Category Archives: Campbell

Restored Glass Installed!

Reg­u­lar read­ers and fol­low­ers will recall that last sum­mer the Camp­bell House was van­dal­ized and a his­toric piece of etched glass in our entry doors was smashed. Read more about that here and here.

Thanks to our gen­er­ous sup­port­ers on Twit­ter and friends on Face­book, we raised almost enough funds to restore the bro­ken piece.  It proved to be a dif­fi­cult task to find an arti­san who was will­ing to take on this com­pli­cat­ed project. Thank­ful­ly we hired  local artist Lea Koester­er who care­ful­ly worked through the many chal­lenges this project pre­sent­ed.

A few days ago the restored glass was installed and the results are mag­nif­i­cent. Check out the pho­tos below.

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Camp­bell House front doors: orig­i­nal etched glass on the right and space left by the bro­ken glass on the left.

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The new piece of glass is care­ful­ly unwrapped after trav­el­ling from the artist’s studio.

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Lea Koester­er does some last-minute touch-up.

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Can you tell which one is the new piece of glass? It is the one on the left.

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Lea Koester­er proud­ly stands by the fin­ished product.

Thank you Lea and all the donors who helped us com­plete this project. We still have a lit­tle more fundrais­ing to do the com­plete this project. Please con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion below.

Campbell House has a very special Christmas story
that comes with an unusual decoration.

Camp­bell Christ­mas table, cir­ca 1895.

About 1895 the Camp­bell fam­i­ly host­ed a small Christ­mas par­ty for their close friends. In true Gild­ed Age style the din­ing room table was set spec­tac­u­lar­ly for the event. The table itself was com­plete­ly wrapped in fresh flowers–red and white car­na­tions with greens.  The cen­ter­piece of the table was a fig­ure of San­ta Claus com­plete with his sleigh hold­ing toys and a dec­o­rat­ed Christ­mas tree all pulled by 8 rein­deer. This unusu­al table dec­o­ra­tion was also the par­ty favor. Every fam­i­ly in atten­dance was invit­ed to take part of the dis­play home.

The rein­deer Vix­en was tak­en home by the Hugh Scott fam­i­ly of St. Louis. Vix­en dec­o­rat­ed their din­ing room Christ­mas table for almost 80 years. About 25 years ago the Scott fam­i­ly was per­suad­ed by Camp­bell House sup­port­er Zoe Desloge Lipp­man to donate Vix­en to the Camp­bell House Muse­um for all our Christ­mas callers to enjoy.

Come and vis­it Vix­en and expe­ri­ence the splen­dor of Christ­mases past. Camp­bell House is open Wednes­day to Sat­ur­day 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sun­day, noon to 4 p.m. through Decem­ber 30. Dur­ing Jan­u­ary we are open most days by appoint­ment. Call us to make and appoint­ment, 314–421-0325.

Vixen adorns the Morning Room mantle today.

Vix­en adorns the Morn­ing Room man­tle today.

Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Tour

By Andy Hahn

A few weeks ago Camp­bell House docent Tom Gron­s­ki and I returned from a 2,500 mile trip West, vis­it­ing the impor­tant sites of Robert Camp­bell and Rocky Moun­tain fur trade.

Red Rocks Canyon on the road up to the South Pass through the Wind Riv­er Range of the Rockies.

We fol­lowed the route of the Ore­gon Trail, which had been blazed by Camp­bell and oth­er moun­tain men and fur traders dur­ing the 1820s and 30s. Our first stop was at the Joslyn Art Muse­um in Oma­ha, Nebras­ka. The Joslyn holds one of the most impor­tant col­lec­tions of art of the Amer­i­can West, includ­ing works by Karl Bod­mer, Alfred Jacob Miller and George Catlin.

Fol­low­ing a 500-mile dri­ve along the Plat­te Riv­er through Nebras­ka we arrived at Fort Laramie, where we met Alan McFar­land, Robert Camp­bel­l’s g‑g-g-grand nephew, fresh off the plane from his home in North­ern Ire­land. Alan has a spe­cial inter­est in his uncle’s career in the fur trade and has made numer­ous research trips to Amer­i­ca. Fort Laramie was the per­fect place for our meet­ing because Camp­bell and his part­ner Bill Sub­lette found­ed Fort Laramie (orig­i­nal­ly called Fort William) in 1834. At this Nation­al His­toric Site we were able to view an authen­tic fur trade encamp­ment recre­at­ed by mem­bers of the Amer­i­can Moun­tain Men. The group lat­er cre­at­ed tableau vivant from one of Alfred Jacob Miller’s art­works depict­ing a fur trade camp.

A lit­tle fur­ther west we fol­lowed the Sweet­wa­ter Riv­er across Wyoming towards the Wind Riv­er Moun­tain Range and the South Pass. Bill Sub­lette was the first per­son to take a wag­on this far into the Rocky Moun­tains in 1830, set­ting a course for thou­sands that would fol­low the Ore­gon and Mor­mon Trails. The next few days were spent in the vicin­i­ty of Jack­son, Wyoming where we vis­it­ed most all of the sites of the Rocky Moun­tain Ren­dezvous. The high­lights includ­ed vis­its to the Muse­um of the Moun­tain Man where we were able to see some orig­i­nal Camp­bell let­ters and Pier­re’s Hole, site of the 1832 Ren­dezvous and sub­se­quent bat­tle.  Camp­bell hero­ical­ly saved his friend Bill Sub­let­te’s life dur­ing the bat­tle as recount­ed by Wash­ing­ton Irv­ing in the Adven­tures of Cap­tain Bon­neville. Our trip end­ed with vis­its to oth­er Ren­dezvous sites at Bear Lake, Cache Val­ley and final­ly Fort Bridger.

Enjoy the pic­tures and fol­low us West!