Videos On Demand

SHSMO workshops, lectures, and virtual programs are freely available to worldwide audiences to watch anytime.

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Civil War Forts and the Prominence of Southeast Missouri in Battles

Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri played a larger role in the Civil War than most Missourians and others appreciate. Responding to the threat of occupation of Cape Girardeau by secessionists, the 20th Illinois Infantry occupied the town on July 10, 1861, and began to plan for four forts to protect against attack from the west and south. This presentation by State Historical Society of Missouri's Bill Eddleman explains how Cape Girardeau was important to the war effort.

Missouri History Day Contest 2025 Season Info Session

The State Historical Society of Missouri sponsors and organizes the National History Day program in Missouri. Each year, thousands of students, grades 6-12, from across the state participate in local, regional, state and national contests. SHSMO education coordinator Danielle Griego hosted a webinar with Kansas City regional coordinator Sadie Troy of Hary S. Truman Library & Museum and Angela Allison, an NHD educator in Blue Springs. This program provides educators with information for the 2025 contest season.

Using Mines, Caves, and Missouri's Underground Spaces as Fallout Shelters During the Cold War

In 1961, the Missouri Civil Defense Agency prepared for nuclear war by planning to evacuate urban populations to caves and mines in rural areas. Robert C. Ellis, the Jefferson City engineer who led the federally financed project, estimated that mines and caves could protect almost three-quarters of Missourians from radioactive fallout. The plan lacked one crucial element: meeting the basic needs of urban refugees. State and federal policymakers assumed rural Americans would voluntarily operate reception centers, and provide food, sanitation facilities, and first aid.

Basic Genealogy Part 18: Combining Traditional and Archival Resources to Tell a Life Story: Michael S. Eddlemon

Cape Girardeau Research Center Coordinator Bill Eddleman presents the next installment in his genealogy series: “Combining Traditional and Archival Resources to Tell a Life Story: Michael S. Eddlemon.” Most of us consult the “traditional” sources when researching our families, and many of these are discussed in earlier sessions in this Basic Genealogy series and include census, vital records (birth, marriage, and death), land records, and more.

African American Experience in Missouri Lecture: 50 Years of Published Works by Gary Kremer

2024 marks fifty years since Gary Kremer, executive director of SHSMO, published his first essay on the African American experience in Missouri. Over the course of the past five decades, he has written dozens of articles and five books on the topic of race in Missouri, a publishing record unrivalled by any other scholar of the subject.

Missouri Mysteries Chapter 5: The Mystery of the Collins Coal Mine

In the spring of 1885, newspapers around the United States carried sensational coverage of mysterious bones, artifacts, and alleged riches discovered by an exploration party in Tim Collins’ coal mine near Moberly, Missouri. However, just as quickly as the story reached a national audience, allegations of a hoax dampened the excitement. Join State Historical Society of Missouri Assistant Director of Research, Sean Rost, for Chapter 5 of the Missouri Mysteries series as he explores the mystery of Collins’ Coal Mine.

"My Missouri Lecture" A conversation with Peter Herschend and Sen. Roy Blunt

Peter Herschend is the co-founder of Herschend Entertainment Corporation (formerly Silver Dollar City, Inc). The Herschend family business started in Southwest Missouri with a hole in the ground called Marvel Cave. To give cave visitors more to do, Peter and his brother Jack built an old Ozarks Village named Silver Dollar City - now USA TODAY'S and Tripadvisor's number one theme park in America. Today, Herschend Enterprises is the nation's largest family-owned entertainment company.

Missouri French Creole with Brian Hawkins

Nestled in the foothills of the Saint François mountains, Old Mines, Mo., is a place where the boundary between history and folklore is especially thin. French colonists established the lead mining town in 1723. As the local French dialect was dying over the course of the 20th century, residents faced tough decisions about which aspects of their heritage were essential and how best to carry the culture forward. Beginning in the 1930s, scholars and locals began amassing an archive of oral literature, songs, and customs.

Lights, Camera, Action: Being in Documentaries

Dr. Larry Gragg, professor emeritus at Missouri S&T takes the viewer behind the scenes of history documentaries that he's participated in as an on-camera interviewee. Short clips of footage from documentaries will be shown in this in-person and virtual presentation. This program is in conjunction with the new exhibition Lights, Camera, ROLLA, an exhibition that explores the history of film in Rolla and its links to Hollywood.

History of Rotoscope

Kathleen Seale, coordinator of the State Historical Society of Missouri research centers in Rolla and Springfield, gave a talk about the history of the Rotoscope film process developed by two Missourians: Rowe Carney, Jr. of Rolla and Tom Smith of Urbana. This presentation is part of the opening reception of Lights, Camera, ROLLA, an exhibition that explores the history of film in Rolla and its links to Hollywood.

Basic Genealogy Part 17: Crossing the Pond - Tracing Ancestors Immigration and Naturalization Records

Bill Eddleman, coordinator of the State Historical Society of Missouri's Cape Girardeau Research Center, continues the popular geneology series with insight into immigration records. Most family historians in the U. S. have ancestors who migrated from other continents. Depending on the time period of immigration and port of arrival, it can be difficult to find these ancestors and tell their immigration story. This session will summarize surviving immigration records from different time periods and where to find them.

Points, Pots, Pipes, and Powwows: Missouri's Indigenous Peoples

History books tend to include Missouri’s Indigenous population only during periods when they were a threat to the state’s white settlement. These histories overlook the fact that Native people have lived here for at least twelve thousand years and continue to call Missouri home today.

Celebrating Ten African American Artists in Missouri

Dr. Joan Stack, curator of art collections at the State Historical Society of Missouri, gives a talk and shares artwork of Black artists in Missouri. Dr. Stack focuses on ten artists of the 20th and 21st centuries with an emphasis on artists whose artwork is in the collection of the State Historical Society of Missouri.

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Orphan Train Mystery and the Search for Joseph Aner's Lost Past

The Orphan Train Movement sent an estimated quarter million children from New York City to the Midwest and the South from 1854 to 1929, with up to 50,000 of them coming to Missouri. One of those children was a five-year-old boy named Joseph Aner, who was placed with the Markway family just outside Jefferson City. As Joseph grew up, he wondered who his mother was, and how she could have left him at an orphanage.

More than a century later, Joseph’s grandchildren had the same questions.

This Place of Promise: A Historian’s Perspective on 200 Years of Missouri History

SHSMO executive director Gary Kremer connects the past to the present in his latest book as he ponders why history played out as it did over the course of two centuries since Missouri’s admittance to the Union.

Keep It Old-Time: Fiddle Music in Missouri from the 1960s Folk Music Revival to the Present

For centuries, the violin has been both a “people’s instrument” as well as a “palace” instrument that spans the globe. Whether called “violin” or “fiddle” (they are the same, just with differing customs of learning and performance), it continues to be enjoyed across many different traditions and communities.

National History Day 2024 Theme

This pre-recorded webinar, moderated by Daniele Griego, education coordinator at the State Historical Society of Missouri, focuses on the 2024 theme for the National History Day Contest. Kansas City regional coordinator Mark Adams and NHD educator Dr. Heather Van Otterloo of Joplin Public School District, offers resources and topic ideas for the upcoming contest season.

Basic Genealogy Part 16: Salt, Schools, Swamps, Military Bounties, and Homesteads—Researching Non-Standard Federal Lands

Bill Eddleman, coordinator of the State Historical Society of Missouri Cape Girardeau Research Center presents the 16th installment in his basic genealogy series on the topic: “Salt, Schools, Swamps, Military Bounties, and Homesteads: Researching Non-standard Federal Lands.”

My Missouri Lecture - A Conversation with David Steward, Founder and Chairman, World Wide Technology

David Steward was the featured speaker in the State Historical Society of Missouri’s annual My Missouri Lecture on Oct. 28, 1 p.m. at the Center for Missouri Studies in Columbia, Mo. Steward is the founder and chairman of World Wide Technology, the largest Black-owned company in the United States. The civic and business leader will be in conversation with Gary Kremer, executive director of the State Historical Society, about how Steward’s upbringing in Clinton, Mo. and his Missouri experiences contributed to his success in building a technology company in St. Louis.

Missouri Mysteries Chapter 4: The Curious Case of Norma E. Short

In 1972, Norma E. Short of Stover, Missouri, gained national attention for her role in a project called “Skylook.” A journalist by trade, Short rose from a columnist at the Salem Post to compiling and editing international reports of unknown objects in the sky. In this episode of Missouri Mysteries, Sean Rost, SHSMO assistant director of research, explores the curious case of Norma E. Short. This program was recorded live on Zoom on Oct. 18, 2023.

Western Conservatory of Music of Rolla, KC and Chicago: A Glimpse of Late 19th Century Music Ed

Learn about the history of the Western Conservatory of Music, originally established in Rolla in 1882. Later, the music school would move briefly to Carthage, then Kansas City, and finally to Chicago. Dr. David Samson, Missouri S&T assistant professor of music, talks about the history of the conservatory. Dr. Sampson's presentation was held before an audience at Missouri Science and Technology Curtis Laws Wilson Library in Rolla on Oct. 17, 2023, and recorded on Zoom. The presentation was cosponsored by the State Historical Society of Missouri and Missouri S&T Archives.

The Widest Spectrum of Sound: 60 Years of College Radio

Learn more about the history of the Missouri University of Science and Technology radio station in Rolla, which has trained students in broadcasting since 1963. Dr. Jeff Schramm, KMNR’s faculty advisor, explores the station's 60-year history on campus. Unlike commercial radio, KMNR's format has been a free-form radio station, offering a wide variety of music and programs for its listeners. This program aired on Zoom 10-10-23 and was cosponsored by the State Historical Society of Missouri and the Missouri S&T Archives.

Using SHSMO's Digital Collections

The State Historical Society of Missouri's robust digitization program provides more online access to newspapers, photographs, maps, letters, and other manuscripts. SHSMO Senior archivist Heather Richmond and newspaper librarian Katelyn Ziegler offers tips on getting the most out of these digital collections, whatever your research goals. The workshop covers navigation of our digital collections' website and our digital newspaper collection, including ways to access material, advanced and faceted searches, browsing, and searching by date.

The State Historical Society of Missouri Celebrates 125 Year History

Founded in May 1898 by the Missouri Press Association and established as a trustee of the state a year later, the State Historical Society of Missouri is the premiere organization that collects, preserves, and shares Missouri history. As part of the 125th anniversary, a special History on Elm program featured Missouri author, journalist, and SHSMO trustee Bob Priddy in conversation with Gary Kremer, SHSMO executive director. They spoke at a public program at the Center for Missouri Studies in Columbia on May 9, 2023, about the Society's legacy and future.

Basic Genealogy Part 15: How to Get the Most from Cemetery Research

Bill Eddleman, coordinator of the State Historical Society of Missouri Cape Girardeau Research Center, presents the next installment in his genealogy series, focused on getting the most from cemetery research. Family historians often want to locate the burial sites of their ancestors, but it is not as easy as it might seem.