The name Topeka is of uncertain Indian origin; one interpretation is “smoky hill,” and another is “a good place to dig potatoes.” The present site was chosen in 1854 by a group of antislavery colonists from Lawrence, led by Charles Robinson, a resident agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. Cyrus K. Holliday helped to found the city, which later became headquarters for the building of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway system, of which he was the first president. Before the American Civil War, Topeka was the scene of several conflicts between the Free Soil (Free-Soil Party) groups (which opposed the extension of slavery into the West) and slave interests in Kansas Territory, of which it was the temporary capital (1856). Topeka also was the centre of a major battle in the civil-rights era in 1954, when plaintiffs successfully challenged segregation in the city's public schools in Board of Education of Topeka (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka); the Monroe Elementary School, one of the segregated schools, and its grounds were designated a national historic site by the U.S. Congress in 1992. A tornado destroyed much of Topeka in 1966; annihilating some 800 homes and damaging 3,000 others, it was the costliest tornado in U.S. history to that time.

Topeka's economy is based on agriculture, manufacturing, and governmental services. From 1925 to 2003 Topeka was the home of the Menninger Foundation, an outstanding psychiatric-training institution. The city is the seat of Washburn University (1865); Mulvane Art Museum is located on Washburn's campus. Other notable attractions include the extensive and well-stocked Topeka Zoological Park and the Kansas International Museum. The State House is modeled after the Capitol (Capitol, United States) in Washington, D.C. Shawnee State Fishing Lake and Perry and Clinton state parks are nearby. Inc. 1857. Pop. (1990) city, 119,883; Topeka MSA, 160,976; (2000) city, 122,377; Topeka MSA, 169,871.