Events

National History Day in Missouri will host regional contests for students grades 6-12, leading up to the Missouri History Day state contest on April 25, 2026. Students from each region will present their innovative projects in one of five categories: documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website. Contest winners will represent their region at the NHDMO state contest in April, which is administered by the State Historical Society of Missouri. Below are the dates and locations of each regional contest.

2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Route 66, which began with a telegram sent to Springfield, Mo., assigning a number to the new highway that would eventually be built from Chicago to California! The State Historical Society of Missouri is involved in a variety of programs, events, and projects to commemorate America's Main Street that through Missouri between Joplin and St. Louis. 

Registration is open for the 2026 Missouri Conference on History at Old Kinderhook at the Lake of the Ozarks. The 68th annual conference is hosted by the Missouri State Archives and with the State Historical Society of Missouri as administrative sponsor. Anyone interested or involved in historical research, historical preservation, the teaching of history, or other history-related professions is invited. More information is on the conference’s website. 

As part of a yearlong celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary, the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri, along with its partner, the State Historical Society of Missouri, will host a series of lectures January through May that reflect on this national milestone from a global perspective. 

The March 13 lecture will feature Sayuri Shimizu, Dunlevie Family Chair in History at Rice University.

Historian Brooks Blevins will be the featured speaker in the next program of the Missouri Historical Review Author Series. Blevins, the Noel Boyd Professor of Ozarks Studies at Missouri State University, is the author of numerous books, including the three-volume A History of the Ozarks. His presentation will center on his article “The Missouri Scenic Rivers System and the Origins of the Property Rights Movement,” published in the Review in January 2025. 

During the Civil War, Black men who gathered to enlist at Benton Barracks in St. Louis listed birthplaces in Canada, Jamaica, and England. While more than 600 Black Canadians did serve, those men enlisting in St. Louis were not in fact coming from abroad. They were Black Missourians, seeking to join the Union cause and hide from their family or their enslavers—especially when their enslavers actually supported the Union. As part of the African American Experience in Missouri Lecture, Dr.

Americans got their kicks watching episodes of Route 66 television show airing nine seasons from 1960-1964. The series followed two young men as they travelled the country in a Chevrolet Corvette on Route 66 in search of adventure and themselves. Join Sean Rost, Assistant Director of Research at SHSMO as he explores the portrayal of Route 66 in film and television. Kathleen Seale, coordinator of the SHSMO Rolla and Springfield Research Centers is the webinar host of Asphalt to Archives. Seale serves on national and state organizations that are planning this year's Route 66 centennial.

As part of a yearlong celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary, the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri, along with its partner, the State Historical Society of Missouri, will host a series of lectures January through May that reflect on this national milestone from a global perspective. 

The April 10 lecture will feature Brandon Park, Associate Professor at Chung-Ang University in Seoul.

Join us for an opening reception of a new exhibition in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States as represented through stories and experiences woven within the fibers of the American military uniform. The reception will include a panel program with veterans Drew Cameron of Combat Paper, Martin Lesinksi and John Schneider of the U.S. Armed Services whose paper artworks are featured in the exhibition. 

Author and baseball historian Eric Vickrey chronicles the St. Louis Cardinals memorable championship season in 1982 under legendary coach Whitey Herzog. The team played an entertaining style of baseball built on speed and defense. The roster was constructed and piloted by Herzog, a baseball visionary who tailored his team for the AstroTurf and spacious dimensions of Busch Stadium.

As part of a yearlong celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary, the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri, along with its partner, the State Historical Society of Missouri, will host a series of lectures January through May that reflect on this national milestone from a global perspective. 

The April 17 lecture will feature Jay Sexton, Kinder Institute Director and Rich & Nancy Kinder Chair of Constitutional Democracy.

Join us for the National History Day in Missouri state contest, administered by the State Historical Society of Missouri. The annual contest will take place in-person at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Sign up to be a judge and support Missouri students! Top-ranking state projects will go on to compete in the national contest run by the NHD office in College Park, Maryland in June 2026.

Join us for a free noon concert by the Ozarks folk musical group "The Creek Rocks" led by banjoist Cindy Woolf and guitarist Mark Bilyeu. These longtime musical collaborators worked together on Cindy's three albums of original songs that began in 2005 and continued after the couple married in 2013 and established The Creek Rocks in 2015. Mark is a founding member of Ozarks family Big Smith, with whom he toured and recorded for 16 years.

When the 1930s Depression gripped the Heartland, the Evangelical and Reformed Church sent Vincent Bucher to the impoverished Ozark mountains to lead a new mission church. He ministered not just to the community’s souls, but to their hearts, minds, and livelihoods. “Just obey the commandment to love neighbors,” he taught. “When neighbors care for each other, everyone benefits.” Before President Franklin D. Roosevelt created programs to lift Americans out of poverty, Bucher was organizing cooperatives to market folk art, cream and strawberries.

As part of a yearlong celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary, the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri, along with its partner, the State Historical Society of Missouri, will host a series of lectures January through May that reflect on this national milestone from a global perspective. 

The May 12 lecture will feature Lawrence Goldman, Kinder Institute Senior Fellow and St. Peter’s College (Oxford) Emeritus Fellow in History.

Born in Ireland, Tom Connor lived the classic American rags-to-riches story. He witnessed several of the Civil War’s major battles as a newsboy with the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, then spent a decade wondering around the U.S. before ending up in southwest Missouri. Connor soon developed a knack for knowing which tracts of land had rich zinc deposits underneath. He bought thousands of acres of land containing the ore and was a millionaire by age 31.