Jefferson County Library – Northwest Branch

At the St. Louis World’s Fair, cartoon celebrity Buster Brown became the spokesman for over 100 companies, including the Brown Shoe Company. Buster Brown’s transition from the funny pages to advertising trademarks gives insights into fundamental shifts in American consumer culture during its developmental years. Mostly remembered today as a children’s shoe logo, this presentation […]

Inventing Immigration Crises in 19th-Century Missouri Who counts as an American? It was a question that plagued nineteenth-century politics, as German and Irish immigrants arrived in unprecedented numbers. On an election day in 1854, St. Louis witnessed one of the nation’s largest anti-immigrant riots. Rioters sabotaged an election and murdered at least ten people. Historian […]