State Historical Society of Missouri
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The State Historical Society of Missouri was founded in 1898 as a research facility for the study of the Show Me State’s heritage. As charged by state statute, the society collects, preserves, makes accessible, and publishes material relating to the history of Missouri and the Middle West.
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[edit] Address and Contact Info
Address: 1020 Lowry St., Columbia, MO 65201-7298
Phone: (573) 882-7083
Fax: (573) 884-4950
E-mail: shsofmo@umsystem.edu
Web page: http://www.umsystem.edu/shs/
Executive Director: Gary R. Kremer
Online Finding Aid: Finding aids to the manuscript collections are available online at http://www.umsystem.edu/shs/whmc.shtml.
Archivists (principal contacts for advice on the collection):
[edit] Hours and usage restrictions
The reference and newspaper libraries and the Western Historical Manuscript Collection are open to the public Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–4:45 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m., except legal holidays and the Saturdays preceding Monday-observed holidays. The Art Gallery is open Tuesday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m., and Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–3:15 p.m.
[edit] Collection Summary
The State Historical Society of Missouri maintains reference and newspaper libraries, a manuscript collection, a historical art collection, and a photo archives for public and scholarly use.
The society’s reference library contains books, pamphlets, journals, and official publications that document the history of the state and the Midwest. The holdings range from monographs and biographies to city directories and county histories to family histories and organizational histories. Within the library are some rare and priceless assemblages of books. The J. Christian Bay Collection of 5,200 books and documents is one of the most valuable in the field of Midwestern Americana. The Alice Irene Fitzgerald Collection features Missouri’s literary heritage for children and youth. Both the Mahan Memorial Mark Twain Collection and the Eugene Field Collection are outstanding, as is the Bishop William Fletcher McMurry Collection of materials relating to the Methodist church. The Francis A. Sampson Collection of rare books and pamphlets is particularly valuable for its early official state publications. The reference library includes published material; unpublished manuscripts are located on the other side of Ellis Library in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection.
The society has the largest and most complete collection of Missouri newspapers in the nation. State newspapers from 1808 to the present are preserved in more than 1,275 bound volumes and some 52,398 reels of microfilm. In addition, 297 current newspapers from every Missouri county arrive weekly. A guide to the newspaper collection on microfilm is available on the society’s web site. For genealogical research, the society’s microfilm collection of the U.S. census schedules is one of the largest in the Midwest, with a total of 6,969 reels covering 48 states, including 1,518 reels of Missouri census records from 1830 to 1880 and 1900 to 1930.
A constantly growing collection of primary sources has been assembled to document all aspects of life in Missouri and the Midwest. In addition to the more traditional political, military, and diplomatic records, users will find information on religion, the arts, education, the professions, ethnic and social groupings and movements, all aspects of the economy, and data on the lives of both famous and obscure individuals that in totality illustrate the experience and culture of the region.
More than 4,300 maps, ranging from early river routes, trails, and roads to modern railroad and highway routes, are owned by the Society. Atlases, gazetteers, early guidebooks, and statistical maps are on file, as is a complete assemblage of the state’s official topographic maps. The earliest map in the collection, published in 1684, charts the Louisiana Territory claimed for France by LaSalle.
The society’s historical art collection, a valuable supplement to its printed materials, contains the major national collection of paintings and portraits by 19th-century artist George Caleb Bingham. The Thomas Hart Benton Collection includes signed lithographs, drawings, and watercolors. Ninety colored engravings by Karl Bodmer depicting Western Plains Indians greatly enhance the collection. Contemporary Missouri artists are represented by the works of Frank B. Nuderscher, Frederick Oakes Sylvester, William Knox, Carl Gentry, Fred Geary, Fred Shane, Charles Schwartz, Frank Stack, Siegfried Reinhardt, Larry Young, and Roscoe Misselhorn. The editorial cartoon collection includes original works by Daniel Fitzpatrick, S. J. Ray, Bill Mauldin, Don Hesse, Tom Engelhardt, and others. The photograph archives contains more than 100,000 photographs, postcards, copy photographs, and photographs of drawings, engravings, maps, paintings, political cartoons, and other images. The collection is an outstanding research source for students, scholars, writers, local historians, genealogists, and others interested in images of the people and the events that shaped the development of Missouri, the Midwest, and the West.
[edit] Usage Discussion
Suggestions for approaching the material:
Housing and getting by for less in the area: An inexpensive hotel located nearby on Broadway is the Regency Downtown. It is a little run-down, but it is very clean and affordable. It includes a free continental breakfast, free wi-fi, and refrigerators and microwaves in most rooms. It is within walking distance of the State Historical Society and its sister organization, the Western Historical Manuscript Collection.
There are a number of restaurants within walking distance of the SHS, including Noodles & Company (with Italian noodle dishes and Asian noodle dishes), Chipotle, and the Heidelberg. The student union (on Hitt Street) includes fast food options as well. There is also a McDonalds on the north side of Ellis Library on the Lowry Mall.
