Assembled in honor of the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Henry Shaw (1800-1889), St. Louis in the Century of Henry Shaw is a collection of nine provocative essays that provide the definitive account of the cultural life of St. Louis during the 1800s, a thriving period during which the city acquired the status of the westernmost major metropolis in the United States. Born in Sheffield, England, Shaw immigrated to the United States in 1819 in order to help his father recoup property that he had in New Orleans. With sales depressed in the South, Shaw soon moved to St. Louis, where he ultimately became a very successful businessman and philanthropist. Shaw was witness to the vast economic and cultural transformation of the city and his own story mirrored those developments. When Shaw created the Missouri Botanical Garden in the 1850s, he wanted the public to be able to enjoy its beauty and to be able to learn from the research being conducted there. Together the essays in this volume convey a sense of the cultural richness and diversity that made nineteenth-century St. Louis such a vibrant place, Anyone interested in cultural history, especially in St. Louis, will find this book invaluable.
