Former Missouri Historical Society President Frances Levine Presents “Crossings” 

St. Louis County Library Foundation’s Westfall Politics and History Series and Left Bank Books are pleased to host Frances Levine, former president and CEO of Missouri Historical Society, for a discussion and signing of “Crossings: Women on the Santa Fe Trail.” The event will take place on Wednesday, August 13, 7:00 p.m. at the Clark Family Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63131. 

This event is presented in partnership with the Missouri Historical Society.

The Santa Fe Trail has a special allure in southwestern history--it was a road of lucrative commerce, military expansion, and great adventure. Because these themes are connected with the Santa Fe Trail in the American imagination, however, the trail is not often associated with stories of women. “Crossings” tells the personal stories of several women who made the journey, showing how they were involved with and affected by Santa Fe Trail trade. The Santa Fe Trail was a nexus of nations and cultures, connecting the northern frontier of newly formed Mexico with the quickly expanding western United States, as well as with the many Indigenous nations whose traditional lands it crossed. With her attention on women, Frances Levine enriches our understanding of the Santa Fe Trail and shows how interregional trade affected society, politics, and culture.

Through diaries, letters, and firsthand accounts, Levine seeks to understand the experiences of women who journeyed from St. Louis to Santa Fe, as well as some who made an eastward crossing. Levine introduces readers to the stories of women such as the Comanche captive Mar a Rosa Villalpando; Carmel Benavides Robidoux and Kit Carson's half-Arapaho daughter Adaline, both of whose lives were dramatically impacted by American expansion; suffragist Julia Anna Archibald Holmes; Kate Messervy Kingsbury, who sought health on the trail west; diarist Susan Shelby Magoffin and her enslaved servant Jane; army wife Anna Maria De Camp Morris; Jewish pioneers Betty and Flora Spiegelberg; and many others. As an expert guide to the people of the Santa Fe Trail, Frances Levine has curated a view of the American West that gives voice to many of the women who made this journey.

FRANCES LEVINE is the former president and CEO of the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis. She also served as the director of the New Mexico History Museum and the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe.

Program sites are accessible. With at least two weeks' notice, accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities. Call 314-994-3300 or contact us.