Missouri Passages

Moving Day for This Blog

2009-10-09T14:32:00.003-05:00

We're going to close up this blog because it duplicates the existing archive of Missouri Passages at the Missouri Humanities Council web site.

Missouri Passages, July 2009

2009-07-29T11:53:00.001-05:00

"Virtual Reading Room" on the Civil War in the Ozarks (July 2009)

2009-07-29T11:49:00.002-05:00

The internet just became a much more interesting experience. Last week, the Springfield-Greene County Library unveiled a superb web site that provides access to a treasure-trove of primary documents. These letters, diaries, and photographs illustrate the toll of a war on everyday people. You can peruse first-person accounts by a menu of themes, or by a geographic area, or by the battles in the region. You can see the actual handwriting and read a transcription. If you need to learn the context, the web pages will fill you in.

Most of the documents on this web site are not in the collection of the Springfield-Greene County Library. Before this site went on line, people interested in studying these materials would have spent years finding the scattered pieces that add up to a story. Only serious researchers would have undertaken such labors. Read how this project changed everything...

Attention, Please! Julie Douglas on Family Reading, July 2009

2009-07-29T11:48:00.000-05:00

There is something deep-down good in Julie's piece this month. It's all about taking the time to notice things. What a wonderful step in becoming a child's mentor and teacher. I marvel at how she does this month after month, but I suppose that's what writers do.

Steps Toward Better Museums (July 2009)

2009-07-29T11:47:00.000-05:00

There's a new program in the works at AASLH (American Association for State and Local History) that I think will enable small museums to improve their operations and programs in doable units of action. It's being managed by Cherie Cook, a Senior Program Manager for AASLH who works out of a home office in Jefferson City. I met with Cherie last month to learn about the STEPs program, and I recommend it highly.

Missouri Passages, June 2009

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"A Christmas Carol" for Victorian House Museums (June 2009)

2009-07-29T11:45:00.000-05:00

Dolores Kane's Etc. Senior Theatre company got its start in the archives of the Robert Campbell House Museum. The group creates historical dramas within house museums. Last September I saw their standing-room-only show about the wedding of Champ Clark's daughter in Bowling Green, Missouri. Clark took out ads in all the Missouri newspapers and invited the entire state to the wedding. The town was overwhelmed by the crowd that may have gotten as large as 12,000 people. Etc. Senior Theatre dramatized what various members of the family and the servants might have discussed in the many rooms of the house.

The group has created an hour-long adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and is looking for sites throughout Missouri to offer the program during the coming November/December season. The program is staged in multiple rooms. Guests move from room to room to experience the drama.

Interested house museums should contact Dolores Kane before the end of August if interested. To preview a DVD of this performance, please contact Dolores at
314-352-7980 or at dkane1@swbell.net

Beyond Mere Facts: Julie Douglas on Family Reading (June 2009)

2009-07-29T11:44:00.000-05:00

I once started to make up a story in which the neighborhood lay sleeping and "the world was quiet as an egg." Now I discover in Julie's article that there is a book about the quietness of an egg, and about many other things in the "factual world" that kids discover at some point. She mentions several wonderful titles for the enterprising parent or grandparent!

Bates County Dig on YouTube (June 2009)

2009-07-29T11:42:00.000-05:00

We've mentioned previously that there's a hotbed of lively activity in the Border War Network in western Missouri. Carol Bohl sent along this note about a new video on the archaeology project in Bates County. "Please follow this link to the two new videos taken Sat. June 13 at the Bates County site of the archaeological dig being conducted by Ann Raab and her team uncovering a Border War homesite. It is fascinating to see and hear. In one she states that an article on the project will appear in the Nov. Dec. 2009 Archaeology News which is a national and international publication.
Enjoy!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTncOm2c4aA&feature=channel_page

Touring Classroom on Missouri's French Colonial Heritage (June 2009)

2009-07-29T11:41:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago the National Frontier Trails Museum brought a group of teachers on a study tour to the French Colonial heritage region that includes the towns of Bonne Terre and Ste. Genevieve. They timed the arrival in Ste. Genevieve to coincide with the French Heritage Festival. Richard Edwards sent me a note about the benefit of this grant-funded program.

On Luck, Thought, Ice, Flowers, and Time (June 2009)

2009-07-29T11:35:00.003-05:00

When I reauditioned for the symphony chorus last month, I sang a Handle aria about the speedy passage of beauty. The piece is from a cantata, Apollo e Dafne, and the aria is titled "Come rosa in su la spina." Apollo is having trouble wooing Dafne, and in this piece he says, "like the rose on its stem, quickly arriving and quickly going away, so with frightful speed goes the flower of beauty." Dafne will hear none of it and escapes Apollo's intent through the intercession of her father, who turns her into a laurel tree. Apollo then vows to commemorate his love for Dafne by wearing her as his crown. That is the mythical source of the "laurels" that celebrated people wear.

Thus, with the passage of time, earth time, human time, my time, and flower time on my mind, I wrote a blog yesterday that fails to mention my chorus audition, though it does mention nearly every other possible subject.

Missouri Passages, May 2009

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Be Extraordinary (May 2009)

2009-07-29T11:33:00.000-05:00

Julie Douglas is now the mother of a college graduate! At her daughter's commencement, as if under contract with Julie herself, the Dean told the graduates their success in college traced back to being read to as very young children. Read Julie's account of what Missouri parents have told us about their new role in the family.

A Beethoven We Didn't Understand (May 2009)

2009-07-29T11:31:00.003-05:00

As a volunteer in the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, I consider myself a professional singer working without stipend. Those of us on stage consider ourselves the luckiest people in St. Louis, or the world, for that matter. Something distinctive and special happened a couple of weeks ago in our Beethoven 9th concert. I've written a note about it in my blog, Creating Interest.

Missouri Passages, April 2009

2009-07-29T11:31:00.001-05:00

Growing a Child's Brain (April 2009)

2009-07-29T11:29:00.000-05:00

Gardens are coming alive this month, and Julie Douglas, who says she is not much of a gardener, writes about the child's capacity for intelligence. Like a plant, a young brain is some kind of miracle. All the cells are mostly there in the skull by the age of 3. Imagine that! The quality of how those cells operate is influenced by how people interact with that child. Learn more about this subject.

From Civil War to Civil Rights - Audio Tour on a Theme (April 2009)

2009-07-29T11:28:00.000-05:00

Carol Bohl, Coordinator of the Border War Network in Cass County, sent this note to the twenty-plus museums who are working together on the stories of the Kansas-Missouri troubles. "This is a very cool concept of how to produce an audio tour based on a theme. We as the Border War Network could easily do this with our podcasts and link them to a map of our sites."

Civil War to Civil Rights
http://www.audisseyguides.com/washingtondc
Download the tour:
http://www.audisseyguides.com/washingtondc/download.html

Misconceptions in a Mainstream Culture (April 2009)

2009-07-29T11:25:00.001-05:00

Our museum consultant, Erin Blackshere Pouppirt, writes about her experiences as a "Real Indian" on a return visit to France. Read her essay.

March 2009 Missouri Passages

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The Sound of Rejoicing (Museum on Main Street) (March 2009)

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Last week, Missourians from all over the state gathered in Kirksville to participate in the Missouri premiere of the Smithsonian Institution’s New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music exhibit. The excitement in the air was palpable at the opening. A year of planning and community efforts were realized as the Kirksville Arts Association unveiled their complementary exhibit showcasing their connections to roots music, enhancing the national exhibit from the Smithsonian. (Below, Kirksville Mayor Martha Rowe plays a frottoir, also known as a Zydeco rub-board.)

Over the next few months, there will be a variety of programs and events taking place in Kirksville and throughout the state exploring the relationship to “roots music” in Missouri. From Kirksville, New Harmonies will visit five additional communities in 2009. To find out what each has planned in connection to the exhibit, be sure to visit the New Harmonies wiki page.

This week we notified a dozen Missouri towns that they can start planning for their own Smithsonian touring exhibits in 2010. They are:

New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music

Cassville - hosted by the Barry County Museum
Hannibal - hosted by the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum
Jefferson City - hosted by the Lincoln University Library in partnership with the Cole County Historical Society
Nevada - hosted by the Vernon County Historical Society
Trenton - hosted by the Grundy County Historical Society & Museum
Unionville - hosted by the Putnam County Historical Society, Inc.

Journey Stories

Kingston - hosted by the Caldwell County Area Business Association & Foundation
Marshall - hosted by the Missouri Valley College Murrell Memorial Library
Walnut Shade - hosted by the Bonniebrook Historical Society, Inc.
Waynesville - hosted by the The Old Stagecoach Stop Foundation
Webb City - hosted by the Webb City Historical Society, the Webb City Genealogy Society, and the Friends of the Webb City Public Library
West Plains - hosted by the Harlin Museum and West Plains Council on the Arts

As we’ve seen in our decade-long partnership with the Smithsonian, Missouri's towns are extremely interested in these "Museum on Main Street" exhibits. The 40 organizations that competed for 12 opportunities to host the exhibits in 2010 far exceed the numbers in any other state. As the Smithsonian's partner in Missouri, we work with local organizations to involve the community in program planning. Local people effectively create activities to add value to the exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution. Our central purpose is to support the development of local institutionswith programming that builds sustainable success. Our ongoing partnership with the Smithsonian through Museum on Main Street is one of the primary means for this accomplishment.

Folk Songs and Family Life (March 2009)

2009-07-29T11:21:00.000-05:00

All over the state, we're helping new parents learn how to capitalize on this simple fact: the human brain, seat of intelligence, is fully-equipped before the age of 5. What happens between birth and the start of schooling shapes that intelligence. The use of language, conversation, songs, and books can shape an imagination and form a life-long learner. Here's a wonderful piece by Julie Douglas on the importance of song lyrics in child's play.

Cutting-Edge Web Sites (March 2009)

2009-07-29T11:20:00.000-05:00

I don't spend time surfing the web, so when someone passes on a good humanities site, I take a look. Here are three that impressed me recently.

The American Anthropological Association's site on the concept of Race.

Emory University's Carlos Museum creates interest in Ancient Greece.

UCLA's Digital Archaeology site on Karnak, in Ancient Egypt.

Missouri's Heritage - Online (March 2009)

2009-07-29T11:18:00.000-05:00

The fascinating collection of digital resources once known as "Virtually Missouri" has a new domain name at the State Library, Missouri Digital Heritage. Many new, prime collections from institutions around the state have been added to MDH over the past 11 months. Explore the treasures available on this extensive state virtual resource at the Missouri Digital Heritage site: http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/.

One impressive digital project originated at the Springfield-Greene County Library. It's a regional archiving project on the theme of "The Impact of the Civil War in the Ozarks." The report on how the library accomplished such a major service is available online at http://www.ozarkscivilwar.org The new web site will for this project will be working by the summer. Great stuff!

February 2009, Volume 6, No. 2

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National History Parents, Hooray! (February 2009)

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This is a big month for all the parents of students who will compete in National History Day. It's a month of finishing touches, rehearsal, second thoughts, extra encouragement, and no end of pride,with no wish for an end. We're fortunate to have two first-person accounts of National History Day in this month's edition. One is written by Chris Ghan, who took a Third Prize medal in the National Finals last year for his first-person monologue as "Benjamin Franklin." We've also got an insider piece from Chris's parents, Brent and Cheri Ghan. These stories explain why the Missouri Humanities Council is thankful for the State Historical Society's work to expand National History Day in Missouri.