The Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation recently committed $250,000 to support the relocation of the State Historical Society’s Kansas City Research Center to Miller Nichols Library on the University of Missouri–Kansas City campus. The grant is an important first step in the campaign to relocate the Kansas City Research Center from its current location in UMKC’s Newcomb Hall.
When the Civil War broke out, James Washington Woodard lived with his wife and four children on a farm in Polk County, Missouri. Sympathetic to the Confederacy, Woodard, like many of his neighbors, joined the Fifth Missouri Infantry Regiment in January of 1862. He rose to the rank of lieutenant before he was killed on June 29, 1863, five days before the Confederate surrender at Vicksburg. A collection of Woodard’s papers recently donated to the Springfield Research Center provides insight into his wartime experiences.
The State Historical Society of Missouri will award two Center for Missouri Studies fellowships in 2020 to scholars studying Missouri’s early statehood period. One of the fellowship projects will examine Jesuit ties to slavery within the early state, while the other will analyze treaties with Native Americans concerning title to the land that became Missouri.
#GivingTuesday is an international day of philanthropy. Falling on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, it begins a period of charitable giving at the start of the holiday season.
Today, on #GivingTuesday, we invite you to support document conservation with a gift to the State Historical Society of Missouri's #GivingTuesday campaign.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist, Daniel Fitzpatrick, chronicled the progression of WWII as it happened with powerful and poignant editorial cartoons. An exhibit displaying Fitzpatrick's WWII cartoons is on display at the Center for Missouri Studies art gallery. A second installment of the yearlong exhibition will open on Saturday, Dec. 7, with an art curator walk-through at 1:30 p.m. led by Dr. Joan Stack. The second installment focuses on examples made between December of 1941 and the spring of 1943.
Ninety-seven-year-old Sehon Williams remembers when his hometown of Columbia, Missouri, had segregated schools and businesses, and the hospitals were off-limits to African Americans. For many years the town had a vibrant black community—Sharp End—but desegregation and urban renewal efforts ironically led to its decline. In October, Williams shared personal stories about Columbia’s past in a public conversation with longtime Columbia civic leader Bill Thompson as part of the African-American Experience in Missouri Lecture Series.
The mission of the State Historical Society of Missouri is to preserve and share the legacy of Missouri history. The Society has been actively collecting historical and noteworthy materials for over 120 years. Six SHSMO research centers, located around the state, provide free access to these historical items. The collections at each center reflect the unique region they represent.
The State Historical Society of Missouri launched the My Missouri Lecture Series on November 2 with a talk by former US Senator Claire McCaskill. The inaugural lecture, which also served as the keynote address for SHSMO’s Annual Meeting, highlighted the schedule of events for the first annual gathering held at the new Center for Missouri Studies building in Columbia.
