Steamboats and Hallmark Cards
Woman in the Middle | May 15, 2016Did you know that Hallmark Cards is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri? I didn’t either, until I started investigating things to see and do before our trip. Since the Hallmark Visitor’s Center was right next to our hotel, I talked Hubby into visiting. I promised to make it quick, as I figured Hallmark Cards were more my thing than his. However, we both ended up enjoying it.
Who knew the founder of Hallmark Cards, J.C. Hall, was good friends with Winston Churchill? That was one of the many interesting facts we learned in their nicely laid out center. We got to see several of the Christmas trees Hallmark employees created every year for Mr. Hall, up until his death. They are beautiful creations which were fascinating to look at. Note, everything is handmade. These are not trees full of Hallmark ornaments.
The following tree is the final one made for Mr. Hall. It is quilted and embroidered and quite a sight to see!
Probably the most fascinating display of all was the bow making machine. You can press the button and see a small bow being made. The machine spits it out and you can take it with you as a souvenir. It is one per person, but it goes so fast, it is hard to grasp just how the bows are made, Luckily for us, we were there at the same time as a class of high school students on a field trip. So Hubby and I stood and watched while a dozen or so kids made bows.
After lunch, we took the MAX bus to the City Market area, where the Steamboat Arabia Museum is located. If you are ever in KC you have to visit this museum. The Hawley family enjoyed a good adventure and they decided that finding and digging up an old ship wreck would be an adventure. After striking our several times trying to find a ship that had gone down in he Missouri River, they struck pay dirt with the Steamboat Arabia, which had gone down without loss of life but fully loaded in 18??. Instead of selling the items, they felt they should all stay together and opened this museum. It is fascinating to see what was on the ship, destined to supply frontier stores up and down the river. Everything but the plant-based items were preserved in the river silt and mud.
Here are the various metal kitchen items that were on the boat, such as pans and coffee pots.
There were hundreds of pieces of dinnerware.
There were a whole bunch of pipe bowls.
There beautiful blue and green bottles are quite rare now. Most have chips and dings if you can find one today. But here are a whole bunch in new condition.
They found thousands and thousands of buttons, including ones printed in various calico designs to match the fabrics of the day. I took the following photo of an enlargement they had on the wall. The buttons were for the most part quite small. If you think about the fitted bodices of the day, they would have required a while row of close together small buttons to get them to fit that way without gaping.
I guess there was a need for door hardware on the frontier, including hundreds of keys.
We were told by our guide that many civil war reenactors come to the museum because there they can see what the actual items people used back then looked like. So many times we have the really expensive things left from bygone days, but not the everyday items the common people used.
I have just a couple more photos of Kansas City to show you. It is known as the city of fountains, because there are over 200 water fountains in KC. We saw several, but only as we drove passed them in a bus. So, the only photo I have is of the fountain we could see from out hotel room window.
They also have some large and interesting public art works.
So, that sums up our very quick visit to Kansas City, Missouri. We enjoyed our stay, but there was so much more to see both in the city and in the surrounding area. We can’t wait to go back!
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