Hannibal is a small town in Missouri that sets on the Mississippi River. If you were to just look at Hannibal on a map you wouldn’t think that it was anything special, however, this was where the amazing Mark Twain spent his childhood, and it was the first place he ever used the name ‘Mark Twain’.
Growing up on the Mississippi influenced a lot of Twain’s work and this town and its people were the inspirations for two of his most famous books: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. My friend Stacey and I were able to explore this city and go through the homes of many of Twain’s beloved characters. This was our main draw to Hannibal, but discovered that there was much more there.
At the end of Main Street Stacey and I had to snap a picture with this awesome statue of Tom and Huck!
The Mark Twain Museum entrance came with a The Main Museum, An Interpretive Center, Mark Twain’s Childhood Home, Twain’s Father’s Justice of the Peace, and the homes of people who inspired characters in the books. I have too many fun pictures in the Mark Twain Museum to do these all together, so be looking out for my post on it.
This is the front of Mark Twain’s Childhood Home. You walk through the house and can view (through glass) several of the rooms. See below.
Tom Blankenship’s House- This house was a bit plain, but interesting to see how a less fortunate family lived in Hannibal. Tom Blankenship was the inspiration for Huck Finn. A garden is all that really separates the two houses and is supposedly were a lot of Tom and Huck’s adventures took place.
In the Interpretive Center they had a lot of really cool and interesting displays including a huge timeline along the back wall! My favorite event was in 1906- when Twain started wearing white suites!
This was the Becky Thatcher home. There are a lot of photos of Laura Hawkins (the real inspiration for Becky), and a few other artifacts. There’s a tradition in Hannibal where they pick a Becky and a Tom in the town for a festival! They’re pretty cute! Below is our attempt at being Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher! So much fun!
Next to the Mark Twain childhood home was the whitewashed fence and I, of course, had to take a go at it! It was so cool to walk through the steps of Huck, Tom, Becky and Mark Twain himself!
As much fun as all of this was, the highlight of all the Mark Twain fun was the Mark Twain Museum- stay tuned to hear all about it later this week!
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