Topeka is the capital of the State of Kansas, and the seat of Shawnee County.

It is a commercial and manufacturing center situated in a fertile wheat- and cattle-raising area. Major manufactures include processed food, printed materials, and rubber and metal products.

Government operations, tourism, and the insurance industry are also important to the city’s economy. Commercial air transportation is through Forbes Field Airport and Philip Billard Airport.

Topeka, a city of wide avenues and open spaces, is the site of Washburn University of Topeka (1865) and Menninger, a noted neuropsychiatric clinic that maintains research and teaching facilities as well as a museum which boasts a large collection of papers belonging to psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

Points of interest include the Kansas Museum of History; the Combat Air Museum, with a collection of military aircraft; and the Mulvane Art Center, which features displays of American painting and sculpture.

Other landmarks are

• the State House, built between 1866 and 1903 and modeled after the United States Capitol, and
• the Topeka Zoological Park and the Reinisch Memorial Rose and Rock Gardens, both located in Gage Park.

The community was laid out in 1854 near the point where the Santa Fe Trail and Oregon Trail separated, and the city developed as a division center for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad.

For several years, it was the hub of conflict between the proslavery and antislavery factions in the Kansas Territory.

Topeka incorporated in 1857, became the temporary territorial capital in 1859, and was selected as the permanent state capital in 1861 when Kansas entered the Union.

In 1903, the Kansas River flooded, causing serious damage and leading the city to construct a series of dikes.

The city’s name is thought to derive from a Siouan term meaning "place to find small potatoes".