History on Elm series offers free public programs at noon on the second Tuesday of the month at the State Historical Society of Missouri. Programs are held September through June. Mark your calendar and join us over the lunch hour! Special thanks to this season's sponsors: Central Bank | Central Trust and Shortwave Coffee.
Tuesday, Dec. 9 Noon – Fingerprints and Footprints: Ray Beck's Columbia
Author and journalist Jodie Jackson’s new biography of retired Columbia City Manager Ray Beck offers insight into the longtime civil servant who helped shape Columbia from 1960 to 2006 as a sanitary engineer, public works director, planning director, and city manager. Join us for a conversation with Ray Beck and Jodie Jackson as they reflect on the 93-year old’s life and how Columbia evolved from the second half of the 20th century to the early 21st century.
Tuesday, January 13 Noon – Ozarks Beatlemania: When the Sixties Came to Missouri
Ladies and Gentlemen… the Beatles! With those words Ed Sullivan – America’s unofficial Minister of Culture – introduced us to the Fab Four on February 9, 1964. With just five catchy songs on Sullivan’s show, “the sixties” as an era began that Sunday night. During their 1964 US tour, the Beatles played an exhausting stretch of eight concerts a week, including Kansas City. On September 19, they were secretly flown to a ranch in Alton, Missouri for a needed weekend of rest and relaxation. Join Joel Rhodes, SHSMO Executive Director, as he explores how southwest Missouri experienced firsthand the dawn of a musical and cultural revolution.
Tuesday, February 10 Noon – Soaring Together: A Tuskegee Airmen Story
Join us for a Mid-Missouri debut screening of this new short documentary about James Shipley, a Tuskegee airman from Tipton, Mo. Produced by Ozark Vitality, members of the film's crew will be available after the screening for a discussion.
Tuesday, March 10 Noon – Telling Telling the Missouri Route 66 Story – Kathleen Seale, coordinator of the Rolla and Springfield Research Centers, brings stories, images, and history on Route 66 in Missouri. Learn more about the centennial of the Mother Road throughout 2026 and SHSMO’s efforts to share and celebrate the legacy of the road and the Missourians who made it famous.
Tuesday, April 14 Noon – Runnin' Redbirds: A Look Back at the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals
The 1982 St. Louis Cardinals played an entertaining style of baseball built on speed and defense. The roster was constructed and piloted by Whitey Herzog, a baseball visionary who tailored his team for the AstroTurf and spacious dimensions of Busch Stadium. Herzog traded for closer Bruce Sutter, speedsters Lonnie Smith and Willie McGee, and defensive wizard Ozzie Smith, adding to a talented roster that included the likes of Bob Forsch, Keith Hernandez, and George Hendrick. The result was an exhilarating season that culminated in the defeat of baseball's most powerful team—the Milwaukee Brewers—in the World Series.
Tuesday, May 12 Noon – Shannondale’s Brotherhood Economics
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 in northern Shannon County. Before President Franklin D. Roosevelt created programs to lift Americans out of poverty, Bucher was organizing cooperatives to market folk art, cream and strawberries. This program includes the short documentary By Heart and By Hand,” followed by presenter Don Love, who produced and narrated the film and is an area resident and member of the Shannondale community.
Tuesday, June 9 Noon – Joplin’s Connor Hotel: A Lavish Gift from a Millionaire Zinc King
Chad Stebbins, executive director of the Missouri Press Association, will present a talk based on a book he wrote about Joplin’s rich lead and zinc mining heritage, which produced a handful of millionaires, including Tom Connor. Unlike other mining kings, Conner never built a mansion for himself, preferring to spend his money on charities and churches in Joplin, as well as the Connor Hotel, which opened in 1908 and would host thousands of people, including the outlaw "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and more reputable guests that included Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gene Autry, and Robert Wardlow, the world's tallest man.
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History on Elm series explores a variety of topics each month, ranging from Missouri art and authors to unique SHSMO collections. The public is invited to attend. Registration is not required. The programs begin promptly at 12 p.m. and lasts one hour. Do you have an idea of a program or topic for this series? Let us know!
History on Elm series is held inside Cook Hall at the State Historical Society of Missouri Center for Missouri Studies, 605 Elm St., Columbia.