MISSOURI TIMES the State Historical Society of Missouri and Western Historical Manuscript Collection
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November 2008/ Vol. 4, No. 3 MISSOURI TIMES The State Historical Society of Missouri and Western Historical Manuscript Collection Annual Meeting Moves, Educates Attendees year. He noted the increase in monies received from the state legislature, which helped fund the second of a projected three-phase salary equity plan, and a $600,000 appropriation to begin planning for a much-needed new building. Kremer Annual Meeting awards discussed the popularity Page 3 of the Missouri History Speakers’ Bureau, which has provided more than one hundred speakers to nonprofit groups around the state, and the inauguration of MoHiP Theatre. Other Society achievements he Guests sparked conversations with acquaintances old and new as they arrived at noted included the receipt the Tiger Hotel for the annual meeting. of a prestigious National State Historical Society members and Digital Newspaper Project grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Page 4 guests gathered at the historic Tiger Hotel in downtown Columbia for the 2008 annual grants from the Missouri State Library to digitize meeting on November 1. In a departure from card catalogs in the Newspaper and Reference past meetings when a speaker was featured, libraries. attendees enjoyed Reunion, a reader’s theatre At the conclusion of the luncheon, Dr. presentation by the Society’s Missouri History in Kremer presented Alan R. Havig with the Performance (MoHiP) Theatre. Four Columbia 2008 Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Havig, actors portrayed a World War II veteran, his wife, professor emeritus of history and now archivist and the adult children of another veteran at a at Stephens College in Columbia, has written reunion of the Railsplitters, a unit of the Eighty- histories of Columbia and local organizations as well as the 1998 centennial history of the Society. fourth Infantry. Written and directed by Mary Page 5 Earlier this year, he edited Filling Leisure Hours, Paulsell, the play incorporated dialogue drawn the third volume in the Century of Missouri from the letters of World War II military personnel History Scholarship Series. Kremer highlighted held by the Western Historical Manuscript Havig’s long service on Society’s committees and Collection-Columbia. The Boogie Woogie Babes, as a book reviewer and manuscript reader for the a Jefferson City trio, opened the luncheon Winter Missouri Historical Review. entertainment with a medley of 1940s songs. Calendar Two concurrent sessions on topics of Pages 6-7 historical interest began the day’s events. Walter A. Schroeder, professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-Columbia, presented “Cultural Regions of Missouri.” William T. Stolz and David Moore, of WHMC-Columbia, discussed “World War II Research and Legacy WHMC Preservation at the Western Historical Pages 8-11 Manuscript Collection-Columbia.” During the business meeting, Executive Director Gary R. Kremer delivered a report The Boogie Woogie Babes (l-r): Suzie Nichols, Debra Walker, summarizing Society activities during the past and Kim Vogel From the Executive Director The events surrounding this year’s annual meeting refine his understanding of the art collection and the brought the usual pleasures of determining Richard need for increased exhibit space, patron and research S. Brownlee and Society award winners, offering services with open and secured collections, and educational workshops for attendees, and arranging requirements of more behind-the-scenes spaces for the main program, including a musical performance archival processing and professional management and reader’s theatre production on the strains and and care of collections. Herb also connected with struggles associated with World War II. Heidi Davis, a space planner for the University The annual meeting also offered the opportunity of Missouri system, to provide updates and seek for the Society’s Board of Trustees and its various her opinion on several issues associated with the committees, including the Executive Committee, Society’s planned building project. to hold scheduled meetings. The main topic of As we move toward the last two months of 2008, business at the various proceedings this year focused Society staff and trustees are uniformly excited about on plans to move the Society and Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia to a new facility. We the prospect of designing a new headquarters for The were fortunate that Herb Duncan, our architectural State Historical Society of Missouri. We hope that in planner, decided to visit directly with board 2009, we will be able to settle on the size of building members and present them with his most recently that we need, determine the physical relationships of drawn working models. They quickly absorbed the various departments toward each other, identify Herb’s enthusiasm for the project and endorsed his and perhaps even secure the best possible building preliminary concepts and proposals. site, and lay the groundwork for an all-important Herb also held several meetings with individual capital campaign. An exciting time indeed! staff members and the staff building committee to —Gary R. Kremer State Historical Society News Benton Scholar co-sponsored a visit to format in the Society’s Main first time. Other attendees, such visits the Society campus by Dr. Leo Mazow, an Gallery. More than thirty as Visiting Assistant Professor art historian at Pennsylvania people joined Mazow for this of Music Dr. Annett Richter, In October, The State State University specializing in informal talk, which focused brought personal expertise to Historical Society of Missouri Thomas Hart Benton. Mazow, on the Society’s extensive the interchange of ideas, joining curator of American art at the collection of over three Mazow in commenting on a Palmer Museum, gave the hundred Benton artworks. rare sheet of Benton harmonica MISSOURI TIMES lecture “Thomas Hart Benton Dozens of Benton paintings, notations housed in the is published quarterly and Sound” to a crowd of over drawings, and lithographs Society. Mazow also devoted by The State Historical seventy people in Ellis Library were presented for the event. a substantial amount of time Society of Missouri. auditorium on Thursday, Patrons of all knowledge to discussing the Society’s ten Editor October 16. levels participated, and some dramatic World War II paintings Lynn Wolf Gentzler On October 17 Dr. Mazow university students from an by Benton and spoke at length discussed Benton’s work in art appreciation class were about the issues of class, race, Assistant Editor a more interactive, intimate introduced to Benton for the and social propaganda in Laura O. Wilson Benton’s art. Information Specialist & Design Engelhardt Tours Paul Dziuba Engelhardt The State Historical On October 18, 2008, Society of Missouri the celebrated St. Louis Phone Post-Dispatch cartoonist (573) 882-7083 or Tom Engelhardt presented (800) 747-6366 a lively tour of an exhibit of his work, titled Engelhardt on Fax Elections, at the Society. The (573) 884-4950 artist discussed the display of E-mail twenty-eight cartoons relating [email protected] to elections that he produced during his thirty-five-year Web site career with the Post-Dispatch, shs.umsystem.edu from 1962 to 1997. Many Thomas Hart Benton scholar discusses the Year of Peril paintings during his talk at the Society on October 17. of the drawings comment MISSOURI TIMES 2 2008 Annual Meeting Award Winners The State Historical Society of Missouri Brownlee Awards The Richard S. Brownlee Fund provides cash awards to individuals and organizations proposing to write publications about, or otherwise document, the history of Missouri and its citizens. Michael Les Benedict, Columbus, OH, $1,120.00 Travel to research Western Historical Manuscript Collection holdings for a study of the constitutional politics of Reconstruction H. Jason Combs, Kearney, NE: $706.16 Research travel for a journal article on David Rankin The Society presented Tom Engelhardt with a cartoon by nineteenth- Sylvia Forbes, Fayette, MO: $300.00 century artist Honoré Daumier; with Engelhardt is his daughter, Christin. Travel and copying costs for research on young adult book with the working title “Floods, Earthquakes and Tornadoes: Missouri’s Worst on important election issues on political figures, and a filmed Disasters” such as civil rights, the Vietnam video of Engelhardt’s tour will be War, Watergate, and campaign added to that collection. James N. Giglio, Springfield, MO: $1,700.00 finance abuse, which made the Research travel for a book-length biography of Thomas F. Eagleton presentation especially timely in Increased Focus this election year. on Oral History George S. Grazier, Jefferson City, MO: $500.00 Seventy-two people filled Printing and distribution of And Then It the gallery, many traveling In celebration of the fifteenth Happened: The Historical Chronicle of Sergeant from St. Louis to attend the anniversary of the Oral History Ben Booth and Sheriff Roger Wilson event. Engelhardt discussed Program at the Society and Historic City of Jefferson, Jefferson City, MO: his aesthetic philosophy and Western Historical Manuscript $320.70 stressed the importance of Collection-Columbia, efforts are Training and equipment for oral history program humor, truth, moral purpose, being made to enhance usability Mary Penner, Tijeras, NM: $500.00 and good drawing in editorial of the oral history Web site. Oral Research travel for a journal article on Joshua cartoons. His presentation was historian Jeff Corrigan, who Brant informal and conversational as joined the Society in April 2008, he moved around the gallery hopes to raise awareness of the Kenneth Winn, Jefferson City, MO: $800.00 telling the stories behind program, promote the availability Reproduction costs for book with the working the cartoons displayed. His of transcripts, and increase title “Breach of Promise: Henry Shaw and the comments ranged from access to the more than 1,300 Trials of Courtship in Victorian America” discussion of his technique and oral histories that compose the inspiration, to insightful colloquy collection. For more information Lewis E. Atherton Thesis Prize on political issues.