Episodes

Monday Mar 25, 2019
Episode 13: National History Day in Missouri – Maggie Mayhan
Monday Mar 25, 2019
Monday Mar 25, 2019
Each year, thousands of Missouri students put in hours of hard work in preparation for National History Day competitions across the state. National History Day in Missouri offers students at the middle school and high school levels the opportunity to explore global issues through projects such as documentaries, performances, papers, websites, and exhibits. With roughly a month to go until the state competition on April 27, 2019, this episode features Maggie Mayhan discussing how students and teachers can develop programs and projects at their local school as well as past winners who have found success beyond the classroom thanks to National History Day.
Episode Image: Students participating in the performance category at National History Day in Missouri, date unknown [Courtesy of National History Day in Missouri]
About the Guest: Maggie Mayhan is the National History Day in Missouri Coordinator for the State Historical Society of Missouri. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Truman State University. Initially working with the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project, Maggie has been affiliated with National History Day since 2012.

Monday Mar 11, 2019
Monday Mar 11, 2019
The 61st Annual Missouri Conference on History may be over, but the Our Missouri Podcast invites listeners to explore the City of Fountains one last time in this concluding episode of the "Going to Kansas City” series. This five-part series focuses on several projects and institutions that document and define Kansas City's history and identity. This episode features Raymond Doswell discussing the long history of African American baseball as well as efforts to preserve its memory through the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
Episode Image: Unidentified Kansas City Monarchs player, date unknown [William L. Fambrough, Sr. Photograph Collection (K0642), SHSMO]
About the Guest: Raymond Doswell is the Vice President of Curatorial Services at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. He holds a Ph.D. in Education from Kansas State University. In addition to managing the archival collections at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, he has also published several articles on the history of African America baseball and the legacy of the Negro Leagues.

Monday Feb 25, 2019
Monday Feb 25, 2019
With this year's Missouri Conference on History coming up in March, many scholars will soon be going to Kansas City. To help prepare for the conference, the Our Missouri Podcast invites listeners to explore the City of Fountains from the confluence of two mighty rivers near the downtown skyline to the Plaza, the Paseo, and the intersection of 18th and Vine. This five-part series entitled "Going to Kansas City" focuses on several projects and institutions that document and define Kansas City's history and identity. This episode features Diane Mutti Burke and Jason Roe talking about the recently edited collection, Wide-Open Town: Kansas City in the Pendergast Era. This new book is a collaborative era by several scholars to research and document Kansas City's diverse population and institutions during the first half of the 20th Century.
Episode Image: Petticoat Lane, Kansas City, Missouri, ca. 1935 [Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Photographs (P0280), SHSMO]
About the Guest: Diane Mutti Burke is a professor of history and director of the Center for Midwestern Studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Emory University. Her first book, On Slavery’s Border: Missouri’s Small-Slaveholding Households, 1815-1865, won the Missouri Conference on History Book Award in 2010. In addition to her award-winning book, she has also co-edited three anthologies on the Missouri/Kansas border region, including Kansas City, America’s Crossroads, co-edited with John Herron; Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border, co-edited with Jonathan Earle; and Wide Open Town: Kansas City during the Pendergast Era, co-edited with John Herron and Jason Roe.
Jason Roe is the digital history specialist for the Kansas City Public Library. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Kansas. He is also the recipient of several awards for his digital history projects through the Kansas City Public Library, including "The Pendergast Years" and "Civil War on the Western Border" which won the Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Innovation in Digital History from the American Historical Association and George Mason University.

Monday Feb 11, 2019
Monday Feb 11, 2019
With this year's Missouri Conference on History coming up in March, many scholars will soon be going to Kansas City. To help prepare for the conference, the Our Missouri Podcast invites listeners to explore the City of Fountains from the confluence of two mighty rivers near the downtown skyline to the Plaza, the Paseo, and the intersection of 18th and Vine. This five-part series entitled "Going to Kansas City" focuses on several projects and institutions that document and define Kansas City's history and identity. This episode features Mark Adams discussing all things Harry S. Truman from his upbringing in Missouri and early political career to the later establishment of his presidential library and plans for future renovations to the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum.
Episode Image: Harry S. Truman and a pair of mules at the Missouri State Fair, ca. 1948 [Gerald R. Massie Photographs (P0016), SHSMO]
About the Guest: Mark Adams is the Education Director at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum. He is also a history educator with more than twenty-five years of experience at the high school and university level. Prior to joining the Truman Library, Adams was affiliated with the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka. Presently, in addition to his role as Education Director, Adams serves as a coordinator for National History Day programs and workshops at the state and regional level.

Monday Jan 28, 2019
Monday Jan 28, 2019
With this year's Missouri Conference on History coming up in March, many scholars will soon be going to Kansas City. To help prepare for the conference, the Our Missouri Podcast invites listeners to explore the City of Fountains from the confluence of two mighty rivers near the downtown skyline to the Plaza, the Paseo, and the intersection of 18th and Vine. This five-part series entitled "Going to Kansas City" focuses on several projects and institutions that document and define Kansas City's history and identity. This episode features Lucinda Adams talking about the diverse collections housed at the State Historical Society of Missouri's Kansas City Research Center, including the Jewish Community Archives of Greater Kansas City.
Episode Image: Twelfth Street, Kansas City, Missouri, ca. 1900 [Kansas City, Photographs, ca. 1902 (P1047), SHSMO]
About the Guest: Lucinda Adams holds a master’s degree in library science as well as master’s and bachelor of arts degrees in history from Indiana University. Prior to rejoining the State Historical Society of Missouri in 2014 as the Associate Director of the Kansas City Research Center, she served as state coordinator of National History Day in Missouri and later as senior archivist of the Missouri Valley Special Collections with the Kansas City Public Library.

Tuesday Jan 15, 2019
Tuesday Jan 15, 2019
Episode 8: Public History in Kansas City and Beyond - Sandra Enriquez (Going to Kansas City, Part 1)
With this year's Missouri Conference on History coming up in March, many scholars will soon be going to Kansas City. To help prepare for the conference, the Our Missouri Podcast invites listeners to explore the City of Fountains from the confluence of two mighty rivers near the downtown skyline to the Plaza, the Paseo, and the intersection of 18th and Vine. This five-part series entitled "Going to Kansas City" focuses on several projects and institutions that document and define Kansas City's history and identity. This episode features Sandra Enriquez discussing several of the public history projects she has been involved with in her career, particularly the Latinx KC Oral History Project.
Episode Image: Union Station, Kansas City, Missouri, 1952 [Missouri Ruralist Photographs (P0030), SHSMO]
About the Guest: Sandra Enriquez is an assistant professor of history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She holds a PhD in History from the University of Houston. In addition to serving as the director of the Latinx KC Oral History Project, she also supervises the public history internship program at UMKC. Before moving to Missouri, she was affiliated with several public history projects in Texas, including the Gulf Coast Food Project and the Civil Rights in Black and Brown Oral History Project.

Monday Dec 17, 2018
Episode 7: Missouri's Bicentennial – Michael Sweeney
Monday Dec 17, 2018
Monday Dec 17, 2018
As the calendar turns from 2018 to 2019, we are one year closer to Missouri's bicentennial in 2021. Since 2013, several state-wide organizations, including the State Historical Society of Missouri, have been tasked with the opportunity to develop and promote events related to this special occasion. This episode features Michael Sweeney talking about his travels throughout the state as the bicentennial coordinator for the State Historical Society of Missouri. Michael also explains how the hard work put in by members of the Bicentennial Alliance and other local organizations has produced a multi-faceted series of programs and events to celebrate Missouri's 200th birthday.
Episode Image: Christmas on the Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, Missouri, 1939 [J. C. Nichols Company Scrapbooks (K0054), SHSMO]
About the Guest: Michael Sweeney holds a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Missouri and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Kansas. Prior to rejoining the State Historical Society of Missouri as the bicentennial coordinator in 2017, he served as the director of collections at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Michael has written for the Jackson County Historical Society Journal, and his most recent article, "Fateful Bargain: Race, Money, and Politics in the Origins and Development of Kansas City's Paseo YMCA," appeared in the April 2018 edition of the Missouri Historical Review.

Monday Dec 03, 2018
Episode 6: A How-to Guide to Genealogy – Bill Eddleman
Monday Dec 03, 2018
Monday Dec 03, 2018
The end of the year is upon us, and it is once again time to load up the car and head out to various parties and events to mark the season. And yet, between watching sports on TV, passing the plate for one more helping of your favorite dish, and awkwardly trying to avoid uncomfortable small talk, don't let the time pass without utilizing this moment with loved ones to finally record information on your family tree. This episode features Bill Eddleman, associate director of the State Historical Society of Missouri's Cape Girardeau Research Center and current president of the Missouri State Genealogical Association, talking about some best practices to consider when researching family and community history. In this "how-to" guide to genealogy, Eddleman explains how genealogists, from novices to seasoned veterans, can navigate the records available in libraries, archives, and online.
Episode Image: Minnie Organ standing in the newspaper library at the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1902 [State Historical Society of Missouri Photographs (P0137), SHSMO]
About the Guest: William R. Eddleman earned a PhD in Biology from Oklahoma State University. Eddleman served as a professor in the Department of Biology at Southeast Missouri State University from 1995-2014. He served as vice provost and dean of the School of Graduate Studies from 2011-2013 before being appointed as the provost of Southeast Missouri State University. After retiring as provost in 2016, Eddleman became the associate director of the State Historical Society of Missouri's Cape Girardeau Research Center. Presently, he is the president of the Missouri State Genealogical Association.

Monday Nov 19, 2018
Monday Nov 19, 2018
It was supposed to be the war to end all wars. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the guns on the battlefield fell silent to mark the signing of the armistice that ended World War I. Yet, for all the hope of peace and a return to normalcy, this First World War, as it would later be called, merely marked the opening act of a century dominated by global conflict. As we come upon the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the Our Missouri Podcast is launching a three part series on "Missouri and The Great War." Each episode in this series will focus on different aspects of the war ranging from soldiers and civilians on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean to how the conflict has been remembered in memory and monuments. This episode features Petra DeWitt sharing insights from her book, Degrees of Allegiance: Harassment and Loyalty in Missouri's Germany-American Community during World War I. In her book, DeWitt explains how the patriotism and hysteria of World War I impacted Missouri as well as its substantial German-American community.
Episode Image: World War I soldiers posing for a photograph in front of the columns at the University of Missouri, ca. 1917 [James T. Darrough Photograph Collection (P0428), SHSMO]
About the Guest: Petra DeWitt is an assistant professor of history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. She holds a PhD in history from the University of Missouri–Columbia. Her 2012 book, Degrees of Allegiance: Harassment and Loyalty in Missouri's Germany-American Community during World War I, won the State Historical Society’s Missouri Book Award. Recently, her article, "Heroines on the Home Front: World War I and the Council of National Defense's Woman's Committee, Missouri Division," appeared in the April 2018 edition of the Missouri Historical Review.

Monday Nov 05, 2018
Monday Nov 05, 2018
It was supposed to be the war to end all wars. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the guns on the battlefield fell silent to mark the signing of the armistice that ended World War I. Yet, for all the hope of peace and a return to normalcy, this First World War, as it would later be called, merely marked the opening act of a century dominated by global conflict. As we come upon the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the Our Missouri Podcast is launching a three part series on "Missouri and The Great War." Each episode in this series will focus on different aspects of the war ranging from soldiers and civilians on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean to how the conflict has been remembered in memory and monuments. In this episode, Jonathan Casey, director of the archives and Edward Jones Research Center at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, offers tips on how researchers can find relevant documents related to the war and explains how the museum prepared for the World War I centennial.
Episode Image: Liberty Memorial, Kansas City, Missouri, 1921 [J. C. Nichols Company Scrapbooks (K0054), SHSMO]
About the Guest: Jonathan Casey serves as the director of the archives and Edward Jones Research Center at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from the College of William and Mary and a master's degree in museum studies from the University of Kansas. In addition to managing the museum's collection of over 100,000 items, Casey has also traveled to several World War I sites in the United States and Europe to give programs on the war's lasting impact.