Mobilizing the Masses: World War II Home Front Posters

Jay Antle, assistant professor in the Department of History at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, speaks about the use of posters to rally public support during World War II. In the name of patriotism, colorful posters were produced by the U.S. government encouraging all Americans to do their part in winning the war. Promoting ideas of conservation, women workers, and war bonds, these posters were commonplace on the home front. Each one was carefully designed to convey social, economic, and political ideas through imagery. By featuring the middle class home, traditional families, and free enterprise, these posters attempted to convey a sense of urgency aimed at maintaining the idealized American way of life, and brought the war to the home front and made the war personal, serving as a visual call to arms for all Americans.

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The Civil War's First Blood: Missouri 1854-1861

During the 1850s, as arguments over states’ rights and slavery escalated, Missouri became one of the most highly volatile regions in the nation.  Friends, families and neighbors often found themselves on opposite sides because of the strong ties Missouri had with both the North and the South.  The Civil War's First Blood explains the political atmosphere in Missouri prior to the Civil War and the divided loyalties of its citizens.  Authors John Bradbury and James Denny discuss the complicated role Missouri played during the first year of the Civil War, key political and military figures involved, military operations carried on throughout the state and the effects of the war on Missourians during the early part of the conflict. Bradbury and Denny tell the story of the tragic and violent part Missouri played in the beginning of the struggle that tore the nation apart.

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Evolution of a Missouri Asylum: Fulton State Hospital, 1851-2006

Over one and a half centuries ago, at a time when mental health was barely understood, Fulton State Hospital was established as Missouri’s first state mental asylum.  As the first such institution west of the Mississippi, the hospital’s history traces not only the history of the state, but also the evolution of mental health care in the nation.  Co-authors Richard Lael, Barbara Brazos, and Margot Ford McMillen address the institution’s problems of overcrowding, financial mismanagement, racism, and wrongful confinement, along with its successes in new treatments involving psychotherapy and drugs.  Their book offers an insightful exploration of the difficulties the state institution faced as it transformed to meet the demands of Missouri’s mentally ill.

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A Sculptor's Journey Through Missouri History

Sabra Tull Meyer is one of Missouri’s premier sculptors, having created life-like bronze sculptures for over 30 years.  Her work can be seen throughout the state, most notably in the rotunda of the State Capitol, where several of her busts grace the Hall of Famous Missourians, including those of Edwin Hubble and Dale Carnegie.  Perhaps the greatest achievement of her career will be the Corps of Discovery monument scheduled to be unveiled this year at the Jefferson Landing State Historic Site.  This bronze sculpture of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, York, George Drouillard, and the Newfoundland dog Seaman stands eight feet tall and weighs 5,000 pounds.  Meyer discusses her journey through both art and history to create these pieces, including the careful research necessary to replicate period dress and equipment, her use of re-enactors as models and the method for turning 2½ tons of molten bronze into a piece of the past.

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African-American Genealogy:
Putting Together the Pieces of Your Past

A Five-Part Series with Traci L. Wilson-Kleekamp

Traci Wilson-Kleekamp, Family History Research Consultant, explores the resources available online and in local, state and national historical repositories that help family historians discover more about their African-American heritage. This five-part series provides helpful tips on accessing the best websites, which records are most beneficial, and how to get the most out of original records.  Together, “What’s Out There?;” “What’s Your Story?: Finding It on the Web;” “How Do I Find Out More?;”  “What Happened During the Wars?;” and “How Do I Put All the Information Together?” teach researchers to use all the pieces they find to gain a better understanding of those who came before them.

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The Meaning of the Mark: Advertising Symbols from the Missouri State Archives

Jennifer McKnight explores the Missouri State Archives Trademark Collection, which includes thousands of images from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century.  The program includes logos from across the state that both remind us of yesteryear and teach us about our culture and history.  McKnight is assistant professor in the Art and Art History Department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and education chair for the St. Louis chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts.  She has completed work for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Saint Louis City Museum, among others, and has had her designs, illustrations, and writing published in numerous magazines.

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Arrow Rock: Crossroads Of The Missouri Frontier

Arrow Rock, the state’s oldest historic site, was established in 1829 at the intersection of the Missouri River and the Santa Fe Trail.  As a primary center of trade between St. Louis and Kansas City, it became a “crossroads of the Missouri frontier,” and home to three Missouri governors and the preeminent American painter George Caleb Bingham.  Although the town’s prominence declined after the Civil War, it was revived as a model of historic preservation in the twentieth century and remains a cultural tourist hot spot today.  Michael Dickey discusses his award-winning book on Arrow Rock, from its rise to prominence on the frontier to its current role as a National Historic Landmark.  Dickey, the historic site administrator at Arrow Rock since 1995, used a variety of sources – documents, oral histories, maps, and archaeological evidence – to complete this book, the first comprehensive history of the area ever to be published. 

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Reflections of the Kansas City Riot of 1968

Kansas City Star photo, courtesy Illus Davis Papers, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri-Kansas City

The Reverend David K. Fly was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in 1966 and began his ministry as Canon Pastor of Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Kansas City, Missouri.  Fly served in urban , rural and campus ministries throughout the Midwest, and since his retirement in 1998, has been writing about his experiences.  Fly’s article, “An Episcopal Priest’s Reflections of the Kansas City Riot of 1968,” was recently published in January 2006 Missouri Historical Review, and this work is the topic of his presentation.  He has also completed a full memoir, Faces of Faith-Reflections in a Rearview Mirror. 

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Missouri Courthouses: Building Memories on the Square

Dennis Weiser discusses his new book, a pictorial review of Missouri’s 114 county courthouses. Over three hundred images richly illustrate portraits of existing exteriors, architectural features and unique interior elements of ­design, as well as pictures of courthouses long ago removed from the ­landscape. From the earliest log structures to the 19 courthouses constructed in Missouri under the Public Works Administration (1934–1941), to the ­current trend of building annexes that save the courthouse proper for administrative or judicial functions, our courthouses are true public service buildings. Each must meet very real public demands for accessibility and increased response, while managing to meet citizens’ more romantic notions of “what a courthouse should look like.”

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Listening to the Still Small Voice:
The Story of George Washington Carver

An Interview with Paxton J. Williams

Williams is the author of a one-person play telling the story of George Washington Carver. Born into slavery near Diamond, Missouri, George Washington Carver endured a difficult and dangerous childhood and acquired an excellent education that complimented his innate understanding of botanical science. Invited to join Booker T. Washington's Institute, Carver became known as the "Wizard of Tuskegee" and virtually revolutionized the southern agrarian economy by freeing it from continued dependence on cotton. Carver's more than 300 uses for the peanut, and hundreds more for soybeans, were simply part of his desire to "fill the poor man's empty dinner pail." He largely refused to patent or profit from his many inventions and products.

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In the Spirit of Yellow Eyes: A Cultural Legacy

Dorothy Eiken, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, discusses the many ways she connects with her past as an artist, through traditional Sioux history, Lakota culture and Native American spirituality. Special focus is given to the memory of her great, great grandmother, Yellow Eyes, who was with Sitting Bull at the Battle of Little Bighorn, fled with him to Canada in 1877 and accompanied him on his return to this country and subsequent surrender in 1881.

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