Original documents pertaining to this era are housed in many different repositories, and have never before been assembled in one, highly accessible location. Scholarship on the Pendergast Machine is also dated and incomplete. At the same time, public interest in Pendergast and associated topics like Jazz and Prohibition has never been greater. The library provided the leadership and expertise required to bring multiple partners together to create a highly engaging and educational resource.

In partnership with University of Missouri-Kansas City, we hosted a workshop and public symposium in 2016 to generate new research on the Pendergast era. We leveraged that scholarship for the website, creating a breadth of coverage not previously available. We conducted an extensive survey of the holdings of local archives and performed digitization with support from the IMLS. We then created an attractive and intuitive website, providing a topic-oriented approach to exploration of the period.

We expect great things from this project, and have already achieved a high degree of success. Our public launch event garnered over 300 attendees, with another 150 attending a follow-up fundraiser. The website has received 8,309 visits in the first 12 weeks of its release. We receive regular comments and questions on the site, and good engagement on our Instagram account, which has 314 followers.