It's #AsexualVisibilityDay, so we're highlighting the story of asexual activist David Jay. When St. Louis teenager Jay realized he was asexual in the late 1990s, there was no easy way to connect with other people who shared his experiences. In 2001, he launched the Asexual Visibility and Education Network, a website that has since become a thriving international hub of information sharing and community building. Working with fellow activists whom he met online, Jay has organized to raise awareness and fight misunderstanding about the asexual spectrum, also known as aspec. Learn more about LGBTQIA+ activism in our #GatewayToPride exhibit. #STLQueerHistory (fb)

#OnThisDay in 1909, Robert E. Peary raised an American flag at the North Pole. When Peary returned to America, he was shocked to learn that his rival, Dr. Frederick A. Cook, had declared himself the first to reach the North Pole the year before. A congressional inquiry discredited Cook’s claim, but modern experts think Peary may have missed the pole’s actual location by several miles. Peary’s final push into the deep Arctic was sponsored in part by Simmons Hardware, a national supply company headquartered in St. Louis that outfitted the expedition with tools and gear. As thanks for their support, Peary gifted George R. Simmons, a vice president of Simmons Hardware, this sledge and other items the crew had used in Greenland. Now you can see it on display in our new signature exhibit, #Collected, which brings St. Louis history to life one artifact at a time. (fb)