From all over the world, people have come to the Missouri Historical Society to explore our exhibitions, delve into our resources, and participate in our programs. Here they find their ancestors and the builders of our present time and place. Here they introduce their children to the past and help them plan their future. In our exhibit galleries, library, and archives, and now through the Internet—especially in this online magazine—our visitors hear the voices of our community past, present, and, when they listen closely, future. 

Whose voices do they hear? At the History Museum we are committed to giving voice to all the people who have made this place and whose stories have made us who we are. In the all-too-recent past the voices of history were limited in scope and dimension. We had to learn to listen to women’s voices, the voices of African Americans and other people of color, the voices of immigrants and gay and lesbian people and people with disabilities. We came to understand that no man’s or woman’s voice was too weak or unsophisticated or lacking expertise to be dismissed. All these voices are essential to our story but too often have been muted and even ignored. Now they, and all of us, have a speaking place. We continue to tune our ears to merge all of the narratives with the previously established versions—and what a glorious blending of notes and echoes and vibrations our story is becoming.

My life and future are enlarged when I listen to other voices. I cannot truly know the experience of having the fabulous Josephine Baker as a houseguest nor the joys and troubles of publishing a small-town newspaper, but as I read the stories of Gail Milissa Grant and Joseph Snyder, I heard their voices and shared those experiences.

The LaClede Town development was a shambles before I ever came to St. Louis, and now it’s completely obliterated by the expansion of two of our universities. But the voices of LaClede Town can still be heard, and we travel back to this place in our community history, to listen and to learn of the burdens and the riches this place has left us.

These stories, and more, are yours to hear and absorb.

Voices is more than an invitation to listen. The Missouri Historical Society’s online magazine is an opportunity for powerful, vicarious experience available from the past through the technology that has made our world smaller and can make our future larger. It’s even a mandate: Listen to other voices while you take your own place in the chorus.

Robert R. Archibald, Ph.D.
Missouri Historical Society

We are committed to giving voice to all the people who have made this place and whose stories have made us who we are.