McUmber-House ties past, present for 50th anniversary Folklife poster

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Mike Ewing, left, and Sarah McUmber-House perform together at a vintage Folklife Festival. Ewing and Sarah’s husband, Dale, made up the regional entertainment group, Spooner Creek Rounders. (Photo contributed by the Hannibal Arts Council.)

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

The Hannibal Arts Council unveiled its official 50th anniversary Folklife Festival poster on Thursday night at the organization’s annual meeting, signifying the start of the season of celebration.

Sarah McUmber-House, a graphic artist who has been involved in the Hannibal arts scene for nearly as many years as the festival has been an autumn tradition, was selected to create a poster representative of past seasons.

For 2026, she created a design that she considers relevant to today’s tone. A commemorative edition features this year’s poster, with a blue background surrounded by pictures of 24 previous posters.

Early on in the festival’s history, the posters became a symbolic means of celebrating community involvement, featuring both faces and scenes relevant to that particular time.

Based in Tucson, Ariz., during the late 1970s, Sarah settled into Hannibal circa 1980, subsequently met her husband, Dale, in 1981, and they married in 1982.

They associated with local musicians, including Mike Ewing, a fiddle player of some renown.

"There was fiddle contest associated with some festival downtown, and Mike Ewing asked me if I could back him up. We became friends,” she said, and ultimately they performed with (her husband) Dale as the Spooner Creek Rounders. The musicians made the circuit of county fairs and area music festivals.

“All of our kids came down with us, each in their turn, either Dale or I wearing one of them on our back. One year the middle one decided to bend over and grab the microphone and started to sing along, over my shoulder.” She said that photo made it into Southern Living magazine.

Kristy Trevathan was among the locals Sarah met during those early entertaining days. “When they learned I did graphic arts, somebody asked me to do a poster.”

Sarah made several posters during those early years, and was deeply flattered when Michael Gaines, executive director of the Hannibal Arts Council, asked her to make the poster for this anniversary year. “I couldn’t turn that one down,” she said.

“I’ve had a good time making these posters. I try to keep a continuity and make each one unique. When I see what other artists have done” during the ensuing years, “I’m flattered that they asked me to do this one. To get 25 posters into one, it was a lot of work.”

Change with the times

While most of the work she does today is created on a computer, back in the early 1980s, the techniques used were representative of the pre-computer era.

“I drew part of the first poster,” she said, and the words were created from “transfer letters. I had all the letters of the alphabet, and smoothed part of them with a pen to press the ink off on paper.

“I hand-drew connections between the letters, like stained glass windows. A lot of genuine cut and paste.”

She honed this skill while in Tucson. “I was lucky, I owned a print shop in Tucson for a short time, I bought it from a guy. I did old-time type setting: lead letters put in backwards and upside down, and ran it through a clunky press. Now I feel very old having known that.”

Several of the posters from past years have been dedicated to loyal arts patrons. “In 2000, we had lost Mike Ewing, and I did a commemorative one that year. We lost Hettie Marie Andrews in 2002, and I did one for her.”

This year’s poster “has flashbacks that pull together other past posters or design aspects,” Michael Gaines said. “If I go back and look at the archives, her original 1984 poster has the listing around the edge of the poster, what types of activities are involved, children’s activities, blacksmithing, weavers and basket making. That came from her 1984 poster design.

“With this year’s poster, she pays homage to her first poster from 1984,” he said. “Her 1994 design - even the way she did the date on this year’s poster - goes back to her 2001 poster design. She really did pull design aspects to bring it all full circle.”

The last Folklife poster she created was 20 years ago, in 2006,” Gaines said.

Posters are available for purchase in three different formats:

11/17-inch signed and numbered posters, at $20 each;

16x20-inch signed and numbered prints with past festival poster images, $40; and

18x24-inch signed and numbered prints featuring past festival poster images plus artist/designer list, $50.

To purchase, stop by 105 S. Main Street, noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or call 573 221-6545.

Proceeds will benefit the Hannibal Arts Council and the Hannibal Folklife Festival.

Dale McUmber-House performs on the guitar during an early Folklife Festival, assisted by his son, tethered to his back. (Photo contributed by the Hannibal Arts Council.)