Kansas City Public Library 150 year anniversary

Celebrating 150 Years of Discovery

Join us for a yearlong celebration of the Kansas City Public Library’s 150th anniversary!

While our resources and services have evolved over 150 years, our commitment remains the same. To inform and inspire. To enrich and empower. Throughout 2024 we will be reflecting on our past, observing our present, and looking to the next century and a half of continued service to the people of Kansas City.

Our yearlong celebration will include notable author talks and events, celebrations at every location in our library system, and activities that highlight our history and look with hope to the future.

Watch our anniversary keynote with Tommi Laitio, Public Innovation Fellow with Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins, and read All Are Welcome Here: An Abecedarian for the Kansas City Public Library’s 150th Anniversary by Glenn North, Poet Laureate for Kansas City's 18th & Vine Historic District.

View the 150th Magazine

On Demand Signature Events

Exhibits

150th News

Sponsors

The Kansas City Public Library would like to thank all of our 150th Anniversary Sponsors.

  • Edward F. Swinney Trust
  • Pete Browne and Julie Walker Browne
  • Kissick Construction Company
  • Courtney S. Turner Charitable Trust
  • The Kansas City Royals Foundation
  • 15 & the Mahomies
  • JE Dunn
  • Spencer Fane LLP
  • KC Streetcar Authority
  • Kansas City Magazine

Community Partners

Thanks to the following partners for helping us celebrate the role of the Library in the community throughout our 150th anniversary celebration!

  • Cafe Cà Phê
  • Charlie Hustle
  • J. Rieger & Co.
  • Made in KC
  • Vine Street Brewing