The Center for Missouri Studies in downtown Columbia debuted three new exhibitions this week and is hosting an ongoing raffle to win a reproduction Missouri Bicentennial Quilt throw! All exhibitions are free and open to the public during the art gallery's regular hours. Enter to win the mini-quilt by joining or renewing your membership in the SHSMO Richard Bookstore on the first floor of the Center before July 16.
Located at 605 Elm Street in downtown Columbia, the Center for Missouri Studies galleries are open Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free parking is available in the Center parking lot at the corner of 6th and Locust Streets.
Mr. Pruitt’s Possum Town
Now showing through November 5, 2022, Mr. Pruitt’s Possum Town presents a selection of photographs by Otis Noel Pruitt, a white photographer who documented life from 1920-1960 in the segregated town of Columbus, Mississippi–known locally as "Possum Town."
Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and presented in partnership with the Missouri School of Journalism, the exhibition is curated by Dr. Berkley Hudson, a professor emeritus at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Find the exhibition in the SHSMO Art Galleries on the first floor at the SHSMO Center for Missouri Studies.
Note to visitors: this exhibition contains some images that are sensitive or offensive. Screens have been installed to give visitors control over the choice to view these images.
Learn More About Pruitt's Possum Town
Picturing Missouri Sharecroppers
Picturing Missouri Sharecroppers explores the 1939 sharecroppers strike with images drawn from State Historical Society of Missouri collections.
Presented in conjunction with Mr. Pruitt's Possum Town, this exhibition displays work by two St. Louis Post-Dispatch colleagues, cartoonist Daniel Fitzpatrick and photojournalist Arthur Witman. Fitzpatrick and Witman’s depictions of southeast Missouri’s cultural and racial landscape in the 1930s and 1940s share some similarities with Pruitt’s Mississippi photographs.
Now showing in SHSMO Art Galleries on the first floor at the SHSMO Center for Missouri Studies through November 5, 2022.
Learn More about Picturing Missouri Sharecroppers
In Their Own Words
Celebrating the 35th anniversary of the National Women and Media Collection, In Their Own Words features the voices of important women working in media straight from their diaries, letters, and interviews. Visitors will learn of their struggles and triumphs in the media industry and how these journalists were able to navigate careers in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
This exhibition is showing now through December 2022 in the Wenneker Family Gallery on the second floor at the SHSMO Center for Missouri Studies.
Learn More about In Their Own Words
Raffle: Reproduction Missouri Bicentennial Quilt Throw
Through Saturday, July 16, we are hosting a special giveaway at the Center for Missouri Studies in downtown Columbia! Stop in for a chance to win a reproduction quilted throw featuring a sublimation print of the Missouri Bicentennial Quilt. Join or renew your membership in the SHSMO Richard Bookstore to enter.