Much family history slips through the cracks. Through the generations, items are misplaced, destroyed, neglected, overlooked or simply tossed because somewhere along the line their significance faded.
Calvin Riley has made it a personal mission over the last 40 years to keep such items from slipping into the trash heap of history. Riley, a retired English teacher living in St. Louis, Mo., began collecting black memorabilia four decades ago. He spent countless hours scouring St. Louis' basements and attics for artifacts he considered important to black culture over the years. He found a chair made by a slave, uniforms worn by black porters, civil rights posters, historic photographs of the area's movers and shakers -- even a sign from the Jim Crow era that hung in Union Station designating a "Colored Waiting Room."
Riley's collection grew so large he bought a fading 19th century mansion on St. Louis' former "Millionaires Row" and transformed it into a private museum. Now the tall stained glass windows that once served the building's former funeral home and church inhabitants overlook rooms of carefully curated collections of black St. Louis history. In the two years Riley and his wife have operated the George B. Vashon African-American Museum in north St. Louis, they estimate they've handled 5,000 visitors.
Virtually all of us know sad stories of personal history lost. It's up to each generation to evaluate, document and pass on the artifacts from previous generations. You can't count on a Calvin Riley to step in and save them.
Photo credit: Calvin Riley at the George B. Vashon African-American Museum in St. Louis. (Carolina Hidalgo, St. Louis Public Radio)
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