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A new exhibit is showing at the Springfield-Greene County History Museum. KSMU’s Melanie Foehrweiser has this report.
The exhibit is “Ordinary Heroes: 100 plus years of those who served and protected Springfield and Greene County.” Joan Hampton-Porter is the curator of the history museum.
“It features police, fire, sheriff, highway patrol, U.S. Marshalls, and there’s hundreds of photographs, as well as a significant amount of three dimensional artifacts from the police, the fire, the sheriff’s department, and the highway patrol.”
She says people might not realize just how long the history of law enforcement in Springfield is.
“Our first sheriff’s department…office was 1833, and the police department began in 1858.”
Hampton-Porter says some of the biggest changes for these departments over the years were transportation and communication. The fire department, for instance, went from traveling by horse-drawn carriage to motorized vehicles right before one of the biggest events in Springfield history.
“It happened just a month before the northeast corner of the square burned in 1913. That was the largest single loss of property in Springfield until the big ice storm of five years ago”
Hampton-Porter hopes the exhibit will help people in Springfield realize the rich history behind Springfield’s law enforcement and fire department, as well as honor those who have served, those who serve currently, and those who died serving.
The exhibit is open now, and will run through May 14th. The Springfield-Greene County History Museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and it's located inside Springfield City Hall on Boonville Avenue.
For KSMU News, I’m Melanie Foehrweiser.
LINKS:
Springfield-Greene County History Museum: http://springfieldhistorymuseum.org/home.htm
