Spotlight: Doris Kearns Goodwin, George B. Vashon Museum, and The Honey War

Intro Spotlight is proudly sponsored by HC media today on Spotlight a Hidden Gem in St Louis with Priceless artifacts the interesting place where these were found plus the story of a border dispute between Missouri and Iowa that led to a war and then find out how this sculpture was created using a 3D printer but first one of America's most beloved historians weaves together biography Memoir and history it's Sunday and you're watching the multiple mmy award winning [Music] Spotlight renowned presidential Doris Kearns Goodwin historian Doris Kars Goodwin is famous for her award-winning books about iconic American Presidents her subjects include Franklin Roosevelt lynon Johnson and Abraham Lincoln her new book an unfinished love story is also a history but a more personal one when her husband dick Goodwin turned 80 they began sorting through 300 boxes of documents in memorabilia a time capsule of Dick years as a speech writer to presidents Kennedy and Johnson standing beside the country's leaders dick Goodwin saw the most dramatic moments of the 1960s unfold such as the civil rights protest in Selma the beginnings of the Peace Corp and the assassination of Robert Kennedy he really knew how to write public poetry in a way he knew how to compress the thoughts and the ideas of the country into its history into its future into the meaning of the moment an unfinished love story is both a tribute to the good one's marriage and a fresh look at a historic era in American politics well it was so different from the way I normally do my research although it had some similarities because it was memos Diaries letters Journals newspaper clippings all the things I usually use when I'm ing the presidents who are no longer alive Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt or Franklin Roosevelt but now it was my husband right there right across the room from me and I used to talk to all my guys beforehand Lincoln and Teddy and Franklin but they never answered me now dick could talk to me so it really was the the last great adventure of our life to relive Our Youth and to have those memories come back to life it was an extraordinary time he was such a brilliant Wordsmith wasn't he there's a whole art to it that I I'm not sure I I I could ever do it's under such enormous pressure that you have to write as he said if you don't get the speech done in time it means nothing at all at least when I write history it's more patient I can take my several years to finish something I mean he would always say that a great speech depends on the moment that it's delivered as you say you come up with sentences that first sentence of that speech will always make me feel awesome I speak tonight for the Dignity of man and the destiny of democracy it's just the D's and the D's work together and the whole theme of it is dignity of man and Destiny of democracy and then you know at times history and fate meet at a certain time in a certain place so it was in Lexington and conquered so it was at aamas so it was in Selma Alabama and then go on to call for voting rights and and somehow Johnson spoke with a conviction dick stood at the back of the House of Representatives that night and he said oh my God I loved him so much that night it's not just what they say either they help to fire the conscience of the country or they get something done and I'm sure for him looking back on all of the you know really great work he did it it puts context in in your life in context you know and you see that it was a life well lived yeah I think everybody wants to think before they die that they've done something to contribute and I think he did feel then again he remembered the contributions he had made and so it made me think about the fact that I know so many people have scrapbooks they may not have this huge amount that he had but they'd have scrapbooks or pictures or or memorabilia that they've kept and somehow the child or the or the grandchildren are left to open them after the death takes place and I just hoping that you know thinking about this book and thinking about the process that was so valuable for the two of us that it'll allow younger people to ask their grandparents hey let's go through the stuff you've got so they can hear the stories what is the meaning of the title for you an unfinished Love Story well I think on one level it meant that this was an unfinished project that dick and I were working on together and we talked about it becoming a book and then in those last months when he knew that he probably wouldn't be able to finish it I promised him I would so that's the unfinished love story part of it but I think it's also an unfinished love story about America I mean always our democracy is unfinished and even when dick was young he and then when I was writing my books later felt that what we were trying to do was to work on whatever way we could to take that next step toward making America the better place that it would hopefully be that our ideals you never get those ideals but you keep reaching toward them and I think Dick's work through public life and hopefully my work through choosing presidents who Liv through really tough times but each of those times came out making America a better place are the way we could contribute in our own way Doris's husband wrote Al Gore's concession speech to find out the one thing he wrote that she says should be in all speeches like that watch the full interview at HC media.org they are the bestselling authors and all George B Vashon Museum of your favorite genres for in-depth one-on-one interviews go to HC media.org we always looking for uh different artifacts because you just never know what what you're going to find the George B Bashan museum is a hidden gym just outside of downtown St Louis the museum is devoted to preserving and showcasing African-American history on display our pieces pertaining to individuals with St Louis roots and Beyond its name came about in a rather unique way way because back in 2006 I was was cleaning out a house on West Bell and found the uh the George vashan artifact we didn't know that was the vashan family home according to Riley the items he found inside the vashan family home dated back hundreds of years his find ended up being published in a local newspaper and once it published I got uh received calls from all across the country uh people wanted to purchase the vashan artifacts it was Overland University Mr vashan the first affat graduated Overland as a lawyer the Smithsonian and it was uh several collectors who wanted to buy the vashan artifacts another George B vashan namesake is vashan high school which opened in 1927 it was the second High School to open for black students in St Louis it is located only about 3 minutes from the museum I was going to sell to the Smithsonian and Pittsburgh because the vashan family of Pittsburgh and uh then someone from the Mountain City bar called me and said we here you going to sell the vashan artifact I said yes they said we think you should keep them in St Louis because the vashan family had done so much here around the turn Century in St Louis the museum contains artifacts from the 1700s through the 1960s Riley has been collecting for more than 40 years he estimates that he has between two and 300,000 artifacts at the Museum and we have original segregation signs here and uh it just uh people just cuz it give them a sense that this real this really happened because young people they they don't know that and they they see they said say this really did happen I said yes I had to tell them that because they don't believe it for Riley his wife and his daughter the museum and its artifacts are Priceless a lot of the artifacts that are in here have been around long before we physically opened up the museum they were and some of them were in our household at one point it's something I want to continue to see go on and move forward you know Far Beyond Myself Calvin it's something that's is necessary I think it's an incredible Museum I think you would need hours to see this Museum there's just so much stuff here and um I'm impressed with the efforts of Calvin Riley you might say the building that houses the museum is another precious artifact the Mansion was built in 1879 for prominent businessman James meager at the time this stretch of St Louis Avenue was known as millionaires row on the day we visited the museum members of the professional tour guides Association of St Louis were hosting a meeting in one of their parlors there's a very overwhelming feel of emotion in this room in this building Reagan Andrew has lived in St Louis for about 4 years and today she's visiting the museum for the very first time this is a whole part of history that um I don't want to say I'm ignorant I just wasn't taught in our textbooks it wasn't taught in the Pacific Northwest Washington state where I grew up um so this this is a treasure it's something for everybody to understand and get a certain sense of uh perspective our history is our history and you know obviously we've grown past you know a lot of the things that are in here today but it's important as we continue to repair and rebuild um our connection as humans to each other it's definitely necessary for all uh backgrounds and races and ethnicities to you know be aware of our history that we share H media bringing you culture and The Honey War Community find all of hc's positive programming and award-winning content at HC media.org history Spotlight brought to you by HC media and the Missi Historical Society hello I'm Dr jod saell president of the Missouri Historical Society in St Louis and this is history Spotlight in the 1830s a border dispute between Iowa and Missouri captured national attention when it escalated due to conflicting land surveys Museum educator Andy Prim tells the story of what became known as the honey boore St Louis loves honey whether we're in enjoying some local honey from the farmers market or raising bees in our own Urban hives the sweet treat is always popular but here's something you might not know about honey in 1839 it almost led to a war between Missouri and Iowa this ridiculous series of events is known today as the honey War the whole thing started because the northern border of Missouri wasn't clearly defined Missouri's first constitution drafted in St Louis in 182 referred to a northern border that passes through the Rapids of the river de Mo the problem is no such Rapids actually existed over time several possible borders were proposed but no one knew which one was correct then in 1839 Missouri governor lurn W bogs entered the fry bogs was a Jacksonian Democrat known for dynamic initiatives and Swift decisive action he's probably most notorious for a contr iial order issued just one year before calling for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of latterday saints to be driven from the state in the matter of the Border dispute he proved no less aggressive Governor bog strongly asserted Missouri's claim to the most northern boundary possible Iowa which was still a territory at the time argued for a more southerly line the two proposed borders were almost 10 Mi apart then later in 1839 Sheriff Uriah Gregory of Clark County Missouri was dispatched to the disputed strip of land to collect taxes upon his arrival the locals informed sherff Gregory that he was in fact not in Missouri but van beeran County Iowa Gregory received such a frosty welcome that he quickly abandoned his mission and high tailed it back south to safety Governor bogs was not satisfied with this outcome and insisted that the sheriff try again a few weeks later Sheriff Gregory entered van Bean County a second time where he was promptly captured and thrown in jail though the good Sheriff was released in short order it wasn't long before tensions escalated even further an unknown Missourian took it upon themselves to cut down three honey producing bee trees in the disputed area enraging the local Iowa populace honey was after all quite a valuable natural resource in those days the miscreant managed to evade Iowa authorities and haul the trees away but was nevertheless convicted in absentia and fined $150 in Governor bogg's estimation this was an assault on Missouri's citizens and property and he viewed it as no less than a provocation for war never one to back down from a challenge bogs dispatched 800 militia men to the border Iowa territorial Governor Robert Lucas responded in kind sending 300 militia men of his own both Governors appeared to be spoiling for a fight and blood Bloodshed seemed imminent but the militia commanders were not eager for conflict and the officers quickly agreed that a shooting War over honey trees was in nobody's interest the governors then begrudgingly allowed the issue to be submitted to the courts the matter was eventually resolved by the United States Supreme Court in 1849 which ended up splitting the disputed area roughly evenly between Iowa and Missouri in the end the honey war was a ridiculous ser of events culminating in little more than Sound and Fury so the next time you're enjoying a delicious bottle of local honey take a moment to Remember the Time Missouri and Iowa almost came to blows for the most Petty of reasons How Sweet It Is that cooler heads prevailed next week on History Spotlight the many successes of the Missouri School for the Blind to learn more about the Missouri Historical Society visit mohistory.org HC media recognized celebrated honored time and again for excellence in the industry find all of the award-winning content at HCC media.org HCC Media [Music] Flor Field the project that I worked on downtown Flor field in the courtyard of the way wri building Flor field is part of uh the Insight STL design competition and the call asked for artists to propose a project that could bring new ways of seeing downtown St Louis that I wanted to think about terra cotta an ornament and reference the way wght which in architecture school it's one of the first buildings that study Sullivan is often referred to as the father of the modern skyscraper and I loved the story of of rcks and St Louis and all of the beautiful ornament details and so that was something I was really interested in trying with the ceramic printing is making my own bricks really and looking at how we could use the digital tools to think about new ways of making or designing ornament um on the on the bricks I had done a lot of work in digital fabrication and 3D printing we had seen people 3D printing with clay and it was something I was really interested in when you typically think of 3D printing with with plastic or pla that's the small you know desktop printers that you can buy for around $100 the first 3D printers that used clay were actually hacked versions what I'm using is something called a Potter Bots each print is made up of sort of multiple intersecting parts that you'll see on the printer so I already modeled it that's kind of typically Al what I'll do is I'll use a program called Rhino and also a program that works with it called grasshopper which is for scripting so the gcode directions will tell the printer everything from stopping and starting to moving up and down or on the different axes depending on how the file is working around 10 in by 10 in which really comes from we kind of maxed out the amount of clay that we could put in the printer and the largest size that we could print really if you look at how it's printing it's it's printing a line and so with this design also the three intersecting Parts actually make the the piece stronger we had to think about how the pieces would work structurally so we devised A system that really works a lot like the game Connect or then the pieces just slide down um there's a notch here and then they slide down around the steel we added a little bit of silicone to H them in place and then each piece just stacked um slid down and stacked on top of each [Music] other in the end it's made me sort of rethink the idea about precision and architecture and how we can kind of think about having a more loose fit or not be so fixated on everything fitting perfectly I think that you know that also contributes to material waste so it's it's a way to sort of of reframe how we might think about Precision that's often thought of for [Music] East Bridge architecture later on Spotlight improving the lives of adults with disabilities through [Music] employment at Missouri Historical Society this year we are celebrating the 150th birthday of the ebridge so when people come to the Missouri History Museum to see the new eids bridge exhibit they're going to learn the whole story of the bridge from why it was built how it was built and what has happened since it was built so the East Bridge a huge St Louis Landmark is hiding underneath the arch and the East bridge is so important to St Louis and to the country it was the first Bridge built here at St Louis acrossing the Mississippi River it is the oldest bridge on the Mississippi River and it's the first structure made out of structural steel anywhere in the world so when the Bridge opened in 1874 James eids opened with the words that it would stand as long as it was proed useful and it is still very useful to St louisans we use it for the Metro Link light rail every single day people cross it the top deck is cars you know thousands of cars every day crossing over from Illinois to Missouri it's a great engineering story it is important to the economy of St Louis and to the story of our growth and it's a really great symbol of the city for Innovation and determination so when you visit the exhibit there are so many cool little things you're going to find out one of them them is why why was the bridge built right and and there's so much more drama than you would expect it wasn't just one bridge design it was several different designs they were kind of fighting and wrestling out to who was going to get to do it um you're going to learn about the engineering like how did they span 1,600 ft of the Mississippi River that sounded absolutely impossible you'll learn about the elephant that did cross the bridge before it opened and you'll learn about things like the St Louis Blues the famous song is actually written because of music that WC handy heard while sleeping underneath the ebridge so we invite people to come to the history museum in Forest Park and see this great exhibit about the Eid Bridge as well as all of our other great exhibits we have going on right now and as always all of the exhibits at the Missouri History Museum are free to learn even more about the eids bridge in its 150th anniversary year check out HGC media.org for more videos made in partnership with the Missouri Historical Society like Charlie on the bridge and the story behind the eats Bridge as well as a one-on-one conversation with author John K Brown about his newest book spanning The Gilded Age all this and more can be found at HC media.org Meet the Artist for more St Louis stor subscribe to the HC YouTube channel connect STL from HC media mark your calendar for the 2024 St Louis Art Fair September 6th through the 8th get to know the artists and their art before heading out to the fair with HC media's meet the artist series at youtube.com/ meetthe artist hi my name is Andy Rogers I'm a ceramic sculptor from Lee Summit Missouri suburb of Kansas City uh my work starts on the potter's wheel so I make the original form on The Potter's Wheel I throw the piece and then I go back in after it stiffens up and do a lot of carving and altering to add the textures and the details that you see I use porcelain as my media my inspiration really I derives from All the Small Things in our natural world I try to spend as much time in nature as possible hiking camping kayaking and along my travels I look for those little things out there that have a lot of detail and texture and things that are often overlooked but when they're explored you can see so many fascinating things so I take those ideas back to my studio and in my head I kind of let them swore around in there and then come up with things that I think could have possibly grown or formed or evolved in nature the color palette that I've chosen to use in my work really has come from from again our natural world I look at those things and see the colors that are out there inspiring me and work to envelop those into my pieces you know Earth Tones uh ball autumn colors have always been an inspiration on my pieces but recently I've really been inspired by some awesome fruits and vegetables that have lots of more pop of color when people see my work and really delve themselves in this realm of this body of work what I hope they take back from it is the sense of the sensuality of the piece the beauty that's found in nature also one of my keys that I try to relay on people is that sense of touch a lot of the artists will say do not touch me it's the opposite I invite touch I make the pieces to invite touch I want somebody to come in and feel like they have to pick that up because part of the experience is the joy of picking that up like I do in our natural world and seeing and feeling the details and the texture and I want my work to convey that to anybody that's picking it up and looking at it and then hopefully taking it to their home to enjoy for many years and go back to it revisit that idea and that piece over and over you can find the stories featured in today's show along with past episodes and more at HC media.org Spotlight I one of the line workers here and I help other people around on the line Daxton Miller is part of a growing population of workers put stuff in the boxes like Mouse bait you know um mou tra Mouse bait down so Daxton works for BCI Boon Center Incorporated a packaging and Manufacturing nonprofit agency that employs adults with disabilities we have 100,000 ft of production space and we employ over 235 adults with disabilities both here in St Peters probably 90% of them have an intellectual or developmental disability and potentially multiple diagnosis uh within that space according to the Department of Labor in 2022 21% of persons with a disability were employed that number is up from 19% in 2021 thanks to organizations like BCI people like Daxton are finding work BCI mission is all about about growing and developing adults with disabilities through Innovative uh employment opportunities BCI has a team of employment Specialists that work one-on-one with its employees and their families we create an employment goal with everybody um and then we as that goal hopefully is achieved then we'll update that and move on to the next goal for a person this is um not a day Center by any means we are a packaging and assembly facility um a lot of times it's it's pretty eye opening to people when they actually walk on our work floor and see the volume of work that we do um the capabilities that the employees are able to produce on the work floor they're definitely challenged this is a structured work day we have fun at work but there is quota and quantity required every single day on the work floor vci's Roots Trace back to 1959 we were humbly founded by by Margaret Holmes and Jane krider we consider those are founding mothers they had a few adults in their families who had disabilities and they wanted to find meaningful employment for them and they started a manufacturing Enterprise making candles and they employed their family members and then over time of course grew and grew and in 1990 uh grew to a larger Enterprise employing adults of disabilities and converted from making candles for almost 40 years to contract packaging as the need grew the Missouri legislature passed a law that allowed counties to assist organizations like BCI through productive living boards I'll give you a little bit of a backstory on that so back in 1969 the Missouri legislature approved the ability for all counties in the state of Missouri to um choose to tax its residents to carve out resources for people with developmental disabilities the productive living board receives those property checks and invest those in Services throughout St Louis County productive living boards work as a clearing house plb is invested in funding a spectrum of high quality services for people with developmental disabilities in St Louis County and uh we want people to have a choice of what kind of employment service they're interested in and BCI is like-minded they have created successful and Innovative employment programs such as their supported employment and their skill center and so a couple of years ago we began partnering by funding some of those Services BCI is dedicated to providing a work environment for people with disabilities employees like Daxton no longer face barriers to finding purpose through meaningful work be around a lot of people hang out with them make them laugh make a lot of jokes I like the money that I make here I want to find my own place that my big dream you're my own play we find a place for every one of them so if they want to go out and make a a wage where they can be independent on their own we have that capability for them to do that too and to see the family's uh reaction when we say hey we think Johnny or Sally can make the big leap um they know they have a trusted partner to support that person it's just wonderful to see next week how the most powerful MRI machine in North America discovered answers to epil y plus how the Missouri School for the Blind pushed boundaries to ensure equal access thanks for watching Spotlight join us next Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on kplr 11 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]