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Look for this sign
What has St. Louis been eating the last hundred years or so? The St. Louis Media History Foundation’s archives hold lots of ads and other clippings and many, many of them are food and drink related. This winter, I began to go through them to put together an exhibit of the best and most interesting ones. (I’m on their board because they have a scholarship fund in the name of my late husband.)
Some companies have disappeared, some hold great memories for many people, some still remain and prosper. Some have great artwork. Others are small but fascinating because of what they talk about. In many cases, the reverse sides were as interesting as the front, like an article about the political convention nominating Teddy Roosevelt.
And it’s not just ads. We have a loop running of one of the earliest local cooking shows, a radio loop. There’s a program from a 1931 cooking school at Washington University’s field house, run by the Globe-Democrat.
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Some of these are original, like the James Beard Award-winning food section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a gift of Judy Evans, who was the editor at the time. Others are copies that are enlarged, easier to read, and less endangering to fragile elderly pieces of paper.
The exhibit is at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, where they’ve very graciously given us a whole room for showing off some of the treasures we have and continue to acquire. The room is fairly small, but the details of the ads are worth your time.
St. Louis Media History Foundation Room
Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum
3524 Russell
314-282-0234
Tues-Sun: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Free admission
Wheelchair accessible: No, unfortunately.
Through July 31
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An early example of "product placement." The history of the cereal (and the Ralstonites who were supposed to eat it) is a fascinating one.
