W.D. Armstrong's family plans donation ceremony for Saturday at Alton Museum

Jan 23, 2019 11:30 AM

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ALTON - For the past year, the Alton Museum of History and Art has had a display honoring W.D. Armstrong, a famous Alton composer, instructor. At 2 p.m. Saturday, Armstrong's family will make a donation in a ceremony at the museum and the public is invited to attend.

Armstrong is known for his work as a multi-faceted musician - organ, piano, violin, cello. Armstrong is known most for his military battle music, Brian Combs, executive director of the Alton Museum of History and Art, said.

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Armstrong was an instructor in the Forest Park University for women in St. Louis, musical director of Shurtleff College and the Western Military Academy.
Among many other attributes he was selected as one of the solo organists at the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition, (St. Louis World's Fair) 1904.

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Combs said he is excited about the family coming to the museum with their donation and to rekindle the interest in Armstrong, someone he views as one of Alton's most interesting historical figures of all time.

"W.D. Armstrong is most known to the public as a musical composer," Combs said. "We have had a display for him since February of last year and we are going to soon replace it, so we encourage people to come out to see it."

The Armstrong family has an affinity to the Elijah P. Lovejoy story and Lovejoy may be briefly discussed some Saturday, Combs said.

The Alton Museum of History and Art is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

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