Get Your Kicks Learning About Route 66; Explore Legacies of Civil War
August 13, 2015 — The Birthplace of Route 66 Festival cruises into Springfield Friday through Sunday with a parade, concerts, car and motorcycle shows and more. The library will be a part of the celebration, too.
If you or your out-of-town guests want to learn more about Springfield’s connections to the Mother Road, check out these two events.
On Thursday from 7-8:45 p.m. drop by the Library Station Frisco Room to hear Route 66 author Susan Croce Kelley talk about “The Road That Runs Through Everyone’s Life.” All ages are welcome.
Considered “America’s Main Street,” Route 66 was, and is, a marvel of 20th-century transportation, a superhighway connecting Chicago to Los Angeles via Springfield and a string of other cities.
Susan, a former Springfield Newspapers reporter, is the author of “Route 66: The Highway and Its People.” On Friday she will sell and sign copies of her latest book, “Father of Route 66: The Story of Cy Avery.”
On Friday from 6-7 p.m., take a break inside at the Park Central Branch Library to hear “Springfield on the Go.” John Sellars, executive director of the History Museum on the Square, will describe the role that transportation played in the development of the City of Springfield.
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If Civil War history is your passion, hear a presentation “Missouri, the Battle Ground, is Redeemed,” from 7-9 p.m. Monday, Aug. 17, in the Library Center auditorium. Guest speaker is Dr. Jeremy Neely, Missouri State University history professor and author of “The Border Between Them: Violence and Reconciliation on the Kansas-Missouri Line.”
When Missouri approved its emancipation ordinance on Jan. 11, 1863, the Daily Missouri Democrat declared, “The work is done. After a struggle extending through long years, freedom has triumphed, and Missouri, the battle ground, is redeemed.”
Neely considers the legacies of the Civil War for Missourians as they struggled over the meanings of post-war freedom and loyalty. Neely will sell and sign his book at the event, which is sponsored by Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield.