Jay Price
Kansas Historical Foundation
Board of Directors
Elected to board: 2018
A native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Jay M. Price holds a bachelor's degree in history from the University of New Mexico, a master's in government from the College of William and Mary, and a doctoral degree in history from Arizona State University.
Following graduation, Jay went to work for the U.S. Department of the Army at the Presidio of Monterey as part of a team of historians researching the awarding of medals and honors to Asian American World War II veterans. In 1999 he moved to Kansas to direct the public history program at Wichita State University, now the local and community history program. In addition, he has served on the advisory boards of the Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology, the Wichita State University museum studies certificate program, and the Pizza Hut Museum.
Since coming to Kansas he has turned his interests to studying the social and cultural history of the Great Plains, particularly as reflected in the built environment. His academic works include Temples for a Modern God: Religious Architecture in Postwar America and Gateways to the Southwest: The Story of Arizona State Parks as well as articles on religious architecture, regionalism, and ethnic communities on the Great Plains. He authored and co-authored a number of photo histories of Wichita area topics, several involving his students. His other projects have covered topics from entrepreneurship to local rock music. He is currently leading a team of students and artists to tell the history of the Wichita history through a trilogy of graphic novels.
He has served on the boards of Humanities Kansas, the Kansas Association of Historians, the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, Old Cowtown Museum, Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Places, the Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review, the University Press of Kansas, and Lone Chimney Films. Jay is currently chair of the department of history at Wichita State University, where he also directs the local and community history program and the Great Plains studies certificate program.
