Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood wrote, “A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.”

At the Missouri History Museum we have committed to a mission that cherishes the human voice, wherever that voice originates. We value the stories told by individuals who are well known and have contributed significantly to our community, like Jack Taylor, who pioneered the rental car business from right here in St. Louis, and Judge Theodore McMillian, the “accidental jurist” of the Eighth Circuit Court. But we also take note of people whose lives are hidden from the greater majority but who have made quiet contributions, like Juanita Cole Woods, whose daughter caught her story and shares it with us here, and Jesse Mercer Battle, who began his career as a canvasser on the streets of St. Louis in the 1870s.

Also in this issue of our appropriately named Voices, we hear from MHS volunteer Morton Deutsch, who is helping us through the preservation of the printed page to hear voices from another time. Our Community Stories section features The DisAbility Project, which gives voice to those who were until recently unheard.

I have acquired new voices in my home this year. Two of my grandsons have come to live with us. Eric is in high school; he is just learning to articulate as an adult. Some of his expressions are strange to me, for it’s been a long time since I’ve been in close company with a teenager. Eric is acquiring the knowledge, and surely the wisdom, to continue his life journey, and I am learning the value of a young voice in my household. My other grandson, Zane, is a baby, just over a year old, who has not found his voice—or rather, has not found words, for his voice is certainly effective enough as he coos and babbles and makes his will known with sounds that we are learning to interpret.

These two boys have their own stories to tell. They have only begun to tell them, but I am ready to listen and to contribute to the narratives they are weaving. I am intrigued by watching Eric and Zane develop their stories at the close range I am privileged to now occupy in their lives.

I am almost equally intrigued by the many voices I am privileged to activate in the daily operations of the Missouri History Museum. We can only know of the past what has been left behind by others. We will never know or hear it all, but what a privilege and a joyful responsibility to give voice to those who might not, but for our efforts, be heard at all.

Listen to these voices. Take them into the future with you, and convey their depth and importance to your children. Pass on the stories that have made us who we are, and who our grandchildren will be.

 

Robert R. Archibald, Ph.D.
President, Missouri History Museum

Listen to these voices. Take them into the future with you, and convey their depth and importance to your children. Pass on the stories that have made us who we are, and who our grandchildren will be.