Andrew Wanko – författare

For St. Louis, the Mississippi has always been more than just a river. It’s been the focus of the local economy, a shaping force on millions of lives, and a mirror for the city’s triumphs, embarrassments, joys, and tragedies. Through fifty-six snapshots from the city’s history, Great River City: How the Mississippi Shaped St. Louis examines the many ways St. Louis has interacted with the mighty river running past its front door.Included among the dozens of stories are landmark moments in the history of St. Louis, from Lewis and Clark’s 1803 expeditionary stopover and the construction of the Eads Bridge in the 1860s and ’70s to more recent events, like the Great Flood of 1993. But this book also reveals some unexpected connections between the Mississippi and St. Louis, diving into subjects as diverse as sanitation, urban planning, and racial and ethnic conflicts. Some of these moments still leave their traces on the city today, while others have long since washed away. All are proof that both river and city will continue rolling on.Countless works have examined the importance of the Mississippi River in American history, but rarely through the lens of a single city. Illustrated with hundreds of maps, artifacts, and images from the rich archives of the Missouri Historical Society, Great River City does just that.

This new coloring book offers a hands-on look at St. Louis’s architectural history.  St. Louis is a kaleidoscope of architecture, with beautiful, strange, and fascinating structures of every size and shape, ranging from the city’s earliest days to the twenty-first century. In Coloring St. Louis, readers will find new illustrations of more than thirty St. Louis structures—all ready to color however you please. The book highlights a variety of buildings, including famed landmarks like the Fox Theatre and City Museum, nineteenth-century homes and new high-rises, schools, train stations, breweries, and skyscrapers. Entertaining explanatory text accompanies each drawing, so readers can discover the structures’ significance as they color away. This book is a companion to a new interactive exhibit at the Missouri History Museum where visitors learn the stories of local structures in a way they never have before—by coloring them, right on the walls of the museum. Coloring St. Louis lets readers young and old bring an architectural tour home with them and turn it into a hands-on expression of personal imagination.