The State Historical Society of Missouri will be welcoming about 500 students and their families to its headquarters on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus this Saturday, April 26. Thank you to our volunteers who are assisting SHSMO staff with the annual state contest for students in grades 6-12. Recently, we received good news about one of our NHD students, who has been awarded second place in the inaugural Latest Generation Film Contest sponsored by the Lincoln Presidential Foundation and the Better Angels Society.
Marquette High School student Rohan Deshpande received the award in the 14-16 age bracket for his documentary film, Buttons, Baby Teeth, and Bombs: The St. Louis Baby Tooth Projects. Deshpande's short film is about the late 1950’s-1970 study of the nuclear fallout absorbed into the teeth of children.
Deshpande directed and produced his short film for the National History Day contest in 2024, advancing from the local and state contests to the national contest in Maryland where he earned the “Untold Stories in History” prize. Deshpande researched his documentary using the Committee for Environmental Information Records at the State Historical Society of Missouri's St. Louis Research Center. The records detail the 1958 formation of a committee of scientists and citizens to collect the deciduous teeth of children in the St. Louis metropolitan region to test them for absorption of a radioactive isotopes produce by nuclear fission. The Baby Tooth Survey influenced other states, as well as Canada, Germany, and Japan, to conduct similar studies to provide scientific information on the effects of radioactive fallout.
The documentary film contest by the Lincoln Presidential Foundation was open to Midwest filmmakers, aged 14 to 22, based on the theme "On This Land." Deshpande and other winning films will receive their awards at a red-carpet event in Chicago on June 22.