R. Crosby Kemper III explores our story as Community Curator
On Tuesday, Jan. 26, the Museum will present a very special Community
Curator lecture featuring R. Crosby Kemper III, executive director of the Kansas City Library.
Mr. Kemper will share his extraordinary knowledge of Kansas City history in "The Long Family's Civic Legacy," a presentation that kicks off the 2010 season of the Museum’s successful Community Curator lecture series. The event is free and open to the public, and begins at 6 pm in the Town Hall in Union Station
Kansas City.
In the lecture, Mr. Kemper will discuss the Long family’s many generous contributions to Kansas City’s cultural landscape. In addition to building Corinthian Hall as the family’s home (and later donating it to become the Kansas City Museum), R.A. Long built a major lumber business and employed hundreds of people, built Kansas City’s first skyscraper downtown (the R.A. Long building) at 10th and Grand, which is now the UMB Bank building. Long, a self-made millionaire, also built the Independence Boulevard Christian Church, the Christian Church Hospital, and financed the building of churches and schools.
Long’s philanthropic reach was national, as he was chairman and prime promoter of the World War I Liberty Memorial here in Kansas City. Later in life, he expanded his business to the west coast and built a city, Longview, Washington, so his employees and their families would have better living quarters close to the Long-Bell Company lumber mill.
Mr. Kemper offers a unique perspective on the Long family’s civic legacy in his discussion as Community Curator. We are fortunate to offer this unique program to our friends and Museum supporters.
The Community Curator Program
The Community Curator program of Kansas City Museum invites historians and history educators to share their perspectives on artifacts they choose from the Museum collection. This provides fresh insight about artifacts and collections of Kansas City Museum and Union Station, and welcomes diverse input from the Kansas City history community.
Community Curator lectures are presented at 6 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month at Union Station Kansas City, allowing actual artifacts to be presented with the observations of our Community Curator. The event is free and open to the public.
Union Station is located at 30 W. Pershing, Kansas City, Missouri. If you’d like to attend this free special presentation at Union Station, please contact the Museum at (816) 483-8300.
