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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In recognition of Black History Month, the State Historical Society of Missouri is curating an exhibition at the Ellis Library Colonnade on the University of Missouri campus through May 15, 2026. It will feature artworks from past and present African American Missouri artists, exploring the conservation of continuum within the realm of African American art.
Join the State Historical Society of Missouri as we begin our year-long celebration of the centennial of the legendary Route 66! Missouri comprises just over 300 of the more than 2000 miles of historic Route 66. As the birthplace of the iconic highway, however, Missouri's contributions to the road’s development and history far surpass its size.
Water structures human life—nurturing crops and commerce, while sometimes unleashing deadly, storms, currents, and floods. In Missouri, the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers serve as vital trade arteries for the entire nation. This exhibition examines artworks by George Caleb Bingham and Thomas Hart Benton that celebrate the economic vitality of Missouri’s waterways but also suggest that the federal government can play a role in regulating them for the benefit of the American people.
This exhibition explores the relationship between art, artists, and the justice system, featuring drawings by two courtroom artists who documented major Missouri trials. Drawings by Philadelphia-born artist Freda Leibowitz Reiter, well known for her courtroom sketches of high-profile trials, including the hearings and trials of Watergate for ABC News in Washington, D.C., are on display. Two Reiter’ sketches of a mafia trial in Kansas City are part of this exhibition. Courtroom sketches by Columbia-born artist Robert Stack are also featured.
The exhibition Mail Carrier with a Camera: Photographs by Burford Royston features over 75 captivating images, mostly taken in the 1950s, that chronicle the lives of rural Howard County, Missouri, residents along Royston’s mail route. These photographs were selected from hundreds of slides in the Burford Leon Royston Collection, recently donated to the State Historical Society of Missouri by the Royston family.
Our permanent exhibition of works by George Caleb Bingham includes the monumental 1869/70 Civil War painting, Gen. Order No. 11, which represents the execution of a military directive evacuating civilians in four Missouri border counties.
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.
Our gallery space includes a permanent exhibition of ten large World War II paintings created by Thomas Hart Benton between 1941 and 1943. These images reflect the anxiety, horror, grief, and resolve that Benton and his audience experienced after the U.S. entered WW II on December 7, 1941. Benton responded to the national crisis with a series of nightmarish visions of war, eight of which were purchased by Abbott Laboratories and exhibited in New York City in 1942.
