Tag Archive for: local history

Iconic Joplin

The Library’s Teen Department has participated in an exciting opportunity highlighting local history research and STEM skills. Iconic Joplin is a contest in which teams of 12-16 year-olds study a Joplin-area landmark and recreate it in LEGOs. It is an official event of Joplin’s Sesquicentennial celebration this year.

Thirty teens divided up into six teams which worked together over the next four months. The teams kicked off their work in December 2022 by getting to know each other, selecting a landmark, formulating an initial plan for their build, and creating a mini-build to symbolize their group. As they researched their sites, teams had access to local history resources including primary source material to help them. On the construction side, teams had an option to consult with an expert (engineer, architect, LEGO master, etc.).  Teams had the option for a site visit, where appropriate. Each team also had a modest budget they could spend on specialty LEGOs for their build.  

The Joplin Public Library was one of three local sites hosting Iconic Joplin teams along with the Joplin History & Mineral Museum and the Creative Learning Alliance, our local STEAM center. Host sites partnered to provide space, staff assistance, and guidance during the eight Saturday sessions it took to create the builds. 

The six landmarks chosen ranged from historic to contemporary buildings to geographic features of the area. One of the teams hosted by the Joplin Public Library portrayed Grand Falls, a picturesque waterfall that was a recreational hotspot at the turn of the 20th century, and utilized both light and motorized elements to create the falls. Another Library team picked our new building as a contemporary landmark, depicting it cutaway-style to showcase both the exterior elements and interior decor. Teams from the Joplin History & Mineral Museum also used cutaway-style builds to recreate their landmarks, Crystal Cave (a mineral-rich underground cave/recreational spot) and the garage apartment site of the infamous 1933 shootout with Bonnie and Clyde. Teams working at the Creative Learning Alliance built Joplin’s Union Depot, a transportation hub for the area, and the Olivia Apartments, a historic building which had burned prior to recent renovations.

The teams’ completed builds went on display to the public April 13 at Joplin’s Spiva Center for the Arts. The LEGO landmarks will be available for viewing there through May 13.  The public is invited to vote for their favorite Iconic Joplin build; brief videos about the builds along with voting are available at https://tally.so/r/3q4lK7 The contest will culminate in an awards ceremony on June 8 to present prizes for people’s choice, technical skill, authenticity, and creativity.

An adventure which has been much more than just piecing plastic bricks together, Iconic Joplin has provided opportunities for teens to explore their community, creativity, problem solving, and analytical skills. 

Iconic Joplin is the creation of local entrepreneur, Lisa Nelson, who envisioned a way to provide teens with opportunities to build STEM skills while creating ties to their communities. Nelson’s venture, Landmark Builds, was born while constructing LEGO sets with her teenage son and was developed through the Idea Accelerator program of Builders and Backers.

Book That Joplin’s History Needs Doesn’t Exist Yet

This is a review of A People’s History of Joplin, Missouri. However, this is less of a book review and more of a nonbook book review — mainly because the A People’s History of Joplin, Missouri doesn’t exist.

At least not that I know of. At least not yet.

This isn’t to say we don’t have numerous wonderful books about the history of our community — we do. Popular contemporary local history book titles include:

  • The Best of Joplin (1999)
  • Joplin Souvenir Album (2000)
  • Joplin Keepsake Album (2001)
  • Murwin Mosler’s Gift to Joplin (2005)
  • Murwin Mosler’s Joplin in the 1940s (2015)
  • Now & Then & Again: Joplin Historic Architecture (2009)
  • Postcard History Series: Joplin (2011)
  • Images of America: Joplin (2013)
  • Joplin Memories: The Early Years (2014)
  • Greater Joplin Through Our Eyes (2016)
  • Joplin’s Connor Hotel (2021)
  • and Tom Connor: Joplin’s Millionaire Zinc King (2021)

Plus, we have titles based on topics one might consider niche, such as criminal histories, mysteries and hauntings. Historic local history book titles include A History of Jasper County, Missouri, and Its People (1912), The Story of Joplin (1948) and Tales About Joplin Short and Tall (1962).

Although this list is not comprehensive, I mention it because these are among the titles I heartily gather for people when they ask for books about local history.

I emphasize “books” because there is so much history in our community that is not published — at least not done so in a tidy format that I can check out to someone when they walk through the library’s doors. When people ask me for books about local Black history, local LGBTQ history or local women’s history, for example, they are disappointed because there’s nothing for me to gather for them to check out.

Part of my role at the library is to help collect and preserve materials that tell the story of our community’s history. Although we have all sorts of local history materials, if one were to look only at books published about our community’s history, as one often does, they might say our collection lacks diversity or representation. In fact, this very thing has been said to me on more than one occasion.

What I’m getting at is that it’s important that a community’s history — its story — be told and represented in voices and from perspectives as diverse and varied as the people who live, or have lived, there. Historically, marginalized voices are often found in nonbook materials, if at all.

From a professional viewpoint, as both a librarian and historian, this is problematic.

Why mention this now? And why here, with a nonbook book review?

Because this is Joplin’s 150th year, our sesquicentennial. Our birthday is later this month, on March 23. Oodles of fantastic celebrations and events are planned for our community, and legacy projects are in the works.

At moments like this, people say we have a rich history. Indeed, we do, but it would serve us well to remember that not all of the richness that makes up the history of who we are as a community has been fully acknowledged, much less written about, preserved or made accessible as part of our legacy.

Does this mean a book titled “A People’s History of Joplin, Missouri” written by the people for the people would be a fix-all? No, but I like it for the title. Do I have the answers to what I and no doubt others see as problematic? Again, no, but I believe that we as a community do, and I’m willing to be a part of the conversation.

As always, happy reading.