Paul Stewart, American historian, Died at 89

  Historical

Paul Wilbur Stewart was born on December 18, 1925, in Clinton, Iowa and died on November 12, 2015.

He was an American historian.

Paul Stewart was the founder of the Black American West Museum and Heritage Center in 1971..

His parents were Eugene Joseph Stewart and Martha L. Stewart.

After he completed high school and the Navy, he then moves to his brother’s in Evanston, Illinois.

Paul attended the Roosevelt University, where he eventually dropped out to help his brother with tuition.

He received a license from Moler Barber College and worked as a barber in Illinois, Wisconsin and New York.

Paul moved to Denver in 1962, and opened another barber shop, where he began collecting Old West memorabilia.

The museum was officially established as the Black American West Museum and Heritage Center in 1971 and located at 221 24th Street, where it spent one year before moving to the intersection of East Colfax Avenue and Detroit Street.

Paul next moved his collection to the Clayton School for Boys in 1975.

The museum and its content were moved to the Five Points neighbourhood in 1985, to a space on 26th and Welton Streets.

This was the museum permanent home at the Justina Ford residence on California Street and 30th Avenue, in 1988.

The museum was the only Western-black-history museum in the world which showed the history of African American’s movement.

The museum consists of artefacts and pictorial histories of cowboys, farmers, ranchers, miners, Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen and the residents of the Five Points area.

Paul was married to Johnnie Mae Davis from 1986 up until his death in 2015 in Aurora, Colorado.

Paul Stewart passed away at age 89 on November 12, 2015.