Kansas City Chronicles: An Up-To-Date History - Paperback

by David W. Jackson (Author)

From guerilla warfare and martial law to the elegant dresses of the Harzfeld Parisian Cloak Company, discover how everything became up-to-date in Kansas City (including the phrase up-to-date itself, which predates the song in Oklahoma!). Watch as the Jackson County Poor Farm became the state-of-the-art Truman Medical Center and learn why Old Westport is the real McCoy. Meet the resident mouse of the Laugh-O-Gram studio on Thirteenth and Forest, which took food from Walt Disney's hand as Mortimer before taking shape on Disney's drawing board as Mickey. In this collection of his best historical columns, David Jackson delivers a vivid portrait of the people, places and events that continue to shape this fascinating town.

Author Biography

David W. Jackson received a BS magna cum laude in historic preservation, archives studies. He is founder of the Orderly Pack Rat, a historical research and consulting service. Since 2000, Jackson, as director of Archives and Education for the Jackson County (Missouri) Historical Society, has served as editor of the nonprofit organization's scholarly JOURNAL; administers its archives operations; services patron requests through its research library; manages its bookshop; updates its website; coordinates a volunteer program; presents on behalf of its Speakers' Bureau; contributes regular, local history, related articles to area newspapers; and has written and directed the publishing of several products through the society's imprint (available at http: www.jchs.org). The Orderly Pack Rat (http: www.orderlypackrat.com) published Jackson's first book, Direct Your Letters to San Jose: The California Gold Rush Letters of James and David Lee Campbell, 1849, 1852 (2000), and subsequent Recipes of Our Past: Morsels from Our Grandmothers' Recipe Boxes (2005).