BLOOMFIELD — On Stars and Stripes Way in Bloomfield, visitors have a unique opportunity to honor fallen servicemen and women, and get a taste of life on the front lines through the U.S. military’s newspaper, The Stars and Stripes, which has a unique connection to Southeast Missouri.
The Stars and Stripes Museum and Library
The Stars and Stripes newspaper is the national publication of the armed forces and traces its history back to the Civil War, when Union soldiers under the command of Col. Richard Oglesby captured a Missouri town called Bloomfield in 1861. A handful of troops with printing experience commandeered the press of the Bloomfield Herald to publish a four-page newspaper for their comrades, with news from the front, advice for crossing bogs with wagons — something they were deeply familiar with after marching through muddy miles of Southeast Missouri — and poetry. They christened this paper The Stars and Stripes.
Only a few editions of The Stars and Stripes were printed during the Civil War, whenever resources were obtained.
The publication was a footnote of that war until it was revived during another major conflict. In World War I, 2nd Lt. Guy T. Viskniskki started The Bayonet, later renamed The Stars and Stripes, as a newspaper by and for servicemen. Perhaps not coincidentally, Viskniskki previously worked in a newspaper office with 1st Sgt. Robert T. Stewart of the 29th Illinois Regiment, one of the men who printed the first Stars and Stripes in Bloomfield.
The newspaper remained a staple of the armed forces. The Stars and Stripes Museum and Library preserves it and the legacy of the “Stars and Stripers” who wrote it. The museum’s story began in 1968, when the Stoddard County Historical Society managed to buy a copy of the original Civil War newspaper for $250.
“We know that there are only four in existence,” said museum administrator Laura Dumey. “So, the Library of Congress has one, and the New York Public Library has one and there’s one in Ann Arbor, Michigan, their library. We’re pretty amazed that we have one.”
The Stars and Stripes Museum and Library was founded decades later, opening in downtown Bloomfield in 1991 before moving to its present location in 1998, where it sits on 36 acres also used for historical reenactments and other programs. The museum added onto its building in 2000 and plans to build another expansion in conjunction with The Wake Foundation, which has an office onsite.
The museum archive currently holds 40,000 Stars and Stripes editions, and exhibits in the museum highlight its role in each major American conflict. Visitors can see poems written in WWI trenches, darkly funny comics by Bill Mauldin and other enlisted artists, vintage cameras, captured weapons and more.
These items come from Stars and Stripers and other veterans from all branches of the military. Dumey pointed out models built by Poplar Bluff native Terry Ferguson as one example.
“He’s passed away, but he was a World War II mechanic and he did all these airplanes, model airplanes, and they’re all to scale,” Ferguson said.
The pandemic changed how the museum operated in 2020 and 2021, curtailing its outreach and children’s events like Stars and Stories, but thanks to the availability of vaccines, Dumey says, it is slowly resuming normal operations.
“In 2020, we had virtual schools come, and we had some home schools and things like that. And in 2021, the same as much. But after the vaccine, we’ve been trying to do more,” she said. “It is something that’s important to us, we really want people to come here and see what we have.”
The museum is located at 17377 Stars and Stripes Way. Open hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. all days except Sunday and Tuesday. More information and upcoming events can be found on the Facebook page Stars and Stripes Museum and by calling 573-568-2055.
Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield
A short drive down Stars and Stripes Way takes visitors to the Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield, founded in September 2003. Director Tammy Smith said the state saw the need for a veteran’s cemetery and then Stoddard County donated that land to the Missouri Veterans Commission.
The grounds are special to caretakers, Smith explained, since everyone who works there knows someone laid to rest on the property.
“We’re pretty proud of it,” she said “... All of us have either a family member or friend buried here, so it’s kind of special to all of us as well.”
She sees their proximity to The Stars and Stripes Museum as a definite positive.
“Most of the people that come here to visit graves, when they come from out of town, that’s the first place they want to go to is the museum when they leave here ... It’s a good situation for us all to be in,” said Smith.
The cemetery is located at 17357 Stars and Stripes Way and open hours are 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on weekdays. More information is available at mvc.dps.mo.gov/cemeteries/bloomfield.php and the Missouri Veterans Cemetery-Bloomfield Facebook page, or by calling 573-568-3871.