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St. Louis
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2021-03-11
Missouri Travels A Year After COVID
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down, and the world went into a global lock down. A year later, restrictions started being lifted and my mother and I traveled to Osage Beach Missouri, as well as the surrounding areas. Because Osage Beach was a tourist town on a lake most of the local attractions were closed due to it being the off season. It was March of 2021. Previously, my family had loved going to Missouri, but always had gone to Branson. We chose Osage Beach, however, because we could get free accommodations through my parents timeshare points. The day I remember most of the trip was traveling to St. Louis, Missouri to visit the St. Louis Zoo. The day before going we had to book a time slot in order to reduce our chances of being exposed to COVID and in order for the zoo to know approximately how many people were there. We did not have to wear medical masks outdoors, since we were fully vaccinated, but when in areas like the gift shop or some dining facilities we had to wear masks. If a zoo worker asked to see our COVID vaccine cards we had to show them or put on masks. After visiting the zoo, my mom and I went to a local pizza pub in Osage Beach that had St. Louis style pizzas. They were not as concerned about the COVID regulations and did not enforce any mask or social distancing policies that the St. Louis Zoo had. This was a theme of Missouri restrictions as I saw when I toured the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. There I was not required to wear a mask or social distance, but group numbers were limited and reservations had to be made. Luckily my mother and I did not get COVID during the trip, but after a year of lock down and restrictions, the few restrictions still in place felt like a culture shock, even though I still lived in Texas at the time. -
2020-11-08
Independent booksellers write a new chapter during COVID-19
Small businesses have been hit hard by restrictions during COVID-19. Many are struggling to stay afloat and have come up with creative ways to bring in business. Some have even turned to GoFundMe's to raise money and bring attention to their business, such as these two booksellers. -
2020-10-30
Food donations during the pandemic
This tweet is from the St. Louis Area Foodbank urging people to donate food to their organization. Due to restrictions from the pandemic, the food bank offers contactless pickup, allowing citizens to drop off their donations without risk of getting sick. This allows them to help their communities without spreading the virus. -
1919-02-01
Analysis of 1919 Image of A "Smoker's" Flu Mask
The artifact that I have chosen is a photo of a man wearing a mask, with a hole provided so that the wearer may smoke a cigarette without having to remove said mask. The photo appears in the Saint Louis Post on February 1st, 1919, and the accompanying text seems to imply that it may have been taken in San Francisco, as the city is mentioned in particular. Additionally, the descriptive text is followed with "- International Film Service", implying that the image and text originate from this organization. This would have appeared in the paper during the third wave of the Spanish flu, several months after the deadly second wave. The third wave mostly consisted of smaller scale outbreaks in larger cities, such as San Francisco and Saint Louis. The flu had already re-established itself as a major threat with the second wave, and so many cities had put laws in place to make wearing flu masks in public mandatory. These laws were disliked by many, some of whom held anti-mask gatherings and started movements to try to overturn the laws. We see similar things today, of course, as many people refuse to wear masks and defiantly hold gatherings with little to no safety precautions. This artifact raises a great deal of questions about the differing perspectives on masks and cigarettes over the course of a century. The idea of wearing a mask that accommodates cigarette smoking appears laughable today, as we now know the harm that smoking causes. Making it easier for someone to damage their lungs in the middle of a pandemic seems like a foolish idea. However, research into nicotine addiction and the harm that smoking causes was practically nonexistent in the early 1900s. Therefore, the only obvious harm that a smoker mask would cause is possible infiltration of germs and bacteria through the mask's hole. One thing I found while researching the possible source of this image is that men in particular felt uneasy with wearing masks during the Spanish flu, because they felt emasculated. Many advertisements during this time promoting mask use were framed in such a way as to hopefully soothe men's bruised egos. One could argue that there is a connection between smoker-accommodating masks and attempts to make men feel secure in their masculinity. All this said, however, there is also the possibility that this image was purely satirical. It was reproduced in the May 1919 edition of Popular Science magazine in an anti-mask joke article. The article attempts to poke holes in the rationale behind mask laws, with comments about how regulation cannot stop the transfer of disease. As I cannot find any evidence of the smoker masks being mass produced or even other photos of them, there is a good chance that the original image was made as a joke. As mentioned before, the image was sourced as coming from the International Film Service, a short-lived animation studio in the 1910s. This image could have been produced by them as part of a gag. As the version that appears in the Saint Louis Post appears to be entirely sincere, it is possible that they missed the joke and took it seriously. It is also possible that the Saint Louis Post used the image jokingly but framed it seriously, and humor has changed enough in the past century that I cannot register the dry sarcasm used in a newspaper from 1919. Overall, this artifact raises many questions and few answers. With that said, it still sparks a lot of thoughts about how people in 1919 dealt with their pandemic and how we deal with ours. -
10/19/2020
Eduardo Lopez Oral History, 2020/10/19
This is an interview I had with Eduardo Lopez over Zoom. He is the Interfraternity Council President at St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas. I interviewed him from Providence, Utah while he was living in St. Louis, Missouri. -
2020-06-27
St. Louis mayor reads names and addresses of protesters who want to defund police
Excerpt: TV shows that are canceled or ending in 2020 Kamala Harris's police reform push becomes VP tryout KSDK-TV St. Louis logoSt. Louis mayor reads names and addresses of protesters who want to defund police St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson is facing backlash on social media Friday night for reading the names and street addresses of protesters who are calling on the city to defund the police department. -
2020-06-10
More than half of youth at state facility in St. Louis infected with coronavirus
Excerpt from article: JEFFERSON CITY — The majority of youth housed at a state facility in north St. Louis have tested positive for COVID-19, the Missouri Department of Social Services said Tuesday. -
2020-04-08
Treatment of Essential Workers: Monitoring Capacity
This project aims to document the treatment and reactions to the treatment of the essential workers during this pandemic. This is a picture my friend took outside of the store during her shift at a grocery store. It is very early in the morning, but there are still cars that can be seen in the parking lot and her job is to limit the amount of people in the store so that social distancing can be practiced, as well as making sure only one member per household is allowed in the store at one time so that more people are able to get groceries. -
2020-04-30
St. Lucas Evangelical Lutheran Church electronic signboard
Images of a signboard displaying information related to the pandemic and religious services located outside a local Lutheran Church in St. Louis, Missouri. #REL101 -
2020-04-18
COVID Aid Offer in Chalk
The South City area of Saint Louis is a diverse, tight-knit community. It only makes sense that residents would go out of their way to assist each other during this difficult time. The residents of this home near the intersection of Arsenal St. and Gravois Rd. advertised resources in chalk writing on the exterior of the house, including a LinkTree website, toll-free helpline, and email account dedicated to helping those in need and connecting volunteers with service opportunities. There are also children’s chalk drawings of flowers and a rainbow on the exterior and of a rainbow and a pot of gold taped to the window. #DePaulHST391