The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, Hannibal, Missouri

The antics of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn have delighted children and adults alike since the first book recording their exploits, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” was published in 1876. The writings of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, give readers a glimpse of his childhood growing up along the Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri.

Today, Hannibal commemorates the life of its most famous resident at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum. Manager of Marketing and Community Relations Megan Rapp said that each year the museum attracts visitors from all 50 states and between 20 and 40 foreign countries.

“We hear time and time again that people come here because they want to see the place that inspired Twain’s books,” Rapp said. “We know from Twain telling us that he used his time in Hannibal and his experiences here to inspire his stories, and that’s something that you can’t get anywhere else.”

In a self-guided tour, visitors explore the streets, homes and whitewashed fence Twain later immortalized in his stories.
The tour begins at the Interpretive Center, which introduces visitors to the Clemens family and chronicles the author’s life, focusing on his time in Hannibal, from the age of four to the age of 18.

A timeline of events beginning with 1823 — John Clemens marries Jane Lampton in Kentucky — provides a guide through the room. Creative displays invite visitors to manipulate the various doors, drawers and levers. Visitors meet Twain’s mother, father and oldest brother, Orion, through a set of wardrobes containing personal effects and quotes from Twain’s writings, designed to bring each member of the family to life.

Quotes from Twain’s various books and letters, used throughout the displays, showcase Hannibal in a way that allows visitors to feel that the author himself is giving the tour — showing off his favorite haunts and revealing his most cherished memories.
Museum Curator Henry Sweets said the use of quotes grounds the current initiative to unify the interpretations in each of the buildings.

“Thinking of Mark Twain as the master storyteller, we tried to use his words as much as possible to tell the stories,” Sweets said.

The Center also speculates about the relationships between the people from Twain’s childhood and the characters in his books. Community members such as Joe Douglas, Judge Clemens (Twain’s father), Tom Blankenship and Laura Hawkins likely were reinvented as Injun Joe, Judge Thatcher, Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher, respectively. Tom Sawyer might even represent the voice of Twain himself.

Sweet said visitors should remember that while real people inspired some of Twain’s characters, they served as a basis, not a blueprint.

“When you’re writing a fictional work, you’re not writing a biography,” Sweets said. “You’re not trying to portray that person in a true light once you get into the story.”After visiting the Interpretive Center, guests have the opportunity to visit five of Hannibal’s historical buildings, including Mark Twain’s Boyhood Home.

Sweets said that the home was scheduled for demolition in 1911, but a local attorney bought the building, made repairs and donated it to the City of Hannibal in May of 1912.

“The Boyhood Home has been open to the public since 1912, which makes it one of the older historical buildings in the country,” Sweets said.

The home is a glimpse of everyday life in the Clemens household. Again, Twain’s writings are used to capture the essence of his childhood. Visitors can see the dining room, sitting room, kitchen and upstairs bedrooms that make up the house, furnished as they would have been when Twain was a boy. Additionally, a life-size, stark white statue of the author as a grown man occupies each room.

“We brought in these figures of Mark Twain to give a kind of ghost-like appearance to him thinking back on Hannibal,” Sweets said.

Sometimes sitting, sometimes standing, Twain’s eerie presence fills the building, reminding visitors that these rooms are commemorated because the author relived his childhood as an adult and shared his memories with the rest of the world.
The other four historical buildings, Huckleberry Finn’s House, Becky Thatcher’s House, J. M. Clemens Justice of the Peace Office and Grant’s Drug Store, each provide a unique perspective on Hannibal and its most famous resident through interactive displays and engaging stories.

Hannibal just always stayed in Mark Twain’s mind and his writings, and we’re just trying to convey what there was here that he took into the world,” Sweets said.

The J.M. Clemens Justice of the Peace Office was donated to the city in the late 1930s, Sweets said, followed by Grant’s Drug Store in 1955. That year, the J.M. Clemens Justice of the Peace Office was moved to the museum mall, and both buildings were opened to the public.

Sweets said that in 2000, the museum bought the former residence of Laura Hawkins, Twain’s childhood friend, and turned it into Becky Thatcher’s House. Finally, in 2006, the former residence of Tom Blankenship, Twain’s inspiration for Huck Finn, was reconstructed and opened to the public as Huckleberry Finn’s House. The original building was demolished in 1911, and the reconstruction was based on old photos and records.

The museum chose to name two of the buildings, Huckleberry Finn’s House and Becky Thatcher’s House, after characters from the books rather than the historical people who lived there, Sweets said, to help visitors connect the stories with the physical locations.

“You run into an interesting dilemma of fact and fiction and how to work the two together,” Sweets said.

The last official stop on the tour, the Museum Gallery, transports visitors from Twain’s history in Hannibal to the literature it inspired. The gallery re-creates some of the most memorable moments in Twain’s works.

To the right, a display titled “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” includes a cave, a graveyard and a whitewashed fence. On the other side of the cave, visitors can re-live “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as they climb aboard the raft and float down the foggy Mississippi with Huck and Jim.

On the left side of the gallery, some of Twain’s lesser-known works are similarly re-created. “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” which takes place in medieval Europe, “The Innocents Abroad,” a book chronicling Twain’s time overseas, and “Roughing It,” which takes place in the American West, are illustrated through creative displays and activities.

 Upstairs, the gallery houses a variety of interesting exhibits. Visitors can explore the steamboat industry in Hannibal or pull the steamboat whistle and listen for the faint “Mark Twain.” In addition, 15 original Norman Rockwell paintings, created to illustrate “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” line the walls. Various other memorabilia items, paintings, family photos and newspaper clippings fill the upstairs gallery.

As visitors leave, they are invited to visit the museum gift shop where they can purchase a set of playing cards featuring various well-known authors or pick up one of Twain’s lesser-known works. The museum sheds new light on the characters many visitors emulated as children and the books they loved to read. Whether visitors relive beloved childhood stories or discover new ones, most will find the experience worth taking the detour.

Photos by Mike Snodderley

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