It has been 100 years since the death of Joseph Pulitzer (Oct. 29, 1911), an individual who lived a rather remarkable life. Born April 10, 1847, Pulitzer immigrated to the United States from the Jewish community of Mako, Hungary, at the age of 17 in 1864, having been recruited to join the Union army. He served until the end of the war, and unable to find work on the East Coast, made his way to St. Louis, where after a string of odd, short-lived jobs, he found his calling as an investigative journalist for the Westliche Post, one of St. Louis's German-language newspapers. Read more »

Working on the Woven in Time exhibit has been a new experience for me! As Curator of Domestic Life at the Missouri History Museum, I frequently handle household artifacts. For this collaboration with the Weavers’ Guild of St. Louis, which is celebrating its 85th anniversary, I’ve had the opportunity to also work with textiles and clothing.

One highlight of installing the Woven in Time exhibit was getting to meet Connie Curtiss Hilgert. Read more »

James Love continued his efforts to recruit a company for Colonel Robert White’s company of Jim Lane’s Kansas Brigade. He heard that troops were being gathered in Kansas for an expedition to New Mexico.

Tipton Oct 18th 1861 Read more »

By this point in the war, the people in the border state of Missouri had to contend not only with troops that were part of Union and rebel forces, but also with armed bands on both sides who seized private property, burned towns, and even murdered private citizens. James Love was so horrified by the acts of these armed bands with rebel general Sterling Price, that he believed the only solution was Jim Lane and his brigade of Jayhawkers. However, Jim Lane and his men committed equally atrocious acts in their efforts to defend Kansas at any cost and free the slaves. Read more »

Georgetown
Oct 9th 1861

My Dear Molly Read more »

The design team in the Missouri History Museum’s (MHM's) Exhibitions and Research division is composed of longstanding Apple users. All of what a visitor sees in the galleries of the Museum was started on the pages of a sketch pad and then some version of a Mac. Having been at MHM for nearly 15 years, I’ve worked on a number of computers in the Mac line and now travel to meetings with one in tow, it having become a vital tool in my day-to-day work and play. Like many other people, I am also amazed when reflecting on how this relatively small machine has changed my life over the years. Read more »

James continued his efforts to recruit a company to serve under Colonel Robert White, who had commanded his company with the 5th United States Reserve Corps. White remained in Lexington, Missouri with the 14th Missouri Home Guard Infantry regiment, which was organized in August. The regiment took part in the siege of Lexington in September, where White was wounded. James worried about the possibility of recruiting a regiment with no leader. At the same time, James received word that his cousin John Adams had taken over his property at the corner of 9th and Spring streets in St. Read more »

I received an internship in the Missouri History Museum's Moving Image and Sound Collections rather unexpectedly—though happily—after spending the last 14 years working in the field of film preservation and archiving. It is a unique profession, one that has offered varying degrees of training and experience while working in rooms without windows and in basements and cold storage vaults. Read more »

The news stories in St. Louis have been covering the death (on September 26, 2011) of City Museum founder Bob Cassilly, an artist inspired by the everyday wonders and kid-like appreciation for exploration and danger. The one and only time I had a chance to meet Cassilly was in my first few months in St. Louis. I had been hired to design the Currents gallery in the Missouri History Museum’s Seeking St. Louis core exhibition project. A team of us visited the yet-unopened City Museum in 1997 to meet with Cassilly and hopefully have some of that creative vision rub off on us. Read more »

My Dear Molly

Whereever I take up a pen to write, I seem compelled to write a line to you - I wish to get alongside you in spirit if not in deed - Can you blame me? I wish I had something of importance to say, but you know I can talk of nothing but ill luck & nonsense. My budget in that way contains sometimes a perfect Niagara! Read more »