Historic Photos of St. Louis by Adele Heagney and Jean Gosebrink
As a transplant to St Louis from California I'm not as familiar with the past of my new home as those who were born and raised here. With a background in history I of course sought to rectify that as quickly as possible. I've read several very good books on St Louis and Missouri history and feel comfortable discussing the city with the natives. While I don't have a coffee table, I greatly enjoy a well done coffee table book. I can get lost in photos for hours and was thrilled when the Missouri History Museum had a collection of old photos on display back in 2004. When the publisher offered me a review copy of this book I jumped at the chance.
This book presents a broad look back on over 100 years of life in St. Louis. It is, as a coffee table book, very well made and of high quality in print and binding. Each page presents a sole picture with some descriptive text, enough to stir the imagination and let the viewer get lost in what life was like decades ago. There are of course pictures of the iconic buildings and events but there are also quite a few of the wonderful everyday milieux that make history truly interesting to me. The section introductions are jumpy as they try to describe a decad or two of history in a few sentences. Setting the context for the subsequent set of pictures is tremendously important and it would have been nice for them to be expanded a bit.
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