Monday Update » 6.11.12

Welcome back to Monday, everyone! We hope you’ve been enjoying your summer so far. As usual, we’ve been busy here and we have some fun things to report to you:

Facelift for Campbell House
Actually, more like a coat of paint. 2012 marks the 10-year anniversary of the completion of the exterior renovation of the house, and we’re due for another paint job. Fortunately, we’ve secured a generous grant from the Robert J. Trulaske, Jr. Family Foundation for the funds to have the brick, windows and cornices repainted. Since the house is so big and tall, this is going to be an exciting process because the painters will have to use a series of lifts to reach the highest points of the house. Work will likely begin this summer after we complete spot tuckpointing, and we’ll be sure to share pictures as the work progresses. Three cheers for the Robert J. Trulaske, Jr. Family Foundation for helping us keep the Campbells’ home in tip-top shape!

We ♥ Our Interns
Campbell House has a full complement of six interns this summer. Though most of them are from St. Louis, they represent universities from all over the country, (Vassar, Wartburg College and Washington University) and a variety of disciplines including art history, chemistry (really) and American culture studies. They’ll get the full museum experience this summer by giving tours, conducting research, inventorying the Campbell collection as well as all of the other day-to-day stuff that needs to get done (i.e. watering the garden, booking tours, working on membership renewals, etc). Check back in with us as we post intern profiles to the blog. These dynamic — and wickedly smart — students breathe new life into this house, and we’re fortunate to have their fresh perspective. While they’re learning the museum biz, we get new insight and ideas for making this old house current and relevant to a young demographic. Are you interested in joining us for an internship, too? Email Executive Director Andy Hahn at andy [at] campbellhousemuseum.org.

Interior of Fort Laramie by Alfred Jacob Miller
Watercolor, 1858-1860

Retracing Robert’s Route
This week, Intrepid Researcher Tom™  and our illustrious Executive Director Andy are taking a trip out to the wild west to visit Robert’s old stomping grounds. Beginning at Fort Laramie, the pair will meet Robert’s great-nephew Alan (who is coming all the way from Northern Ireland) to see the annual Rendezvous that reenacts the yearly event where trappers would meet with merchants to trade furs for goods. Fort Laramie is significant because Robert founded Fort William, which was Fort Laramie’s precursor. This year’s event will commemorate artist Alfred Jacob Miller’s 1837 trip to the rendezvous. Miller produced some of the most famous images of the Oregon Trail and Fort Laramie, including the one on the right. After the rendezvous, the trio will visit Museum of the Mountain Man, Pierre’s Hole (the site of the famous battle in which Robert and pal Bill Sublette played a major role), and finally — if they have time — a trip to Fort Bridger. We’ll be sure to post pictures after the travelers return.

A picture from the process: the entire keyboard was removed from the body of the piano.

Music to Our Ears
In what proved to be a five-month project, the Campbells’ piano is DONE! JoAnn Kaplan of Kapstan Piano Services worked tirelessly to clean, fix and/or custom-fabricate new parts, and finally tune the old Schomacker. We didn’t do all that work for nothing — we’ll start hosting parlor concerts later this year. Check back for details.

Tours on Tap
Did you miss our wildly successful Lucas Place/Tap Room walking tour last fall? Have no fear — we’ll offer it again and then some. This week we’re meeting with our friends at Landmarks Association of St. Louis to put together some fun and informative tours. As soon as we work out the details we ‘ll get a schedule of events posted. Do you have an idea for a building, neighborhood or special tour of Campbell House? Let us know! Send your bright idea to shelley.satke [at] gmail.com and we’ll see what we can do.

Detail of the reupholstered piano bench. That’s silk velvet and yes, it feels as good as it looks.

Facelift 2.0: Bidet and Piano Stool
The house is getting repainted, and two pieces of furniture have been reupholstered, too. The fabric on Virginia’s bidet cover had deteriorated to nothing more than threads, and the piano stool wasn’t in much better shape. Board member and interior designer Tim Rohan generously donated new fabric and had the tops of both pieces of furniture reupholstered over the existing fabrics so we would not lose the original material (what was left of it, anyway).

New Geocache
Are you into urban treasure hunting? We have a new geocache in our garden….dig up your GPS or download a geocache app to find it, and add your name to the list!

Board President Fritz Clifford with St. Louis Ballet dancers.

We’re the Daaaahncers
Last week we welcomed a crew of St. Louis Ballet dancers who performed at our Magical Spring Thing in April. They got the VIP tour with Andy and Board President Fritz leading the way.  Do you have a special group that would like to have a special behind-the-scenes experience at Campbell House? Contact Andy (andy [at] campbellhousemuseum.org) or Shelley (shelley.satke [at] gmail.com) and we are more than happy to accommodate you!

Bye, Bob
Bob’s going away….for now. The beloved garden gnome that was left on our front steps as a prank will be vacationing back at the DeMenil Mansion until we launch a secret expedition to bring him home.  <super sadface>

….and that’s all the news that’s fit to print for now. Have a spectacular week!

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Monday Update » 4.23.12

A draft of one of Lindsey's panels. Come by in two weeks to see the whole exhibit in person. (Believe me, she'll be REALLY happy if you do.)

Welcome to the downhill slope of Monday, everyone. It’s been a marathon around here the last few weeks, and this is what we have to show for it:

New Civil War Exhibit
Out with the old and in with the new…..Weekend Manager Lindsey is putting the finishing touches on her new exhibit, A Family Apart: The Campbells During the Civil War Years. She’s pulling some of Virginia’s dresses and jewelry out of storage, along with some exceptional old letters. Come by after May 8th to see the story of the Campbells during this turbulent period in American history.

Magical Spring Thing
Sam Clark’s big show — the Magical Spring Thing — on April 14th was a huge success. We’re still recovering from it, but we raised a few dollars for new environmental programming and special projects around the house. Big thanks to Sam and all the volunteers and board members who helped pull off another spectacular show with Union Avenue Opera, St. Louis Ballet, students from Webster University’s Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts, St. Louis Ragtimers and the Ballroom Dance Academy of St. Louis.

Webster Groves High School students working on an overgrown area at our fence. The yard looks wonderful thanks to their hard work.

Webster High School Lends a Hand
Our garden volunteers (read: Moms and Dads of the CHM staff) are especially grateful for the group of ten Webster Groves High School students and parents who came by on April 10th to do some heavy lifting in the garden. The enthusiastic teens knocked out an impressive amount of weeding, trimming, mulching and planting, and it was a pleasure to have them at the house.  The garden looks FABULOUS because of all their help. <please come back!>

The Mysterious Gus Meyer
Between digging up scoop on Lucas Place and the Campbell Family, there isn’t much Intrepid Researcher Tom™  can’t find. Last week, he started the quest to uncover more information about Gus Meyer, a devoted servant who began working at Campbell House as a gardener in 1901, and he eventually worked his way up to be Hugh Campbell’s personal assistant. After Hugh died in 1931, Gus stayed in the house and took care of Hugh’s brother Hazlett until he died in 1938. Gus continued to live in and manage the house until it finally opened as a museum five years later. He signed the Museum’s guest book on its opening day, and we lost track of him after that. Intrepid Researcher Tom™ has found information on his family and what happened to him after he left his job of over 40 years at Campbell House. We’ll make a blog post with all of his findings shortly.

Bring Mom to Campbell House for Mother’s Day
Stumped for what to get your darling mom on Mother’s Day? Easy, bring her to our house for Arias in the Afternoon, a garden party we’re co-hosting with Union Avenue Opera. Spend the afternoon relaxing in our garden and listening to a special one-hour concert while enjoying tea and nibbles from our neighbors, the London Tea Room. It’s going to be a great event and if you bring your mom, you’ll be her favorite son or daughter. We promise. Click here for tickets.

Urban Exploring 2.0: Museum Building at the Missouri Botanical Garden
After the overwhelming popularity of the post on our recent trek through the St. Louis Transit Company Electrical Substation, we’re going to try making Urban Exploring a regular feature. This weekend we had the chance to get inside the Museum Building at the Botanical Garden, a structure that’s closed to the public. A blog post featuring pictures of the Museum Building and Tower Grove House is coming this week.

That’s just some of what is happening at Campbell House. Check back with us for some exciting news on house painting (!), the 2012 Freedom’s Gateway Signature Event, and our Spring Members Party. From the Campbell family to yours, have a stellar week!

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.

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