Virginia Kyle Campbell

Who was Virginia Kyle Campbell?

Virginia Kyle Campbell was an extraordinary woman who played host to members of high society in St. Louis into her home. These notable St. Louis citizens included President Ulysses S. Grant, James Eads, General Sherman, and Henry Shaw. Virginia Campbell uniquely had modern sensibilities for women at that time. She was highly educated at a woman's finishing school, she taught her sons through preparatory school, traveled with her children unaccompanied by a man, and ran the household in absence of her husband.

Virginia was married to Robert Campbell, an Irish immigrant known as a frontiersman, fur trapper, banker, and businessman. Robert even wrote to Virginia before their marriage stating that she "will soon be [his] counselor and adviser and it may be-manager." Their St. Louis home is now preserved as the Campbell House Museum which has been open to the public since 1943.