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The St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the Centre for Rupert’s Land Studies (CRLS) at the University of Winnipeg will host this joint international fur trade conference to commemorate Lewis and Clark's return from the Pacific in 1806 and to celebrate the Mercantile Library's 160th anniversary as the oldest American library west of the Mississippi.
This will be the latest in a distinguished series of multicultural, multidisciplinary North American Fur Trade Conferences (NAFTC) that began in 1965 and last met in 2000. This conference is not restricted to academic scholars, and all persons are invited to participate as speakers, exhibitors, or registered attendees. The meeting will feature presentations, exhibits, fieldtrips, and other special events that will appeal to anyone interested in the history of the fur trade.
Distinguished historians Rhoda R. Gilman and Carolyn Gilman will offer a very special mother-daughter banquet address.
The Crowne Plaza Hotel, St. Louis-Clayton (formerly the Clayton Radisson Hotel) in Clayton, Missouri, will be the headquarters for all conference activities and is offering special room discounts if reservations are received by April 24, 2006. For more information, call (314) 726-5400 or (800) 227-6963, visit the hotel's Web site, or click here to see a flyer.
St Louis, "The Gateway to the West," was one of the most strategically located and commercially successful centers of the fur trade for almost two centuries. Founded by Frenchmen in 1764 near the confluence of three historic rivers, St. Louis sent Missouri River furs south to New Orleans and north to Montreal. After the Louisiana Purchase, St. Louis was the first administrative capital of the American West and played a leading role in the rendezvous system, western expansion, steamboat travel, and U.S.-Indian diplomacy. In 1904, St. Louis became the only city to host the World’s Fair and the Olympic Games in the same year.
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