A one-day only exhibition and talks featuring conservation’s influential pioneers and the early movement in Missouri to restore forests, fish and wildlife in Missouri will be held Saturday, Feb. 15, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the State Historical Society of Missouri, 605 Elm St., Columbia. Legends of Conservation, a life-size display of trailblazing conservationists, including Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, John Muir, and others, will be set up in the lobby of the State Historical Society on February 15 only. Concurrently, the public can also visit Wild Missouri – The ART of Conservation, an exhibition at the SHSMO Art Gallery now through March during regular visitor hours. The public is invited to this free event.
Several presentations are scheduled during the day, including a conversation with Sara Parker Pauley, retired director of the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and University of Missouri professor emerita Susan Flader, who serves on the board of directors of the Aldo Leopold Foundation. From 11 – noon, Pauley and Flader will discuss how Leopold heavily influenced Missouri’s own conservation movements in the 1930s as the trusted advisor to E. Sydney Stephens, a prominent leader in the establishment of the Conservation Federation of Missouri and one of MDC’s first conservation commissioners.
MDC staff photographer Noppadol Paothong will speak from 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. about his passion for nature and wildlife photography and how he has been able to capture images that have made him an internationally recognized and award-winning wildlife photographer. Selected images of Paothong’s photographs are featured in Wild Missouri - The ART of Conservation exhibition in the SHSMO Art Gallery. The exhibition also includes illustrations by MDC artist Charles Schwartz, a distinguished artist, biologist, and naturalist who spent hours studying the habitats of animals and birds. He and his wife, Elizabeth “Libby” Schwartz, also a renowned biologist, collaborated on many projects for MDC, including the book Wild Mammals of Missouri, first published in 1959 and still in print. The couple became good friends with naturalist Aldo Leopold and the famous zoologist Marlin Perkins of St. Louis.