Tag Archives: interns

Old-time religion with the Campbells

Syd­ney exam­in­ing micro­film of Camp­bell checks to see which char­i­ties around town they supported.

Thanks to Syd­ney, one of our tal­ent­ed sum­mer interns, we now have a beau­ti­ful and inter­ac­tive way to show the Camp­bells’ reli­gious his­to­ry. When Syd­ney came on board in June, she did­n’t waste any time dig­ging into Camp­bell doc­u­ments and church records to build a more com­plete pic­ture of the fam­i­ly’s faith.

For her exit project, she made an online time­line, com­plete with maps, images, quotes from our local news­pa­pers, and his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tives. When Syd­ney was­n’t giv­ing tours, she was dili­gent­ly read­ing, com­par­ing facts in dif­fer­ent sources, com­pil­ing infor­ma­tion, and writ­ing. This was a big job.

The fruit of her efforts can be found here. Not only did she do all the research and writ­ing, but Syd­ney also fig­ured out how to make her idea into some­thing she could imple­ment. She found Dip­i­ty, and made her time­line come alive in a way that’s eas­i­ly acces­si­ble and sim­ple to share with others.

Take a look, and let us know what you think. Pay par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to “Hugh’s Gen­eros­i­ty” toward the end of the time­line. This entry cap­tures much of her often-tedious micro­film research, and this gives a won­der­ful glimpse into Hugh’s per­son­al­i­ty. He gave freely to a vari­ety of church­es, regard­less of affiliation.

One more time, here’s the link to her time­line. A big thanks and three cheers for Sydney!

Monday Update (a day late) » 7.24.12

It’s hot­ter than blazes in St. Louis, but the heat has­n’t slowed us down a bit at Camp­bell House! (Except for maybe our blog­ging schedule.)

Hel­looooooo Kevin! The west wall will not be paint­ed, but the brick will receive a clear weath­er­proof coating.

Exte­ri­or Ren­o­va­tion Begins
Con­trac­tors have begun to prep the house for the big paint job. Kevin has been patient­ly tuck­point­ing some of the high­est points of the house (up to 60 feet in some areas!) with a lift for over a week now, and when he’s done, the crew will come in to start paint­ing. The shut­ters have already been removed, and the painters have begun repair­ing and repaint­ing them in the shop.

Upcom­ing Tours
We got togeth­er with our friends down the street at Land­marks Asso­ci­a­tion of St. Louis a few weeks ago to plot a few events for the fall. We are ten­ta­tive­ly plan­ning an out­door movie night for Sep­tem­ber, a Locust Street archi­tec­tur­al walk­ing tour (that ends at the Schlafly Tap Room for drinks and cama­raderie), and a Camp­bell House restora­tion tour where you can see the inner work­ings of our place in either Jan­u­ary or Feb­ru­ary.  As soon as we final­ize every­thing, we will post all of the details for you. Stay tuned.

The new and improved cook’s bedroom.

New Cook’s Bedroom
Since the Camp­bells did not pho­to­graph many of the rooms in the ser­vants’ wing of the house  (includ­ing the kitchen and ser­vants’ liv­ing quar­ters),  we were able to inter­pret these rooms the best we could, based on the orig­i­nal floor­plan of the house. The house­keep­er’s bed­room has always been staged as a bed­room, but the cook’s bed­room — which had pre­vi­ous­ly housed an exhib­it on the ser­vants — has now been pre­sent­ed as a bed­room. Thanks to a bequest from one of our mem­bers, we received a beau­ti­ful set of fur­ni­ture of the style, peri­od and qual­i­ty that would have been in a ser­van­t’s bed­room in a house like this. Come down to the Muse­um to see it in person.

Stu­dents try­ing to inter­pret Hugh Camp­bel­l’s hand­writ­ing in a let­ter to his wife, Mary. (This Hugh is Robert’s broth­er, not his son.)

Black Rep Sum­mer Camp
We had the plea­sure of wel­com­ing about 20 stu­dents from The Black Rep Sum­mer Camp last week for our doc­u­ment work­shop. After tak­ing a brief tour of the first floor to hear the Camp­bell sto­ry, they came up to the third floor Aviary to play his­to­ry detec­tive. We gave them copies of Camp­bell doc­u­ments to inter­pret and to share their find­ings with the rest of the group. These were some of the most enthu­si­as­tic kids we’ve had come through the house, and we look for­ward to see­ing them again! Do you need a spe­cial edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ty or work­shop for your group of chil­dren or adults? Give us a call! We’re hap­py to design a half- or full day of fun and learn­ing. Con­tact Andy or Shel­ley at 314/421‑0325 to let us start plan­ning your day at Camp­bell House!

Our Interns
Did you meet intern Han­nah? Read all about her here!

Robert’s Irish Break­fast Tea

Camp­bell House Tea
Look­ing for a small gift for the per­son who has every­thing? Robert has you cov­ered. Come by to pick up a 1‑oz pack­age of Robert’s Irish Break­fast tea, a blend we buy from our tea-lov­ing neigh­bors at the Lon­don Tea Room. A favorite with cof­fee drinkers, it’s strong and bold, just like our Robert. We’re sell­ing it for $5 a pack­age, and that includes a coupon for a free cup of tea or cof­fee at the Lon­don Tea Room. It’s avail­able now in the Muse­um Store and at the front door of the Muse­um. Pick up a pack­age to get a taste of Camp­bell House!

Urban Explor­ing: Trin­i­ty Luther­an Church
Today we took a field trip to Soulard to vis­it Trin­i­ty Luther­an Church. Docent Coor­di­na­tor Den­nis has been a mem­ber of this his­toric church all his life, and he invit­ed Camp­bell House staff, interns and docents out to get a behind-the-scenes look at every­thing in the church, includ­ing the bell tow­er. As a teas­er, here’s a shot of one of the gor­geous art glass win­dows in a space behind the choir loft. A full blog post with the church’s his­to­ry and all of the images will fol­low lat­er this week.

One of Trin­i­ty Luther­an’s art glass win­dows in a non-pub­lic area behind the choir loft.

Stay cool this week, and check back to meet Syd­ney — one of our won­der­ful interns — and the full pho­to essay of our vis­it to Trin­i­ty Lutheran!

Monday Update » 6.25.12

Good After­noon! A lot has hap­pened over the last two weeks.…

Pier­re’s Hole in the Teton Val­ley, Ida­ho, the site of the 1832 Rocky Moun­tain Rendezvous.

Andy’s Back!
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Andy made it back from his excur­sion to Robert’s old stomp­ing grounds in Wyoming and Ida­ho. We’ll do a full post of the Ren­dezvous and all the sites he vis­it­ed, but to give you a pre­view, here’s a shot of Pier­re’s Hole. Not only did Robert trade here dur­ing the ren­dezvous, but it was also the site of the famous Bat­tle of Pier­re’s Hole, in which Robert played a key role with his friend Bill Sub­lette. (Beau­ti­ful, huh?)

Camp­bell House class at Life­long Learn­ing Institute
We are pleased to announce that staff from Camp­bell House Muse­um will be teach­ing a class at Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty’s Life­long Learn­ing Insti­tute (LLI) this fall. The LLI is a col­lege-style cur­ricu­lum of cours­es for peo­ple age 55 and old­er, and they offer a range of class­es on his­to­ry (local and oth­er­wise), art, and lit­er­a­ture. This fall, Camp­bell House will be the top­ic of a four-week course. This is what we’ll be teach­ing each week:

  • Week 1: His­to­ry of the Camp­bells and the Lucas Place Neigh­bor­hood (Andy)
  • Week 2: Late 19th Cen­tu­ry Cul­ture (Shel­ley)
  • Week 3: Field trip to Camp­bell House (Andy and Shelley)
  • Week 4: Doc­u­ment work­shop (Andy and Shelley)

Inter­est­ed? Fall 2012 reg­is­tra­tion isn’t online yet,  but if you’re age 55 or old­er, send an email to shel­ley [dot] satke [at] gmail [dot] com, and we’ll send you a reminder when you can reg­is­ter. In the mean­time, learn all about the LLI here.

New Gar­den Volunteers
Have you seen how beau­ti­ful the gar­den looks? In addi­tion to the reg­u­lar bunch of vol­un­teers (par­ents of the staff!), we’ve been joined by Dan, Dan and Alex, three young men from St. Louis Arc. Dan works with Dan and Alex to teach them life skills while build­ing friend­ships in the local com­mu­ni­ty. Every Tues­day and Thurs­day they work out­side keep­ing the gar­den in tip-top shape for our guests and neigh­bors, and they’ve been doing a won­der­ful job. They’ve been a joy to work with — stop by to see their handiwork!

Do you have a green thumb? Could you lend a hand mow­ing, prun­ing and plant­i­ng? We’re always look­ing for help! Drop Andy a note at andy [at] camp­bell­house­mu­se­um [dot] org.

Jes­si­ca and Mark in front of Vir­gini­a’s gazebo.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to the Pierrons
Speak­ing of the gar­den, cheers to Jes­si­ca and Mark, who had their wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny in our gar­den on Fri­day night. The flow­ers were in full bloom, the weath­er coop­er­at­ed, and every­one had a won­der­ful evening on Jes­si­ca and Mark’s big day.

Camp­bell House is the per­fect out­door spot for a wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny. If you would like to check out the space in per­son, please email Shel­ley at shel­ley [dot] satke [at] gmail [dot] com.

Meet Kevin
Be sure to vis­it our blog tomor­row, where we’ll con­tin­ue with our pop­u­lar “Meet the Interns” series with Kevin. Talk about well-round­ed — he’s work­ing on a dou­ble major in his­to­ry and chem­istry. Tune in tomor­row to find out what he’s doing at Camp­bell House this summer!

Monday Update » 3.26.12

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Andy Hahn with his unusu­al­ly shy Leo before our urban explor­ing field trip to the St. Louis Tran­sit Com­pa­ny Sub­sta­tion on Locust this morning.

Hap­py Mon­day, everyone!

We had a busy week­end, due in part to the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight mad­ness hap­pen­ing at the Dome. While our week­end man­ag­er takes a well-deserved break, here are some newsy bits and a few things we’ve got cook­ing over the next two weeks:

Camp­bell House Archi­tects Featured
Camp­bell House research vol­un­teer Tom Gron­ski’s arti­cle on the Camp­bell House archi­tects (Joseph C. Edgar and Thomas Waryng Walsh) earned top-billing in the Mis­souri Val­ley Chap­ter of Archi­tec­tur­al His­to­ri­an’s newslet­ter. Read all about it (and some oth­er beau­ti­ful local build­ings) here.  Way to go, Tom!

Field Trip to the St. Louis Tran­sit Com­pa­ny Substation
A long-vacant build­ing up Locust was built to house a big, giant bat­tery sys­tem for street­cars. It was con­struct­ed right before the 1904 World’s Fair because the city antic­i­pat­ed sub­stan­tial­ly more street­car traf­fic due to the influx of vis­i­tors. We’ll have a post about our vis­it to the old build­ing com­plete with pic­tures for you next week.

New Civ­il War Exhibit
Lind­sey’s plug­ging away on research, writ­ing, and find­ing objects for her new exhib­it on the Camp­bells dur­ing the Civ­il War. Shar­ing new research on Robert’s polit­i­cal lean­ings, slav­ery, and the impact of the war on the fam­i­ly and their friends, the exhib­it will open in the third floor gal­leries in ear­ly April. You won’t want to miss it!

A Few Good Interns
We have more intern inter­views booked, but we’d love to hear from you or some­one you know needs a sum­mer intern­ship. We’re not picky about your course of study because it takes all kinds to oper­ate a muse­um. Non­prof­it Man­age­ment? Muse­um Stud­ies? PR/Marketing? His­to­ry? Art? Come talk to us. Camp­bell House is a small place, so every­one — staff, vol­un­teers and interns — wear many hats. You’ll get to see all sides of how we run the busi­ness, and we promise you’ll have an awe­some expe­ri­ence here. Con­tact Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Andy Hahn at andy [at] camp­bell­house­mu­se­um [dot] org if you want to talk; we’d love to hear from you!

Upcom­ing Events
We’re work­ing on putting togeth­er two spec­tac­u­lar events that you won’t want to miss. In just a cou­ple of weeks, we’ll again be host­ing the Mag­i­cal Spring Thing at the Mahler Ball­room, which will fea­ture St. Louis Bal­let, Union Avenue Opera, the St. Louis Rag­timers, the Ball­room Acad­e­my of St. Louis. It’s going to be an unfor­get­table evening, so click here for more infor­ma­tion. On Moth­er’s Day (May 13th), we’re pleased to part­ner with Union Avenue Opera to bring you (and your mom!) Arias in the After­noon: A Vic­to­ri­an Gar­den Par­ty. While you enjoy scones, tarts and tea from the Lon­don Tea Room, Union Avenue Opera artists will ser­e­nade you with a spe­cial Moth­er’s Day pro­gram. For details, read all about it here.

50-cent piece appear­ances last week: 0