“Collective Memory in St. Louis” Symposium Starts Thursday

Starting Thursday and running through Saturday, Fontbonne University hosts the symposium “Collective Memory in St. Louis: Recollection, Forgetting and the Common Good.” Registration for the symposium is $40 and is open to the public. More information is online here. Missouri Historical Society Director Robert Archibald delivers the keynote address Friday.

Several panels deal with built environment topics:

Public Space and the Problem of Solidarity (9:00 a.m., Friday)
• Kate Boudreau, Saint Louis University – “Fairgrounds Park: Foregrounding St. Louis’ Inequities”
• Michael Allen, Preservation Research Office – “Making Parks in the Central City: The Evolution of the Gateway Mall”
• William Rehg, SJ, Saint Louis University – “Memory and the Problem of Solidarity: How Can Cities Foster Allegiance?”
Moderated by Mary Beth Gallagher (Fontbonne University)

Visual Culture, Memory, and Identity (10:45 a.m., Friday)
• Adam Kloppe, Saint Louis University – “A Spectacle for the Eyes and Mind: The Photographs and Speeches of the Congress of Arts and Sciences, World’s Fair, 1904”
• Greg Ott, Fontbonne University – “Sorting Out the Detritus: Cindy Tower and the Discontiguous Sites of Art and Appreciation”
• Kris Runberg Smith, Lindenwood University – “St. Mark’s Windows: Reflections on 1930s Politics and Theology”
Moderated by Angie Dietz (Missouri History Museum)

Nineteenth Century Saint Louis (10:45 a.m., Friday)
• Kristen Anderson, Webster University – “We Bear No Hatred and No Bitterness Toward Our Former Foes: St. Louis Germans and the Memory of the Civil War”
• Kenneth Parker, Saint Louis University – “Archbishop Peter Kenrick and Collective Forgetfulness: Why a Leader at the First Vatican Council Faded from Local Memory”
• John J. Han, Missouri Baptist University – “Nineteenth-Century Saint Louis in Mark Twain’s Works”
Moderated by Thomas Finan (Saint Louis University, History)

Riots in Saint Louis (10:45 a.m., Friday)
• Luke Ritter, Saint Louis University – “American Vigilantes and Irish Gangs in St. Louis: The Know-Nothing Riot of 1854”
• Lou Robinson, Saint Louis University – “Forgetting to Remember: Memory and Commemoration of the East St. Louis Race Riot of July 2, 1917”
• Jeffrey T. Manuel and Samanthe Braswell, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville – “The 1917 East Saint Louis Riot in Historical Memory”
Moderated by Harper Barnes (Author of Never Been a Time: The 1917 Race Riot That Sparked the Civil Rights Movement)

Urban Museum Collaborative Roundtable – “Discovering Untold Stories: Touchstones to a Changing Landscape” (9:00 a.m., Saturday)
•    Barbara Decker, Museum Consultant and project Director for the Urban Museum Collaborative
•    Lois Conley, The Griot Museum of Black History
•    Barbara Faupel, Eugene Field House Museum
•    Andrew Hahn, Campbell House Museum
Moderated by Caitlin McQuade

Memory and the Built Environment in Saint Louis (2:30, Saturday)
• Gregory Taylor, Fontbonne University – “Forgotten Monuments: Excavating a Corporate Past”
• Christina Mathena Carlson, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville – “At the Intersection of History and Life: City Museum as Space for Historical Preservation and Urban Renewal”
• Frederick A. Hodes, Independent Scholar – “St. Louis Streets and Their Witness to the City’s Past”
Moderated by Jody Sowell (Missouri History Museum)