Taking Possession: The Politics of Memory in a St. Louis Town House
West of downtown St. Louis sits an 1851 town house that bears no obvious relationship to the monumental architecture, trendy condominiums, and sports stadia of its surroundings. Originally the residence of a fur-trade tycoon and now the Campbell House Museum, the house has been subject to energetic preservation and heritage work for some 130 years.

In Taking Possession, Heidi Aronson Kolk explores the complex and sometimes contradictory motivations for safeguarding the house as a site of public memory. Crafting narratives about the past that comforted business elites and white middle-class patrons, museum promoters assuaged concerns about the city's most pressing problems, including racial and economic inequality, segregation and privatization, and the legacies of violence for which St. Louis has been known since Ferguson. Kolk's case study illuminates the processes by which civic pride and cultural solidarity have been manufactured in a fragmented and turbulent city, showing how closely linked are acts of memory and forgetting, nostalgia and shame.
1129836857
Taking Possession: The Politics of Memory in a St. Louis Town House
West of downtown St. Louis sits an 1851 town house that bears no obvious relationship to the monumental architecture, trendy condominiums, and sports stadia of its surroundings. Originally the residence of a fur-trade tycoon and now the Campbell House Museum, the house has been subject to energetic preservation and heritage work for some 130 years.

In Taking Possession, Heidi Aronson Kolk explores the complex and sometimes contradictory motivations for safeguarding the house as a site of public memory. Crafting narratives about the past that comforted business elites and white middle-class patrons, museum promoters assuaged concerns about the city's most pressing problems, including racial and economic inequality, segregation and privatization, and the legacies of violence for which St. Louis has been known since Ferguson. Kolk's case study illuminates the processes by which civic pride and cultural solidarity have been manufactured in a fragmented and turbulent city, showing how closely linked are acts of memory and forgetting, nostalgia and shame.
21.99 In Stock
Taking Possession: The Politics of Memory in a St. Louis Town House

Taking Possession: The Politics of Memory in a St. Louis Town House

by Heidi Aronson Kolk
Taking Possession: The Politics of Memory in a St. Louis Town House

Taking Possession: The Politics of Memory in a St. Louis Town House

by Heidi Aronson Kolk

eBook

$21.99 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

West of downtown St. Louis sits an 1851 town house that bears no obvious relationship to the monumental architecture, trendy condominiums, and sports stadia of its surroundings. Originally the residence of a fur-trade tycoon and now the Campbell House Museum, the house has been subject to energetic preservation and heritage work for some 130 years.

In Taking Possession, Heidi Aronson Kolk explores the complex and sometimes contradictory motivations for safeguarding the house as a site of public memory. Crafting narratives about the past that comforted business elites and white middle-class patrons, museum promoters assuaged concerns about the city's most pressing problems, including racial and economic inequality, segregation and privatization, and the legacies of violence for which St. Louis has been known since Ferguson. Kolk's case study illuminates the processes by which civic pride and cultural solidarity have been manufactured in a fragmented and turbulent city, showing how closely linked are acts of memory and forgetting, nostalgia and shame.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781613766637
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date: 08/30/2019
Series: Public History in Historical Perspective
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 248
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

HEIDI ARONSON KOLK is assistant professor in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts and assistant vice provost of academic assessment at Washington University in St. Louis.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: The Burglary 1

Chapter 1 The Neighborhood 19

Chapter 2 Caretaking 36

Chapter 3 The Auction 52

Chapter 4 The Opening 74

Chapter 5 The Receipt Book 99

Chapter 6 The Dinner Party 111

Chapter 7 Two Buckskin Suits 133

Chapter 8 Restoration 157

Conclusion: No Place Like Home 185

Notes 195

Index 239

What People are Saying About This

Patricia West

With a wide range of sources and well-crafted narratives, Kolk makes a significant contribution to public history by establishing the individual house museum as a rich and substantial primary source.

Andrew Hurley

Kolk's prose is sharp and often elegant; herwork provides scholars and museum professionals with a model for probing the connection between artifacts andpublic memory.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews