Art Collection

Order No. 11 (Detail), George Caleb Bingham

SHSMO boasts the nation's best collection of Missouri regional and westward expansion art, including Thomas Hart Benton's Year of Peril series, Fred Geary's regionalist woodcuts, and one of the largest collections of paintings by George Caleb Bingham. Also found in the collection are works by John James Audubon, Karl Bodmer, Frank Nuderscher, Fred Shane, and many other Missouri artists.

SHSMO's extensive editorial cartoon collection includes original drawings by Daniel Fitzpatrick, S. J. Ray, Bill Mauldin, Don Hesse, Tom Engelhardt, and others.

Contemporary works are continually added to the collection. Twenty-first century examples by artists such as Robert Bussabarger, Notley Hawkins, Jon Luvelli, Brian Mahieu, Jane Mudd, Byron Smith, and Frank Stack are preserved here for future generations.

SHSMO artworks are often loaned to other institutions to help share the story of Missouri and its role opening the West. SHSMO held artwork has been shown in galleries from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, allowing new and larger audiences to view significant works within the collection.

"Art is very accessible. Even people who aren't interested in reading scholarly journals or poring through newspapers can look at works of art and immediately begin to understand the past."
-Dr. Joan Stack, SHSMO curator of art collections

Accessing the Art Collection

Visit

The State Historical Society of Missouri Center for Missouri Studies Art Gallery features several topical and permanent galleries with rotating exhibitions (see below). These exhibitions can be accessed free of charge during regular business hours. SHSMO also welcomes visits from classes and groups. 

Digital Collections

See representations of frontiersmen, World War II soldiers, and local leaders who shaped Missouri's culture through the digital art collections.

Many works of George Caleb Bingham, Thomas Hart Benton, and Fred Geary are available as well as more than 17,000 editorial cartoons from SHSMO's holdings.

Publications

SHSMO's scholarly publications offer an in-depth look at Missouri history and heritage. Four of the Society's featured books provide a glimpse into the lives and careers of significant artists with ties to the Show-Me State including:

  • "But I Forget That I Am a Painter and Not a Politician": The Letters of George Caleb Bingham
  • Four Turbulent Decades: A Cartoon History of America, 1962–2001, From the Pen of Tom Engelhardt
  • Fred Geary: Missouri Master of the Woodcut
  • Thomas Hart Benton: Artist, Writer and Intellectual

State Historical Society of Missouri publications are available for purchase in the online gift shop, and proceeds benefit SHSMO research centers and programs.

Reproductions

Enjoy the work of some of Missouri's greatest artists in your home or office. SHSMO offers a select few reproduction prints and note cards through its online gift shop. Society publications are also available through the store. Members always save 10 percent, and proceeds benefit SHSMO research centers and programs.

Support the Art Collection

Financial gifts to SHSMO allow strategic additions to the nation's most significant Missouri-related art collection and expand the resources available to stage unique exhibitions. Learn more about making a gift.

Material donations are another way that you can support SHSMO. The State Historical Society of Missouri preserves paintings, political cartoons, fine art prints, photographs, newspapers, maps, and the written records of individuals, families, and organizations. Learn how donating your art can help make Missouri's history more vibrant and complete.

 

Art Exhibitions

Art and educational exhibitions illustrate transformative moments in Missouri and U.S. history. The State Historical Society of Missouri houses exhibition galleries at the Center for Missouri Studies in Columbia. SHSMO also provides materials for display in galleries and exhibition spaces across the state.

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Painted Bunting
October 1, 12:00 am – March 29, 11:59 pm | Center for Missouri Studies, Columbia

Artwork plays a significant role in fostering environmental stewardship and the Missouri Department of Conservation has a long history of partnering with artists to promote this mission.  This new exhibition in the SHSMO Art Gallery features work by two artists who have made significant contributions to Missouri’s conservation movement: current MDC nature photographer Noppadol Paothong and former MDC artist Charles Schwarz.


Thomas Hart Benton meets with Walt Disney and staff
August 27, 12:00 am – March 29, 11:59 pm | Center for Missouri Studies, Columbia

In honor of Disney Studios 100th birthday, the SHSMO art gallery presents Daily Disney: Walt Disney Cartoons in the Funny Pages.  Disney, who grew up in the Missouri towns of Marceline and Kansas City, cross promoted his animated cartoons with nationally syndicated comic strips.  This exhibition includes a selection of these cartoons, as well as other images, such as a photo of Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton at Disney Studios, that reflect Disney's powerful influence on American culture.


self portrait Thomas Hart Benton
June 1 – December 31, 2024 | Center for Missouri Studies, Columbia

Benton & Benton: The Senator & The Artist explores art and material culture related to Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858), who served five terms and was known as “Old Bullion” for his support of gold currency, and his great-grand-nephew and namesake, Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), the famed Missouri artist and founder of the American Regionalist Movement.  


purse, photograph by Deanna Dikeman
March 1, 2024 – January 11, 2025 | Center for Missouri Studies, Columbia

The artworks currently on view in the SHSMO Art Gallery are drawn from a recent donation by Simmons Bank of 38 works of photography, ceramics, fibers, painting, and mixed media. The bank is well-known for its rich art collection initiated by Brenda Landrum Bingham when the institution was owned by her family and scrupulously developed over several decades by her brother, Marquis "Mark" Landrum.


Formal portrait painting of Harry Truman, his wife Bess, and daughter Mary Margaret
May 3, 2023 – December 3, 2050 | Center for Missouri Studies Art Gallery

Greta Kempton's Portrait of the Truman Family (President Harry S. Truman, Elizabeth “Bess” Truman and their daughter Mary Margaret) is on permanent exhibition at SHSMO. The triple portrait was commissioned for the State Historical Society of Missouri with left-over funds raised by Missouri Democrats for Truman’s 1948 inaugural celebration. The painting was officially presented to the Society in 1952.