Five Campbell Artifacts Donated, Fall Events Calendar, New Museum Website Launched, The Eleven Irish Siblings of Robert Campbell

It has been an exciting year at the Museum. As I write this I still am basking in the wonderful memories made this fall in Ireland (see cover story). It was such a pleasure to forge new and deepen old friendships as we explored the unforgettable landscapes and people we encountered. Watch this newsletter for an announcement of the next Campbell House sponsored trip.

It is perhaps the most important day in a person’s life, the day a happy couple says, “I do.” A wedding has many elements and the spectacle of the whole event is best encapsulated in the reveal of the wedding gown. The bride in her grand attire captures not only the attention of the groom, but also the guests.

2023 marks the 200th anniversary of Robert Campbell’s arrival in St. Louis, where he and his family made their home from 1823 until 1938. Besides an active life in St. Louis, Robert, Virginia, and their children often traveled away from the city for personal, business, or political reasons. This included frequent visits east to see Lucy Kyle (Virginia’s mother) and Hugh (Robert’s brother and business partner) who was married to Mary Kyle (Virginia’s cousin), all of whom eventually moved to St. Louis.

Earlier this year my family and I visited George Washington’s Mount Vernon near Washington D.C. Except for the White House, it’s probably the most famous historic house in America. It was my first visit to Mount Vernon, a place I had long wanted to see because of its many connections to Campbell House. From 1879 until her death in 1882, Virginia Campbell was the Vice Regent for Missouri of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (MVLA).

I shall endeavor in the future to make my visits frequent, although I much doubt whether I shall ever make my permanent residence here. I have never lived long enough in one place to form a very close attachment to it, except here and in Washington. [U. S. Grant referring to St. Louis, April 21, 1873]

The end of the year 2020 also saw the end of the expansion construction project at Campbell House. Work began in December 2019 on the $2 million project to make the Museum accessible and to add program space. The public was welcomed to experience the new spaces at an open house the first weekend in December. The pandemic made a dedication event impossible but a dedication event is planned for the future. Here are the project’s highlights.

Longtime Museum Board member and Museum Shop volunteer Jeanne Lindburg died peacefully on October 19 after a short illness. Campbell House never had a greater advocate than Jeanne. It started as a family passion for local history passed on by her mother-in-law and father-in-law Arthur and Marian Lindburg and her husband Earl Lindburg, all of whom were early supporters of the Museum’s mission of historic preservation.

For the last few years it has been my privilege to serve as a volunteer at the Campbell House Museum. The Museum staff encouraged me to become a docent because of my family’s personal history with Robert and Virginia Campbell’s oldest son Hugh (1847-1931). I may not be an expert with facts and dates like other docents, but each time I get to tell the story of this family it is a personal experience for me because of everything Hugh did to change the lives of two young boys he first met back in 1913. The following is my story of the Campbell House framed in the form of a letter to Hugh Campbell.

On the sunny Friday before Christmas members of the Museums’ Board,  friends and volunteers gathered to mark the official start of an expansion project at Campbell House that has been years in the making. Executive Director Andy Hahn and Jeff Clark of Metropolitan Build, the project’s general contractor, spoke. “It is gratifying to finally see the start come to this project after many years of planning and dreaming,” Hahn said.