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2009 Governor's Humanities Awardees: Jerry Craig, Salem; Patti Naeger, Ste. Genevieve; Mark Abbott, Ph.D., St. Louis; accepting for Billyo O’Donnell were his parents – Alice and Edward O’Donnell, St. Louis; Greg Olson, Columbia; Karen Glines, St. Louis

Governor’s Humanities Awards 2009

Contributed by Anna Marie Wingron, MHC Development Director

Each year the Governor of Missouri and the Missouri Humanities Council celebrate the accomplishments of people who have made exceptional contributions to the understanding of Missouri, its people and its stories. These awards are based on nominations from colleagues, students, associates and the general public for outstanding contributions to the humanities in Missouri. The 2009 Governor’s Humanities Awards honored six Missourians for their exemplary community and literary achievements on May 12 at Stephens College in Columbia.

“The Missouri Humanities Council commends the honorees for their commitment to making the humanities meaningful and accessible to the people of Missouri,” said Geoff Giglierano, the Council’s Executive Director. “Their work inspires all of us to apply ourselves in finding fresh and exciting ways to bring the humanities to broader, more diverse audiences.”  Read more about the awardees and the event.

“A Piece of Our Heart”

Contributed by Wicky Sleight, MHC Board Member and 2002 Governor’s Humanities Awardee

“It is better to give others a piece of our heart than a piece of our mind.”
~Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

The Missouri Humanities Council Governor’s Humanities Awards are indeed a gift of a “piece of our heart.” The 2009 awards were recently given to three outstanding Missourians for Exemplary Community Achievement and three Missouri authors and artists for Distinguished Literary Achievement.  As a 2002 recipient of the Governor’s Award for Exemplary Community Achievement, I can personally attest to the enduring quality of this gift. Since nominations are secret, I was not aware that I had even been nominated when I received notification of the award. The fact that Don Corrigan, editor of the Webster-Kirkwood Times and professor of journalism at Webster University, nominated me meant almost as much to me as the award itself. I have always admired Don and his work. He never fails to give a “piece of his mind” every week in our local newspaper but with this nomination he also gave me a piece of his heart.  Read more…

Celebrating Children’s Books

by Julie Douglas, MHC Family Program Specialist

Have you recovered from your exuberant celebration of Children’s Book Week yet? What, you didn’t celebrate?  Children’s Book Week was May 10-16 and has been observed since 1919.  According to the Children’s Book Council, Children’s Book Week was established because, quite simply, books change lives.

The other day I met a grandmother who told me she was reading as much as she could to her grandchild because soon the child (a four-year-old) would be “too old to read to.”   In our READ from the START programs we stress the importance of reading to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.  But perhaps we should rethink the name.  Maybe READ from the START and DON’T STOP.  Reading to and with a child can continue to be a rich experience right through grade school and high school and even into young adulthood.  Read more…

Summer Teachers’ Workshops

There are a couple of professional development opportunities for Missouri educators coming up.  They include:

  • World Religions in Missouri offered on June 15 & 16 in Columbia through MU’s Center on Religion & the Professions
  • Teaching Mark Twain offered June 14-18, July 12-16 and July 26-30 at the Mark Twain Museum in Hannibal
  • Social Life on the Missouri Frontier, 1821-1861 offered July 19-23 by the National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence
  • Advanced Placement Human Geography and Advanced Placement World History Summer Institutes offered July 19-23 by the International Education Consortium in St. Louis
  • Wilson’s Creek: How a Forgotten Battle Saved Missouri and Changed the Course of the Civil War offered June 14-18, 2010 and June 21-25 at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield in Springfield

For more information, visit our Upcoming Teacher Development Opportunities webpage.

Exhibit Opportunities

Divided Loyalties: Civil War Documents

The Missouri State Archives is now booking its newest traveling exhibit, Divided Loyalties: Civil War Documents from the Missouri State Archives.  The exhibit will be available for travel by 2011.

Divided Loyalties: Civil War Documents examines the upheaval and uncertainty that characterized Missouri during the Civil War era. Drawing on more than nine million pages of Civil War-related documents and court cases, the exhibit goes beyond the stories of battles and military strategy to consider the charged atmosphere of social conflict that permeated the state for the two decades that followed the Kansas Border Wars of the mid-1850s.

Schools, libraries, historical societies, and other institutions may borrow Divided Loyalties free of charge for up to three months.  The exhibit consists of thirty-six graphic panels and requires a minimum of 1,000 square feet of exhibit space.  For further details, contact Greg Olson, Curator for Exhibits and Special Projects at the Missouri State Archives- 573-522-2705 or greg.olson@sos.mo.gov.

Deadly Medicine

It’s not too late to see the Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race exhibition at the National Archives in Kansas City, partially funded through a grant from the Missouri Humanities Council.  The exhibit is still open through June 10th.  For more information, visit http://mchekc.org/DeadlyMedicine.htm. The site includes lesson plans for educators and links to primary source materials. On June 2nd, Dr. Harry Reicher of the University of Pennsylvania Law School will present “The Doctor’s Trial at Nuremberg:  Medicine in the Third Reich,” the last session of the Speaker’s Series.

A Message from the Executive Director

by Geoff Giglierano, MHC Executive Director

Learning About Missouri: New but Familiar

Since taking on the role of MHC Executive Director in late April, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job for me  is beginning the task of learning about the people and communities of Missouri.  It’s relatively new ground for me:  I have not spent much time in the state before, and I am intrigued by the diversity of the stories that make up Missouri’s cultural and historical heritage.  At the same time, there is a great deal of familiarity to many of these stories.  Having grown up and worked in Ohio (which also prepared me for the summer humidity), Missouri stories about topics such as the river trade, immigration, the Civil War, the modernization of agriculture, and WWII industries are very similar to—or directly interconnected with—elements of Ohio and national history on which I have worked before.

I was reminded of this fact when I recently had the pleasure of attending the 2009 Governor’s Humanities Awards ceremony.  I had the opportunity to meet and talk with some of the fascinating people who are engaged in doing creative and important work in the humanities throughout Missouri.  Read more…