With the grant money, MOBOT hopes to have more programs, interpretive panels, exhibits and digital engagement about the history of slavery at the garden.
ST. LOUIS — U.S. National Park Service awarded the Missouri Botanical Garden $99,920 to explain its connection to slavery. It’s a part of a total of $500,000 in grants awarded to numerous research, preservation and outreach related to the Underground Railroad and freedom seekers.
“We need to pull each other forward and not backward,” said Michelle Bonner, director of diversity, inclusion and belonging at MoBOT. She’s held the position since 2022 and is passionate about it.
The garden’s founder. Henry Shaw, came to the Gateway City to open a hardware business. But for at least 30 years, he also enslaved numerous people at the Tower Grove House.
Garden records show an unknown number of people were owned by Shaw. More records show at least 11 people were owned by Shaw, including a woman named Esther and her children during the 1850s.
“A woman named Esther, her children and Jim Kennerly actually escaped from Tower Grove House to the Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing on the river. If they could cross the river to Illinois they took that chance,” Bonner said.
Bonner said there were many enslaved people at Tower Grove House whose names were never recorded, and that’s why she continues to advocate for their stories.
“We would love for people when they come visit, to have signage in Tower Grove House and in the Garden to learn more about those individuals. Interpretative materials, enactments and all sorts of things,” Bonner said.
The National Park Service grant comes after Tower Grove House was added to the National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom in 2023, an important stepping stone in securing the funding.
“That historical piece is just so so important, and we just don’t want it to become lost,” Bonner said.
Bonner said it’s due time, and she credits the team around her for helping make it possible and to never move backward.
“The people that I work with, it’s their enthusiasm, it’s their knowledge and their tenacity that keeps me going. There’s opportunities and finding more opportunities to share this history (is what’s important),” Bonner said.
The Missouri Botanical Garden will be hosting several events for Black History Month, including one this weekend. At 10 a.m. Saturday, there will be drummers and the Spirit of Angela West African dance.
For a full list of Black History Month events at MoBOT, click here.
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