News 11 Remembers: St. Louis History
51 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 5 years ago - ★★★ - 2 ratingsThis series of short shows will make you an expert on the place that started as Mound City and became the Gateway to the West. Explore the people and events that shaped history in the Midwest.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
St. Louis' legal prostitution and The Social Evils Hospital
July 24, 2019 17:16 - 1 minute - 1.55 MBIn recent years St. Louis has had the dubious distinction of being one of the top cities is America for sexually transmitted diseases. But this is not just a recent phenomenon and the city once thought it had a solution. "In St. Louis there were all kinds of experiments with city bathhouses, city parks and city hospitals of all kinds. This was an experiment with prostitution." said Dr. Robert Archibald of the Missouri History Museum. In 1870 the city of St. Louis passed a so calle...
William McChesney Martin - Longest serving fed chairman
July 24, 2019 17:16 - 1 minute - 1.3 MBWilliam McChesney Martin was a real St. Louis whiz kid. He was born in St. Louis in 1906. The son of the first agent in charge of the federal reserve bank of St. Louis. When William McChesney Martin Jr. did something he never did it half way. He started his career as a stockbroker for A.G Edwards and bought a seat on the new york stock exchange at the age of 28. "There's a reorganization of the New York Stock Exchange and William McChesney Martin at age 31 ends up being the presid...
William Bixby's House
July 24, 2019 17:14 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBIn the turn of the 20th century William Keeney Bixby was the richest man in St. Louis. He was the President of the American Car and Foundry Company. He was also railroad man. His 45 room Victorian mansion was his. But, he is not the man who built it. "Originally built by a Mr Kauffman who built it in the mid 1880's. he was a flour mill owner and became quite wealthy and built this mansion. At the time it covered eight acres. The grounds of Mr. Kaufmann's mansion ran from Kingshighw...
Why part of the War of 1812 was fought in Missouri
July 24, 2019 17:12 - 1 minute - 1.44 MBThere are skirmishes you have to dig to find in the history books because they were sideshows to a much bigger battle. The War of 1812, ostensibly between Britain and the United States, ended up also being fought between Americans and Native Americans. This included those in the Missouri and Illinois territories. "The war really had to do with people who lived in the St. Louis area and St. Charles county attempting to protect themselves from the Shawnee who had been British allies...
This Civil War sword tells a story of defeat
July 24, 2019 17:08 - 1 minute - 1.47 MBThe Civil War was fought largely with guns and cannons. But a damaged sword carried in a famous St. Louis battle tells the story of a defeat felt deeply by the man who carried it. "Well you have probably seen John Knapp's sword. It is not in one piece anymore and neither were many of the swords of his comrades dating to that day of may 10th in 1861" said Dr. Robert Archibald. It was known as the battle of Camp Jackson though it was more of a riot than a battle. Newspaper publisher...
The Story of St. Louis' tap water
July 24, 2019 17:07 - 1 minute - 1.81 MBWhen we turn on the tap and cool clean water comes out. Not much news there. But a little more than a century ago st. Louis water was the color of the river it came from. Until something came to town that changed everything. "The water that came out of that system was turgid. People complained that there were little eels and things in it. Someone else said it doesn't matter because the water is so brown you can`t see them anyway. They are probably good for you so just drink it." sa...
The Polio Vaccine
July 24, 2019 17:06 - 1 minute - 1.45 MBDoctors make medical breakthroughs all the time. But some are bigger than others and one was bigger than most. It was the vaccine that ended the terror of polio. Frequently contracted at this time of year. But what was it like in St. Louis before the virus was vanquished? It was terrifying. Before the polio vaccine the virus would leave a healthy person weak or paralyzed and in excruciating pain in a matter of hours. "Summertime was full of terror for parents. In 1952 for instance...
The Missouri Compromise
July 24, 2019 17:04 - 1 minute - 1.46 MBThe year was 1818 and the people of the Missouri territory were petitioning the federal government for statehood. But at the time the 22 existing states were evenly divided between free states and slave states. With more than 2000 slaves already in the Missouri territory there was pressure to make it a free state to stem the spread of slavery. "The eventual solution of course was to admit Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state and to add a proviso onto the legislation ...
The Forest Park Highlands Amusement Park
July 24, 2019 16:59 - 1 minute - 1.58 MBIt began as a beer garden in 1896 but did so poorly it was hastily reborn as an amusement park called the Forest Park Highlands. "An amusement park in those days was not to be confused with Disneyland or Six Flags. The amusement park had everything from slightly risque vaudeville acts to movie houses to dance halls to places where people really engaged in behaviors that in other parts of the community would be a little less than acceptable." said Dr. Robert Archibald. At a time wh...
President Grant's daughter Nellie
July 24, 2019 16:56 - 1 minute - 1.57 MBWhen General Ulysses S. Grant became president he and the first lady brought their four children with them to the White House. Their daughter Nellie quickly became the toast of Washington high society. "She goes off on this grand tour of Europe, which was not unusual for people in means in those days. On the way home on the ship she meets a guy by the name of Algernon Sartorious." said Dr. Robert Archibald of the Missouri History Museum. He was an Englishman by birth and as it tur...
Many of Thomas Jefferson's Presidential letters reside in St. Louis
July 24, 2019 16:49 - 1 minute - 1.62 MBThomas Jefferson bought the state of Missouri in a deal known as the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The Gateway Arch is on the grounds of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. While he never saw it for himself a significant part of Jefferson's life lives on in St. Louis. At least 900 of his letters are kept in St. Louis. It is one of the largest collections of Jefferson's papers outside of Monticello. Most were written during his presidency. All are part of the collection at the ...
Many 19th century memorials were made of human hair
July 24, 2019 16:48 - 1 minute - 1.51 MBMany memorials in the 19th century were made of the deceased hair. "You knew that you were never going to see them again... and contemplating their hair or at least having something that represented a part of that person was a way of simulating a kind of closeness and a kind of intimacy." said Dr. Robert Archibald. It may seem strange to us today but in the 1800's death was much more a part of life. This meant those kinds of memorials were as well. But, hair work was practiced not...
John C. Fremont goes from famous to infamous in St. Louis
July 24, 2019 16:43 - 1 minute - 1.63 MBLewis and Clark set off on their exploration of the West from Missouri. A St. Louis man is also noted as one of the most famous explorers of the American West. He made a name for himself in many ways, as a military officer, as an explorer of the West and even a presidential candidate. But, it was during his time in St. Louis that John C. Fremont went from being famous to being infamous. "In 1861 he was appointed commander of the Western department which included St. Louis and ever...
How Adolphus Busch Became The King Of Beers
July 24, 2019 15:57 - 1 minute - 1.45 MBAdolphus Busch was a teenager when he moved from Germany to St. Louis in 1857. Busch had little experience making beer even though his family sold brewery supplies. But he had other talents. "He was a marketing genius and a salesman of epic proportions and he was determined to create a national beer brand." said Dr. Robert Archibald of the Missouri History Museum. His first jobs in St. Louis had nothing to do with brewing. Then he met and married Lilly Anheuser. Her father Eberhar...
Glenn Curtiss- Developer of the first airplane motors
July 24, 2019 15:55 - 1 minute - 1.77 MBHe began like the Wright Brothers as a bicycle maker. But unlike the Wright brothers, Glenn Curtiss' dreams were about flying down the road on a motorcycle powered by his version of a V-8 engine. "So when people were looking around for engines that would propel a dirigible which is a gas-filled balloon somebody mentioned Cutiss's engines. They had tremendous power but were relatively lightweight so he first got into the business of supplying engines for dirigibles," said Dr. Robert...
Eads' Iron Boats were a menacing weapon during the Civil War
July 24, 2019 15:54 - 1 minute - 1.43 MBEveryone in St. Louis knows this is the famous Eads bridge. But a decade before it was built James Eads was famous for building something else in St. Louis. "One of the things he figured out was that you could build an iron clad river vessel that would be really impervious to attack. It could shell almost with impunity batteries along the shore as well as other boats on the river." said Dr. Robert Archibald of the Missouri History Museum. The original model Eads submitted to the p...
Documentary filmmaker Charles Guggenheim
July 24, 2019 15:53 - 2 minutes - 2.06 MBIf you've ever been to the arch chances are you've seen the movie about how it was the gateway to the West was created. But the man who created the film itself cast a long shadow as well, as a pioneer not of the west but of the documentary. His name was Charles Guggenheim and even though he was a native of Cincinnati his contributions to St. Louis go beyond just the film about the arch. In the early 1950's he was one the first general manager of channel nine. His documentaries wo...
Bloody Island: A place to settle duels
July 24, 2019 15:50 - 1 minute - 1.78 MBMurder has been considered a crime ever since the ten commandments were handed down at Mount Sinai. There was a time in St. Louis when it was, under certain circumstances, acceptable. Bloody Island was really was an island and it really was bloody. "Often times disagreements arguments, insults were settled with a form of private justice as opposed to and kind of public justice. Dueling was a form of private justice." said Dr. Robert Archibald of the Missouri History Museum. Men wi...
Birds of North America author John James Audubon
July 24, 2019 15:48 - 1 minute - 1.26 MBYou've probably heard the name Audubon as in the Audubon Society. But, Audubon is also the name of a famous man whose exploits have ties to St. Louis. "St. Louis of course was the jumping off point for the west and anybody headed west came through here but in the 1830's and 40's there literally was a parade of different artists who came through St. Louis and headed up the Missouri river usually for the Rocky Mountains and did just gorgeous artwork in an age when there wasn't any ph...
Annie Malone's Rise From Entrepreneur To Philanthropist
July 24, 2019 15:44 - 1 minute - 1.65 MBIf you think the story of Annie Malone is just about an orphanage then you don't know much about her. She was born and raised in Metropolis, Illinois. She came to St. Louis to seek her fortune. She produced a line of hair care products for African American women that would enrich her life. "The Wonderful Great Hair Grower was the name of her beauty product and it replaced all kinds of other fairly macabre treatments for hair. Eventually though she really figured out how to make a r...
Fairground Park
July 23, 2019 21:59 - 1 minute - 1.45 MBIn its salad days Fairground park was a wonder. It started out as a private park owned by the Agriculture and Mechanics organization. "And they purchased the park in 1856 and began what was called the agricultural and mechanical fair and that was the big St. Louis fair for 50 years. It was sort of the great community activity each year and it went on for a week, kings came, King Edward of England came to the fair at one time, other luminaries came..." said Dr. Robert Archibald of t...
St. Louis’ Old Court House
July 23, 2019 21:57 - 1 minute - 1.29 MBIt rose up on land that had once been the city's common fields and it began as a much smaller structure in 1826. But, the city was growing so rapidly that by the late 1830's a new building was built and that's the one we call the old courthouse. "I find the old courthouse really interesting because in the midst of the conversations that go on about the merger of city and county, when you look at the old courthouse the other thing it symbolizes is when the city and county were merg...
Wagner Electric bet their future on alternating current
July 23, 2019 21:55 - 1 minute - 1.3 MBWagner Electric was a company based on the premise that the future lay with alternating current. "The problem of course with direct current is it will kill you really quickly and alternating current is a much better option." said Dr. Robert Archibald. Their first location was a store front near 18th and Olive. It quickly grew and so did the size of its products. Which later included transformers. "Wagner Electric survived the depression and went on into the 1950's and 60's. They ...
George Rogers Clark
July 23, 2019 21:53 - 1 minute - 1.72 MBSome of Lewis and Clark's relatives were just famous and interesting. "George Rogers Clark in any textbook on American history in the 19th century would have come across as one of the great heroes of the revolutionary war." said Dr. Robert Archibald. Today, we still remember the famed explorer William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame. But long forgotten is his older brother whose accomplishments are arguably just as significant. George Rogers Clark was the highest ranking American m...
Chinese Pavilion At the 1904 World’s Fair
July 23, 2019 21:52 - 57 seconds - 901 KBThe rest of the world knew very little about the Chinese in 1904. What they did know they didn't like. Many in the West considered China feudal and backward. In the United States racism against Chinese immigrants had existed since they first came to America after the Civil War. Many Chinese immigrants originally came to help build the transcontinental railroad. In 1904 the Chinese tried to change those perceptions. They built the largest and most extravagant pavilion at the fair. ...
Power Boat Racer Arthur Kennedy Jr.
July 23, 2019 21:50 - 1 minute - 1.16 MBArthur Kennedy, Jr. had a need for speed. He was one of the first African Americans to become a professional powerboat racer. By the end of his career, Kennedy had set 14 records and was ranked one of the top ten drivers in the world. "Arthur Kennedy was a graduate of Sumner High School here in St. Louis. His father had a sheet metal business that gradually moved into a heating and cooling business. But young Arthur Kennedy was from his earliest ages interested in boats. And boat r...
The Parkmoor
July 23, 2019 21:48 - 1 minute - 1.7 MBIt had a hodge podge aesthetic and a menu that could clog the cleanest artery. And it was fantastic. "It was the brainchild of a guy named William McGinley who wasn't even from St. Louis. He had a very simple invention that a carhop with tray could place food that will hook to a car window." said Dr. Robert Archibald. McGinley came to St. Louis in 1929. He was hoping to sell his invention to several existing restaurants but no one was interested. He opened a restaurant of his own...
The Abolition of Slavery
July 23, 2019 21:47 - 1 minute - 1.46 MBWhen it came to the question of slavery Missouri always seemed to be at the center of the debate. So when it came to ending slavery it seems only fitting that a Missourian would play a crucial role. His name was John Henderson. He was appointed by Missouri's governor to fill a vacant senate seat in 1862. "His name has virtually disappeared from history. But the words for the 13th amendment are the words of John Henderson. He was a Missourian and a Unionist."said Dr. Robert Archibal...
William Marion Reedy’s Magazine
July 23, 2019 21:46 - 1 minute - 1.6 MBWilliam Marion Reedy published the most influential magazine in America from his hometown of St. Louis, MO. It was called Reedy's Mirror. "It was the go-to magazine. If you wanted to be somebody in the literary world you needed to get William Marion Reedy to publish you in Reedy's mirror."said Dr. Robert Archibald of the Missouri History Museum. A good deal of what appeared in the Mirror was written by Reedy himself. It was mostly wry commentary on the politics of the day. Despite...
Demolishing The 1904 World's Fair Pike
July 23, 2019 21:42 - 1 minute - 1.77 MBThey called it 'The Pike'. It was a stretch of Lindell a mile long and as wide as imagination. It was a very popular attraction in the St. Louis Worlds Fair of 1904. There were circus elephants and cliff dwellers. Places to visit to China, Cairo and attend a Bedouin wedding. You could even witness creation and get a taste of the hereafter and wash it down with a cold beer. When it came time for the final farewell St. Louis faced a dilemma. "The fair planners had a contractual obli...
Riverboat Traffic Creates The Great Port Of St. Louis
July 23, 2019 21:41 - 1 minute - 1.52 MBThe ability for riverboats to shrink distances helped St. Louis grow. "I've seen photographs where I could count up to 200 vessels lined up taking on cargo unloading cargo loading passengers unloading passengers and that area just below the arch where that street is was piled up with goods of all kinds," said Dr. Robert Archibald. Despite our romanticized version of river travel most steamboats were just cargo ships. They were dirty and dangerous. They could get you or your cargo ...
Why St. Louis is built of brick
July 23, 2019 21:40 - 1 minute - 1.78 MBIt's not the easiest way to build a house, nor the cheapest, but beginning in the middle of the 19th century St. Louisans decided to stick with brick. Part of the reason was under their feet. "There were huge clay deposits in there and so that really made it possible to create brick on site. Then the other impetus for this is the Great Fire of 1849 which burned down really the entire St. Louis downtown and led to the passage of ordinances that really required that more constructio...
St. Louis Zoo Bird Cage
July 23, 2019 21:39 - 1 minute - 1.37 MBThe flight cage, built for the World's Fair, pre-dates the rest of the St. Louis Zoo. And it was never supposed to stay here. "People drive through the park and they look at this building or that building and they say this must date from the world's fair and that must date from the world's fair, Dr. Robert Archibald of the Missouri History Museum says. "The fact is there is not much that dates from the world's fair." But one of the few structures that is left from the fair is the ...
The Grand Army of the Republic
July 23, 2019 21:37 - 1 minute - 1.62 MBLong before the American Legion and the VFW veterans had formed an organization that provided them with both camaraderie and power. Those who survived the Civil War made friends for life and created organizations to give them a way to remain friends. The grandest of the all was a group of Union soldiers called the Grand Army of the Republic. Although it took years for its membership to reach a grand scale. By 1890 the Grand Army of the Republic had 400,000 members across the Unit...
Why The Federal Reserve Chose St. Louis
July 23, 2019 21:36 - 1 minute - 1.52 MBThe idea of a national bank had been tried off and on since the days of George Washington. But after the bank panic of 1907 it was clear something better was needed to stabilize the country's banks system. In 1913 congress created the federal reserve system which watches over local banks. It lends them money, clears their checks and makes sure they are well run.Why was St. Louis chosen to house one of the Fed's 12 branches? "There was more economic activity in St. Louis at that tim...
Painter Amy Schweig’s Artist Colony
July 23, 2019 21:33 - 1 minute - 1.41 MBPainter Amy Schweig was trained at Washington University. She left St. Louis for life in an artists colony in the East.In the 1930's she returned to Missouri and started an artist colony in Ste. Genevieve. Other residents included Joe jones and Thomas Hart Benton. Their work was extraordinary. "They are all of local subjects and so these artists are painting things that they saw around them in St. Louis and in rural Missouri and places like Ste. Genevieve so its really top quality ...
Escape from the Titanic
July 23, 2019 21:30 - 1 minute - 1.67 MBOne woman's young mother and baby brother made it off the ship alive. In 1912 then 16-year-old Thelma Thomas was traveling to America on the Titanic with her husbands brother and 10 other relatives."When in hit the iceberg, my uncle Charles said to her Thelma, I'm going to go out and see what that was. she said When he came back her expression was he looked as white as a ghost. He said, Thelma there is no time, and he put a life jacket on her, and grabbed up the baby and wrapped him...
The Muny
July 23, 2019 21:28 - 1 minute - 1.51 MBFor more than 90 summers the Muny Opera has been where St. Louisans gather to enjoy the stars under the stars. But at the very beginning the intended audience was not St. Louisans. “1917 was the year that the St. Louis advertising club was going to host the national, or worldwide as they called it, advertising club. The annual convention was here in St. Louis and there were going to be a lot of attendees. There was a desire to make some sort of mark and leave people with an impre...
T.H. Benton
July 23, 2019 21:27 - 1 minute - 1.52 MBThere are two famous Missourians who have the same identical name, one is a very prominent famous politician, Thomas Hart Benton, and the other is a very famous artist Thomas Hart Benton. And it`s not a coincidence the famous painter was the great nephew of the famous politician, who made politics a kind of art. 'Benton was elected one of its first two senators and he served in the U.S. Senate from 1821 till 1851. We are talking 30 years in the senate which in that day and age was...
East St. Louis Race Riots
July 23, 2019 21:25 - 2 minutes - 1.94 MB"The 1917 race riots which occurred in East St. Louis are one of those absolutely tragic, horrible, awful events that continue to compound our history," said Dr. Robert Archibald, president of the Missouri History Museum. And to this day, they are still considered the worst race riots the nation had ever seen. "They started with a strike at a company called the Aluminum Ore Company, and it was by primarily white workers striking over the usual issues of pay and conditions, but the...
Jenny Lind
July 23, 2019 21:23 - 1 minute - 1.79 MBIn St. Louis, we are used to big time musicians coming to town to give a concert. But in the 1850s, it was unheard of, until someone everyone had heard of decided to make the city one of her stops on her American tour. Her name was Jenny Lind, an international singing star known as the Swedish Nightingale. And when she came to town to perform in 1851, it was a sensation. 'She had linked up with of all people P.T. Barnum, who of course was one of the great promoters, hucksters, cir...
Carl Wimar
July 23, 2019 21:17 - 1 minute - 1.54 MBHe was born in Germany, but grew up with a fascination about the American west. So when Carl Wimar moved to St. Louis to paint, you can imagine the subject matter he chose. He was born in Germany, but loved America and captured in spectacular detail the wildest part of a young and growing country. But some of his painting are nothing but a product of his vivid imagination. But when Wimar returned, he got permission to travel up the Missouri river on government ships taking provis...
Jessie Tarbox Beals
July 23, 2019 21:15 - 1 minute - 1.73 MBWhen she had been a very young woman had saved up whatever coupons she was collecting and she bought herself a very inexpensive camera. And when she grew up, she became female photographer hired by a U.S. newspaper. And while Jessie Tarbox Beals had a long a varied career in St. Louis, she is best remembered for her classic photographs of the 1904 Olympics and World's Fair. She had a very difficult time getting a press pass for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition because she was a w...
What Happened To Streetcars?
July 23, 2019 21:13 - 1 minute - 1.47 MBTrolleys were a part of everyone`s life, it`s how people got around until after the first quarter of the 20th century, most people didn`t have automobiles so trolley cars were how you got places. And by the beginning of the 20th century, you could take the trolley almost anywhere in St. Louis, with 350 miles of streetcar tracks criss crossing the city. Trolley cars did all kinds of other things. They delivered mail, there were mail trolley cars that distributed mail around the cit...
Rare U.S. Mexican War & Spanish-American War Collection
July 23, 2019 21:11 - 2 minutes - 1.88 MBThe U.S. Mexican War and the Spanish-American War, they were fought more than 50 years apart, but all these years later are still easily confused. And the Missouri History Museum has rare documentation of both conflicts including a limited edition book of paintings of the Mexican War, a battle resulting from a dispute over how much of Texas would become part of the United States. As for the Spanish American War, St. Louisan Frederick Leismann fought in both its theaters. First in ...
Tower Grove Park
July 23, 2019 21:09 - 1 minute - 1.52 MBI think most of us have driven through the park, driven by the park, picnicked in the park, enjoyed festivals in the park and it really is one of the real jewels in the metropolitan region. Tower Grove Park takes its name from Tower Grove House, the country home of Henry Shaw, located on land that would eventually become the Missouri Botanical Garden. But Shaw had also had ideas beyond his garden gate. It really was a part of Shaw’s dream to create an English garden like Country ...
St. Louis’ Hooverville
July 23, 2019 21:08 - 1 minute - 1.65 MBMost of these people were middle class folks who lost jobs. They had come from a better life and expected to be going back to that life after the depression was over. They were called Hoovervilles, shantytowns named for the president, many of the jobless blamed for the great depression. And St. Louis' Hooverville was among the greatest of them all; with as many as five thousand residents living by their wits, in squalor on the riverfront just south of the MaCarthur Bridge. They c...
St. Louis Political Conventions
July 23, 2019 21:05 - 2 minutes - 1.86 MBSt. Louis itself has been the home of a number of national political conventions dating from the 19th and into the 20th century. Five in fact, starting with the democrats in 1876. Samuel Tilden was nominated by the democratic party, you know of course because; you have never heard his name in connection with the presidency that he didn`t win and instead the presidency went to Rutherford b. Hayes. Undaunted by the loss, the democrats returned to St. Louis in 1888 nominating Grover...
John Gunlack
July 23, 2019 21:03 - 2 minutes - 1.85 MBYou won't recognize his face and his name will probably mean nothing to you either. But John Gunlack's contributions to life in St. Louis still surround us in many ways. He was a real do gooder, a real involved citizen, progressive, became very immersed in what was called the progressive movement which was in favor of government reform and in favor of parks in favor or advocating for better conditions for people living in tenements without adequate plumbing or water supply. Gund...
Helen Manley
July 23, 2019 21:01 - 1 minute - 1.45 MBIf there are two classes most students are sure to remember from their younger years, it's probably PE and sex education. And one St. Louisan significantly changed the way both are taught. Helen Manley was way ahead of her time and I am sure in the 1930`s a bit controversial in university city and in St. Louis as well. And "her" time began when she was born in St. Louis in 1894. Helen Manley left home to attend Wellsley and returned home a teacher with an interest in physical edu...