The Story of Being Human
February 2024
These are just a few of the dozens of presentations ready and willing to visit your town, your group, organization or local library. In fact, the Missouri Humanities Council may already have an event scheduled near you.
The council provides a list of 52 topics available through the Missouri Speakers Bureau. The bureau offers a list of highly qualified public speakers on a wide variety of topics about Missouri people, culture, history and geography. If you have ever been responsible for scheduling a speaker to spice up your upcoming meeting, you know the difficulty of coming up with unique presentations. As you search for that perfect presentation, check out the lineup from the Missouri Speakers Bureau.
With a tip of the cowboy hat to the real Rawhide, saddle up vicariously with the vaqueros, the first Hispanic cowboys who made the cattle drives to Sedalia and Kansas City successful.
Hear the dramatic story about the largest drainage project in the world. Within two decades, Bootheel swampland was converted into one of the richest agricultural regions in the nation.
Learn the stories of great African American women in Missouri, like Annie Malone and Harriet Scott.
Topics are as varied as Missouri’s vast and diverse history and culture, from the founding of Lincoln University, to a different perspective on the tragic Trail of Tears or the establishment of Missouri’s 19th-century utopian communities.
Listen to an oral historian recount stories from the Ozarks. Or find out why prairies matter, and learn the benefits of native plants, including pollinator habitats. Get insights to the Civil War through glimpses of 400 letters written between a husband and wife during the conflict, or follow the exploits of William Quantrill, “father of post-Civil War Missouri banditry.”
You can see a roster of the available presenters and presentations at MoHumanities.org/schedule-a-speaker/. The website offers details about how to contact and arrange speaker presentations.
I have been on both sides of the situation: looking for just the right speaker for a group, and now, as a member of the Speakers Bureau. My subject is titled “A Road Trip into America’s Hidden Heart.” I tailor my presentation to the location and the group. On March 23, I’ll join the Ozark Natural & Cultural Resource Center in Salem for the opening of a Smithsonian traveling exhibit named “Crossroads: Change in Rural America.” And on May 14, I’ll speak at the History on Elm lecture series at the State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia.
Remember what Harry Truman said: “The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.”
If you have a Missouri story to tell, contact the Missouri Speakers Bureau. Presenters are selected through an application process.