Kansas is the 15th-largest state in the U.S. by area, and home to almost 3 million residents. Nearly 90 percent of the state’s land is dedicated to agricultural use, carried out on some 59,500 farms. Here are a few glimpses of the landscape of Kansas, and some of the wildlife and people calling it home.This photo story is part of Fifty, a collection of images from each of the United States.

Tim LahanIt’s time to be grateful.For the courtesy, even when (especially when) it is feigned or forced. For the big, brassy hellos as we all file onto the plane, and the smaller, lines-around-the-eyes goodbyes as we all file off again, having gotten to know one another a little better.

In the summer of 1966, Mao Zedong—the father of the Chinese revolution, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, and leader of the People’s Republic of China—called upon Chinese citizens to rise up in revolt against the very government and party he had been so personally responsible for establishing. “Bombard the headquarters!” he implored.

My wife, Rudaina, died at 9:30 p.m. on July 20. I was holding her hand.I have lost my parents and two siblings, but this is the first time I saw death come into a room and felt a life slip from my hand, ravaged by cancer. Minutes after, I kissed her forehead and was seized with fright and rage. “She is COLD,” I shrieked and collapsed on my knees with my head against her side. A nurse in her mid-20s knelt beside me, making the sounds mothers do to console a troubled child.

Illustrations by Louise Pomeroy“Ed-die! Ed-die! Ed-die!” Standing before a bank of potted poinsettias in Studio 8H of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Eddie Murphy, the returning comedy hero, smiled serenely and took a few seconds to bask in the chant that had broken out. Then he spoke. “It’s great to be back here finally, hosting Saturday Night Live for Christmas,” he said. “This is the last episode of 2019.