Restaurants, groceries, butcher shops, candy stores—no food establishment escaped the critical eye of Miriam Coste Senseney. Although the Pure Food and Drug Act became law in 1906, food safety remained an issue for decades. Miriam took it upon herself to guarantee that St. Louis’s restaurants and food production facilities would meet strict sanitation standards.
Known in St. Louis’s African American community as “the Human Dynamo,” Arsania Williams worked tirelessly to improve the lives of those who crossed her path. A celebrated teacher in St. Louis’s segregated public schools for nearly 50 years, she also served as the president of the St. Louis and Missouri chapters of the National Association of Colored Women.
Some of St. Louis’s first residents weren’t French, or Spanish, or British. They didn’t travel over great distances to start new lives in a foreign land. Instead they came from nearby villages. These Native Americans were important contributors to the cultural and economic foundation of St. Louis. The city thrived because women like Françoise LeDuc lived here.
When Annie Turnbo Malone came to St. Louis in 1902 hoping to expand her small cosmetics business, few would have guessed that she’d become one of the richest women in the world. Two years earlier she’d invented Wonderful Hair Grower, the first of what would evolve into a complete line of beauty products for African American women. Initially Annie and a few assistants sold Wonderful Hair Grower door-to-door, but she soon brought other women into the business, training them as franchised saleswomen. By 1918 Annie was a multimillionaire, and her company, Poro, employed 75,000 women worldwide.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published in 2018. For more information about current and upcoming exhibits, visit The Magic House website.
When Elizabeth Fitzgerald was in college working toward a degree in education, she was asked to compose her mission statement as a future educator. At that time, she likely had no idea just how far her mission to create a love of learning in children would travel or how many children she would reach.
A new exhibit now open at Purina Farms explores an important question: Why is life better with pets?