New Campbell House Courier: Hot off the Press!

Dining, discoveries, mysterious donors and new directions! Click below to read more about what the Campbell House crew has been up to so far in 2014, friends to whom we’ve said farewell, and some of the exciting projects and programs we have coming up in the latest edition of CHM’s seasonal newsletter.

New Campbell House Courier! Click to read/download the newest edition of CHM’s seasonal newsletter.

MEET THE INTERNS » JOSH

Intern Josh. Click his image to learn more about internships at CHM!

The second of our crew of stellar interns this semester is Josh, an undergraduate history student at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He’s on board through the Spring to lend a hand with some backlogged collections projects we have around the Museum. Meet Josh!

What are you studying and where?  I’m a junior at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and I’m a history major.

Why Campbell House?  The Campbell House sounded interesting to me because it’s a wonderfully restored 19th century house.

What are you working on at CHM?  I am working with the Museum’s collection and updating uncatalogued pieces to be put into the online database.

When you aren’t having a blast at Campbell House, what are you doing?  Mainly, I work as an Assistant Manager at Sonic Drive-In, I’m at home studying or I’m hanging out with my girlfriend and two dogs. (editorial note: this guy isn’t kidding. He’s up before the crack of dawn working the breakfast shift, then goes to classes, THEN comes and spends the afternoon with us! A trooper if there ever was one.)

Editorial note: This place makes us feel pretty fancy too.

What is your favorite thing about CHM thus far?  My favorite things about CHM so far are the Parlor and Dining Room because I get to feel fancy for a brief moment.

iPhone or Android?  iPhone. Duh.

Favorite color?  Blue.

Favorite band/singer?  Nickelback.

Andy Warhol said that everyone gets 15 minutes of fame. What happened in your 15 minutes?  My high school choir director presented me with an award for being the most outstanding students before I graduated. It was an unexpected 15 minutes of fame.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you choose?  I would be the Flash because I can move fast.

Country Folk and City Slickers

We tend to focus on history within the boundaries of St. Louis City here on the blog, but St. Louis County residents rejoice! This one’s for you. Last year the Campbell House started a collaborative lecture series with the Historic Hanley House in Clayton, Missouri and we’re continuing the series next Wednesday.

Top: Lucas Place neighborhood at the western edge of St. Louis City in mid-19th century. Bottom: Hanley House in St. Louis County around the same time period.

What makes a CHM/HH collaboration so neat is that, even though both houses are located in the midst of bustling urban centers today, back in the mid-19th century St. Louis City and County could not have been more different. The Campbells’ 1851 townhouse sat in the Lucas Place neighborhood at the very western edge of mid-19th century St. Louis City (today, it’s smack dab in the middle of town). The Hanley’s country farmhouse was considerably farther out, a full day’s journey from the city center (if that’s not living in the boonies, we don’t know what is). But despite this major difference, there are actually some interesting parallels between the Campbell and Hanley families and their homes. Here are just a few:

• Our main man Robert Campbell was born in 1804 and died in 1879. Martin Hanley, namesake of the Hanley House, was born ten years after Robert in 1814 and also died in 1879.
• Hanley House was built in 1855 in the Greek Revival style, imitating the grand plantation houses of the South. Campbell House was built four years earlier in 1851. It’s also considered a Greek Revival (as well as Early Victorian) style house because of the columns framing its front door and its roof-line ornamentation.
• Martin Hanley and his wife Cyrene had 11 children, 10 of whom survived to adulthood. Robert and Virginia Campbell had 13 children, 10 of whom died in childhood.
• The Hanley family sided with the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Robert Campbell sided with the North as a Conditional Unionist, believing that the Union should be preserved with slavery intact. Both men were slave owners, and the Hanley family could be somewhat vocal about their secessionist views since  they lived far away from the city center. Robert had to tread more lightly, in some ways straddling the fence between Northern and Southern sympathies, in order to stay in good graces with his neighbors and political friends in the city.
• Martin Hanley helped establish Clayton as the St. Louis County seat after the city/county split in 1876, donating four acres of his own land. Robert Campbell, in addition to owning large tracts of land in St. Louis City and County, was one of the founding landowners of Kansas City, MO and El Paso, TX.
• The Hanley House was continuously occupied by members of the Hanley family from the time of its construction through 1968, when it was purchased by the City of Clayton and turned into a museum. The Campbell House was continuously occupied by members of the Campbell family from the time they moved in in 1854 through 1938 when the last Campbell son passed away, opening as museum shortly thereafter.

Click the images to enlarge

Campbell House (left) and Hanley House (right). While they’re certainly much different in style, note the similarities between the two house’s Greek Revival-style columns.

Martin Hanley (1814-1879) and Cyrene Clemens Walton Hanley (1819-1894)

Robert Campbell (1804-1879) and Virginia Kyle Campbell (1822-1882)

Pretty interesting, right? Well now that we’ve got you hooked, here’s our shameless plug. Join us a week from today, Wednesday January 28 at 7:00 p.m. at the Church of St. Michael & St. George in Clayton for a more in-depth discussion of the parallels between the city slicker Campbells and country folk Hanleys. Campbell House Executive Director Andy Hahn will be joining Hanley House Curator to discuss medical practices in urban vs. rural 19th century St. Louis (and perhaps offering clues as to why the Hanley children survived and so many of the Campbell kids did not). For more information, see below or call the Clayton Century Foundation at (314) 290-8553. We hope to see you there!

Treating the Sick in St. Louis City & County
Wednesday, January 28 at 7:00 p.m.
Church of St. Michael & St. George (Great Hall)
6345 Wydown Blvd in Clayton, MO