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Ruth A. Allen Pioneer in Working Class History Award
By Gregg Andrews On October 14, 2023, I gave a keynote address: “Rural River People: Shantyboats and Roustabouts on the Highway of the Poor,” at the Cotton and Rural History Conference hosted by the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum in Greenville, TX. After my talk, Professor Kyle Wilkison, of the Texas Center for Working Class Studies…
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Banjo on My Knee: Shantyboats in 1936 Hollywood
“We are telling a beautiful love story laid among a certain type of river people that exist on the Mississippi today. They are not drunks; they are not whores.”
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Paducah’s Riverfront
By Gregg Andrews On July 13, 2023, I traveled to Paducah, Kentucky, to give an invited talk and sign copies of my new book, Shantyboats and Roustabouts, at a meeting of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society (JPHS). The meeting was held on the morning of the 15th in the River Discovery Center, 117 S. Water…
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Double Murder Mystery on the Mississippi: Conclusion
By Gregg Andrews A jury in November 1895 convicted Noble Shepard for the brutal shantyboat slayings of Lizzy Leahy and Thomas Morton (Gilroy) near the foot of Potomac Street at Christmas 1894, but the families and friends of the victims were denied justice. Shepard was sentenced to hang on April 22, 1896, but he appealed…
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Double Murder Mystery on the Mississippi: Part 2
“Lizzie Morton, said she: Let my Tommie be.” Thinking her Tommie was dead. She shut my wind off, and that made me cough—and that’s when I cracked Lizzie’s head.”
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Center for International Maritime Security Interview
By Gregg Andrews Below is an audio link to an interview I did on March 18, 2023, with US Naval Commander Jared W. Samuelson for the Center for International Maritime Security’s flagship podcast, Sea Control (Episode 432). Commander Samuelson is co-host and executive producer of the podcast. We had a lively half-hour discussion of my…
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Winner of Hamlin Garland Prize in Popular History
“This is a superb contribution to many fields, not only Midwest History, and is a vital example of building history from the ground up.”
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“River Roustabouts of St. Louis”: A State Historical Society of Missouri Event
Join us for a FREE virtual event: Conversation with Gregg Andrews, author of the January 2022 Missouri Historical Review article,“River Roustabouts of St. Louis” Thursday, June 15 at 1:00 p.m. Photo courtesy, Adolph Wittemann, United States of America: One Hundred Albertype Illustrations from Recent Negatives of the Most Noted Scenes of Our Country, 1904 Join us online Thursday, June…
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John Lyman Book Award
By Gregg Andrews Yesterday, I learned that my new book, Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis, 1875-1930 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2023), has won the North American Society for Oceanic History’s John Lyman Book Award in the category of US Maritime History. On behalf of the thousands of shantyboat wayfarers…
Lost River Stories
Invisibles of the Mississippi Valley.
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Lost River Stories 