Author
Inside the Goetz Museum and historic Pony Bar, a beer charger displays the image of a Black man with a wide smile missing some teeth. The charger, a promotional tin litho wall hanging, bears the caption “Jerry’s Smile.” Not mentioned by his full name, Jeremiah Grider had a fascinating life story far more complex than the newspaper accounts published about him.
Continue reading “Beyond the Smile of Jeremiah Grider”
“Our task is not to find the maximum amount of content in a work of art,” Susan Sontag wrote in her 1964 work, Against Interpretation and Other Essays. “Our task is to cut back content so that we can see the thing at all.”
Maria Popova, the brilliant writer behind The Marginalian, explored Sontag’s line of thought regarding art and content, criticism and interpretation. Popova’s examination and Sontag’s words prompted thoughts about how I’m researching and writing about history. Bear with me as I follow Popova and Sontag, leading to thoughts about my work on Barons, Brewers, and Bootleggers: A Social History of Beer in Missouri.