Gallery exhibitions illustrate transformative moments in Missouri and US history. Located on the first floor, the main and topical galleries feature rotating exhibitions, with select works on permanent display. A second-floor corridor gallery features curated materials from SHSMO collections. The galleries are located at the SHSMO Center for Missouri Studies in Columbia.
This exhibition explores Black History Month’s 2020 national theme, The Vote, with a selection of twentieth-century editorial cartoons that address the issue of African American voting rights. Most of the artworks displayed are original drawings from the nationally renowned cartoon collection of the State Historical Society of Missouri. These rarely seen artworks document the long struggle Americans of color have experienced in their attempts to exercise their fundamental rights as citizens.
Music in Missouri explores Missouri’s contribution to American music. The state’s early folk musicians, marching bands, and choral societies inspired the birth of ragtime and then overlapped with the evolution of a new brand of blues in St. Louis. Those emerging styles then intersected with an explosion of new jazz in Kansas City, at the same time that Ozark bluegrass migrated northwards and entered this melting pot of rhythm to help create rock n’ roll, rhythm and blues, modern country, and gospel.
NHDMO transforms Missouri students. By exploring this year’s theme of Breaking Barriers in History, students will learn about their world and themselves while creating hands-on research projects and competing in successive local, state, and national contests. Add to their learning experience, sign up to be a virtual judge for the state contest.
