | Wichita Eagle

The winning team in the 1926 Ford Reliability Tour, Walter Beech (left) and navigator Brice Goldsborough pose before their Travel Air Model BW with a J-4 radial engine. The airplane carried state-of-the-art Pioneer navigation instruments, but Walter also attributed their success to following "the old reliable iron compass" — railroad tracks.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

The United States needed "a revival of the spirit of William McKinley," Gov. Alf M. Landon told the crowd that greeted him when his August 23, 1936, train stopped at Canton, Ohio, home and burial place of the former president. (AP Photo)

photo by: Associated Press | Wichita Eagle

A farmer inspects his tractor and wheat drill, both almost submerged in dust near Garden City in March 1935. He planned to wait before digging out.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

Alf Landon, 26th governor of Kansas and Republican presidential nominee during the 1936 election.

photo by: Associated Press | Wichita Eagle

W.E. Allbright, plows while dust blows in an effort to check soil erosion, March 31, 1935, in Hutchinson. He adopted the plan of Gov. Alf Landon, who advocated plowing rows at intervals to catch the drifting earth. Gov. Landon obtained a promise of federal aid in the dust-stricken area.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

Franklin D. Roosevelt gives a speech titled "A Restored and Rehabilitated Agriculture" on the campaign trail in Topeka, Sept. 14, 1932.

photo by: Kansas State Historical Society | Wichita Eagle

People wore dust masks in Kansas to protect themselves from the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

photo by: Kansas State Historical Society | Wichita Eagle

A photograph in Kansas during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

photo by: Kansas State Historical Society | Wichita Eagle

A photograph from Kansas during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

photo by: Kansas State Historical Society | Wichita Eagle

Equipment submerged in soil drifts in Kansas during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

photo by: Kansas State Historical Society | Wichita Eagle

A Kansas farmer and his dust-swept land during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

photo by: Kansas State Historical Society | Wichita Eagle

Cattle in a Kansas dust storm in the 1930s.

photo by: Stafford County Historical Genealogical Society and Museum | Wichita Eagle

This is one of the most iconic photos from the Dust Bowl. It is included in a collection of photos from the Stafford County Historical Genealogical Society and Museum.

photo by: Stafford County Historical Genealogical Society and Museum | Wichita Eagle

A dust storm blowing into Dodge City. The worst storm recorded was on Black Sunday, April 14, 1935. Survivors talked of dust so thick it drifted like snow.

photo by: Associated Press | Wichita Eagle

Trainmen in Western Kansas hoped for relief from a dust storm that made operating the trains difficult. This picture shows a second engine trying to extricate one stalled in a dust drift, April 4, 1935, in Dodge City.

photo by: Associated Press | Wichita Eagle

Keeping the rails clear so trains could go through was one of the major tasks of railroad men in western Kansas during the dust storms. Here is a group sweeping dust from the tracks April 13, 1935, in Syracuse.

photo by: Associated Press | Wichita Eagle

A forlorn figure, this cow forages for food in dust-blown pastures July 8, 1936, in Ford County. A month of rainless days and soaring temperatures, which stood far above 100 degrees in many sectors of the drought area, ruined pasturage and crops. The extreme dryness is illustrated in this picture by the dust filling the air as breezes sweep over what was once pasture.

photo by: Associated Press | Wichita Eagle

This picture shows a barrier erected to keep back drifts of dust Feb. 24, 1935, in Colby.

photo by: Arthur Rothstein, Farm Security Administration | Wichita Eagle

A failed bank in Kansas, May 1936.

photo by: Associated Press | Wichita Eagle

Water rushes down a ditch at a dedication ceremony as part of a proposed extensive well irrigation project Aug. 15, 1937, in Liberal. Sponsors of the project hoped irrigation by well water would help the area recover from the Dust Bowl. Former governor of Oklahoma William Murray, right kneeling, gave the dedication address.

photo by: Associated Press | Wichita Eagle

The early stages of rehabilitation of the area was evident after the Great Plains Shelterbelt project, which restored fertility to vast areas ruined by soil erosion and dust storms of the mid-1930s.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

Amelia Earhart, shown in this 1932 photo, was flying a twin-engine Lockheed Electra when she vanished over the South Pacific in 1937 during her bid to become the first woman to fly around the world.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

Famed aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, pose in front of their twin-engine Lockheed Electra in Los Angeles. This photo was taken at the end of May 1937, before their historic flight in which Earhart was attempting to become first female pilot to circle the globe.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

Amelia Earhart climbs out of the cockpit after piloting her plane from Los Angeles to Oakland, Calif., on March 10, 1937. Earhart and her crew began their failed around-the-world journey on March 17.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, in this undated photo.

photo by: Fred Peterson | Wichita Eagle

This is a picture of a dust storm rolling in from the west over Marquette in 1937.

photo by: Marion Renner | Wichita Eagle

Clouds of dust roll over the town of Zurich in the 1930s. The picture looks north across Kansas Highway 18.

photo by: Marion Renner | Wichita Eagle

Clouds of dust roll over the town of Zurich in the 1930s. The picture looks north across Kansas Highway 18.

photo by: Marion Renner | Wichita Eagle

Clouds of dust roll over the town of Zurich in the 1930s. The picture looks north across Kansas Highway 18.

photo by: Wichita Eagle

Dust storm over western Kansas in 1935.

photo by: Alvena King | Wichita Eagle

Postcard showing a dust storm in western Kansas in 1935.