President’s Note
As a historian I have learned that to listen closely is a true form of participating in someone else’s story. Through sharing the stories of our friends and colleagues and even strangers, we are broadening and deepening our world and enriching our community. By incorporating the history of another person or a different culture, we can reinterpret our own, forming a more inclusive story that has room for everyone and space for differing opinions and perspectives.
The Voices included in this issue of the Missouri Historical Society’s online magazine may bring us experiences that we never had. Or they may stir memories or family stories that can be restored with new meaning. The Voices we hear in this issue are as diverse as the community that we serve, and all of them offer some kind of enlightenment and a charming degree of entertainment and information.
Voices from the venerable Fairground Park speak not only of a fascinating past but also of a new look, a resurgence of spirit and pride, the potential of community renewed. Carl Bauer goes back to his youth in a local orphanage to tell his story, and the stunning baseball/softball career of Erma Bergmann will resound with anyone who has ever picked up a bat—or hasn’t! Listen in on my conversation with Jack Taylor, a well-known and well-regarded businessman, as he tells me about the St. Louis of his youth and why he wants to give back something to this community.
We also present our institutional stories. Hear, and see, our search for a cockpit, the one you can view in the Flight City exhibition at the History Museum. It’s an amazing artifact, and the story that goes with it is an adventure in itself. Another behind-the-scenes tale explores one of our Theater in the Galleries productions, again a story within a story that shows the varieties of history experience we are developing.
In Voices we offer a continuous invitation to listen and discover and share.
Robert R. Archibald, Ph.D.
Missouri Historical Society