Its crazy kansas city has a pretty neat historical buildings, even though so many have been torn down. Is there an archive dedicated to what kc looked like historically? I'd totally check that out.
My building downtown, 1000 Walnut, has a small gallery in the lobby called the Box Gallery. Through April 17th, the gallery will be hosting an exhibit called "Photographs Tell The Story."
Background:
"Cris Wilborn, owner of Wilborn & Associates, admits he doesn't know how many photographs are in his archive. It is probably the largest collection fo Kansas City commercial photography in the world, with over 100,000 negatives and prints spanning the past century. It includes historical panoramas, architectural documentation, iconic sights, and group photos of every size and category. The exhibit tells the story of the Wilborn familiy's history in the photography business and presents a small sampling of the photographs in this immense collection. We hope you like the stories they tell."
www.wilbornphoto.comNOTE: The Box Gallery is free and open to the public. Open 8am-8pm Monday-Friday. It's in the middle of the lobby that has a round, glass roof. If you have any difficultly locating it, ask any of the very polite security guards and they'll gladly show you the way.
There are some awesome photos of the Monarchs, an awesome amateur shot of Union Station under construction taken by the guy's mother, and many more.