HISTORY COMES ALIVE

Cape Girardeau River Heritage Museum Director Patty Mulkey lives and breathes the history of the area.

"Sometimes I think my ideas outdo my body," the 70-year-old said.

Mulkey has planned a hot chocolate tour of the bed and breakfasts of Cape Girardeau and Jackson and will culminate with a tour of the museum.

The tour will be Dec. 11.

She also is planning an ambitious Christmas display complete with historical ornaments and a toy train display.

The museum features several exhibits. The Lorimier Room displays the early heritage of Cape Girardeau. The main exhibit portrays 19th century industry, education and culture.

These categories are depicted by murals. There are also items from early business, memorabilia of the Old Opera House and a display on the first Missouri flag.

The museum also houses the original Missouri seal and the seal of Cape Girardeau.

The River Room features a "hands-on" approach and is popular with children. Activities include a steamboat race, a pilothouse, a knot-tying board and a videotape that depicts travel on the Mississippi River.

The museum, at 538 Independence, is open Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. March through December or by appointment. Call 334-0405, 335-6333 or 335-5320 to make an appointment.

The River Heritage Museum is one of several museums that offer the history and culture of the area.

The American Heritage Museum at 2967 E. Outer Road includes horse-drawn farm equipment, buggies and wagons from the early 1900s and old appliances. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Museum Director Jim Givens also has automobiles dating back to 1911 and as modern as a 1967 Mustang. There are farm tractors that depict an era from 1900 to 1945.

The museum, which is located on a service road, is housed in a red and white metal building surrounded by covered wagons and pieces of old farm equipment.

The University Museum on the Southeast Missouri State University campus offers 10,000 objects that provide glimpses of the area's past and of other cultures.

Museum Director Pat Reagan-Woodard is trying to underscore the uniqueness of such a vast and varied collection.

The museum, on Memorial Hall Circle Drive, is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Woodard isn't shy about promoting what she considers to be one of the nation's best Mississippi Indian artifact collections.

The Thomas Beckwith Collection of Mississippian cultural artifacts includes ceramic vessels, tools and ornaments from between 900 and 1,000 years ago.

These pieces were collected around 1890 from an area near Charleston, just south of Cape Girardeau.

The John Wescoat Collection of projectile points and stone tools is also one of the finest of the region. The items were collected in areas of Southeast Missouri and represent a variety of Native American cultures and times.

There is also the Hazel Harrison Collection of historical artifacts.

The museum has a unique collection of American military uniforms, weapons and personal effects.

One of the more impressive displays is of Eisenhower jackets worn by the Women's Army Corps in 1944. Woodard received the collection from a woman who resides in Chateau Girardeau, a local retirement community.

The Houck Collection has classical statuary cast in plaster. The collection was seen in the 1904 World Fair in St. Louis and donated to the university in 1905.

In the fine art collection, there is the George and Placide Schriever series of paintings, prints and sculpture dating from the Renaissance to the present. The Blum Collection of Southwest Native American art includes ceramics, Navajo rugs and Kachina dolls.

The Kapfer Collection of African art and a variety of art works reflect international cultures.

The Jake Wells Collection of watercolor paintings are of Southeast Missouri mills.

The Southeast Missouri State Museum Gallery has a fall exhibition schedule that includes paintings by Dan Addington. The paintings present, romantic, figurative tableaus within the context of surfaces with an evocative and visceral presence.