Aug. 29, 2019
Contact: Nancy Lee Gomer, Marketing Coordinator, 636-949-7535, or 636-795-1137, ngomer@sccmo.org
St. Charles County, Missouri – The St. Charles County Heritage Museum in St. Peters is hosting two special lectures as part of the Show Me Missouri: Conversations about Missouri's Past, Present, and Future speakers’ bureau, a program jointly organized and managed by the Missouri Humanities Council and the State Historical Society of Missouri. Local experts will discuss German history and ecology at these free educational talks on Thursday evenings in September and October.
Presentations include:
"At the Point of Dutchmen's Bayonets: German Immigrants and the Outbreak of the Civil War in Missouri,” Thursday, Sept. 26, from 6 to 8 p.m.: German history expert and Webster University lecturer Kristen Layne Anderson will explore the role German immigrants played in the early days of the Civil War in Missouri. Anderson is an associate professor at Webster University, and specializes in 19th century United States social history, in particular the participation of immigrants in the Civil War and debates over slavery. She is currently working on a new book examining how German immigrants remembered and commemorated their Civil War participation.
"Why Prairie Matters: New Relevancies for a Vanishing Landscape," Thursday, Oct. 24, from 6 to 8 p.m.: Ecology expert and Executive Director of the Missouri Prairie Foundation Carol Davit will discuss the importance of native tall-grass prairies to Missouri's natural heritage. At the time of statehood, at least 15 million acres of tall-grass prairie blanketed Missouri – about one third of the state. Missouri's prairie was part of the Great North American prairie ecosystem that stretched from Ohio to the Rockies, north into Canada, and south into Mexico. Today, there are fewer than 60,000 scattered prairie acres remaining in the state. Missouri's prairie remnants have inherent value, but they also serve us by providing carbon storage, water filtration, pollination, and other measurable benefits. This presentation will focus on the history, beauty, and conservation of Missouri's prairies, and on facets of a new "tall-grass prairie economy," which uses an ancient ecosystem as a model for new sustainable landscapes that benefit people in many ways.
The Heritage Museum is located at 1630 Heritage Landing. The lectures are open to the public, but seating is limited. For more information and to register, call the museum at 636-255-6000 or visit http://bit.ly/AtthePointofDutchmansBayonets for the Sept. 26 lecture and http://bit.ly/WhyPrairieMatters for the Oct. 24 lecture.