History on Elm begins its 2024 season of free programs at noon on the second Tuesday of each month at the State Historical Society of Missouri. Programs are held September through June. Mark your calendar for our winter/spring line-up and join us over the lunch hour!
Tue. January 9: Designing with Ginger Rogers
Coming in March 2024 to the SHSMO Art Gallery is a spectacular collection of costumes originally worn by legendary Hollywood star Ginger Rogers. The exhibition is a collaboration with the University of Missouri’s Department of Textile and Apparel Management. Nicole Johnston, curator of the Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection, and MU graduate student Mackenzie Miller present a selection of one-of-a-kind costumes and archives of Independence, Missouri-native Ginger Rogers that inspired contemporary apparel design scholarship by students in the Department of Textile and Apparel Management. Get a sneak peek of items in the exhibition and learn more about Rogers who often defied society norms throughout her lengthy career in entertainment.
Tue. February 13: Points, Pots, Pipes, and Powwows
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. Historian Greg Olson will talk about the centuries of Indigenous presence in the state. He will discuss the inventiveness and adaptability that have enabled Missouria’s Indigenous population to change and evolve in the face of the extreme challenges they encountered. Olson will show how this resilience allowed Indigenous people and their traditions to survive in Missouri in the twenty-first century. Olson's latest book, Indigenous Missourians: Ancient Societies to the Present published by University of Missouri Press, is available in the Richard Bookstore inside the Center for Missouri Studies and online: shop.shsmo.org.
Tue. March 12: Newspaperwoman of the Ozarks: The Life and Times of Lucile Morris Upton
Before the word Ozarks was synonymous with the idea of goofy hillbillies, fast boats, and family vacations, it was a place where real people lived their lives day-to-day and learned about the world from their local newspapers. A budding journalist in 1923, Lucile Morris Upton wrote stories of the Ozarks. She would rub shoulders with presidents, fly with aviation pioneer Wiley Post, cover the worst single killing of U.S. police officers in the twentieth century, write an acclaimed book on the vigilante group known as the Bald Knobbers, and chart the growth of tourism in the Ozarks. One hundred years later, author Susan Croce Kelly brings Upton’s life to a new generation in her latest book that captures the excitement of being on the front lines of newsgathering and the development of the Ozarks. Kelly's latest book on Upton is available in the Richard Bookstore inside the Center for Missouri Studies and online: shop.shsmo.org.
Tue. April 9: Origins of the American Dream
The American Dream holds a powerful place in our imagination. When did this idea come about, how did it change over time, and how did we come to define it? From the early theological ideals of the Puritans and the public-private partnership of the Virginia Company to commemoration of overlooked historical figures on the money in our pocket today, our disagreements on the right policies for society are often rooted in different understandings and experiences about this country's promise. Author and “Celebrity Historian” Raffi Andonian will take us on this journey of the American Dream, an ethos that continues to inspire U.S. citizens and people from all over the world. Follow Andonian on his YouTube page @ Celebrity Historian.
Tue. May 14: A Road Trip Into America’s Hidden Heart
John Robinson, a former Missouri director of tourism, puts a different spin on the traditional road trip. Over 13 years, he drove every mile of every road on the Missouri state highway map. With an irreverent sense of humor--Robinson compares his unconventional journey to mowing a 68,000-square-mile lawn—he and his car (his only constant companion on this odyssey) discover the real America beyond the interstate. Real people. Obscure places. Forgotten facts. Whether he's uncovering tombstone histories or sitting down to a blue plate lunch, Robinson relays his encounters in a relaxed storytelling style. He's spent much longer—his whole life—studying Missouri customs, culture and history, weaving them into stories that probably won't show up in a high school history test. Robinson has authored several books on his Missouri travels, which are available in the Richard Bookstore inside the Center for Missouri Studies and online: shop.shsmo.org.
Tue. June 11: World War II in Pleasant Hill, as Told in Its Newspaper
To mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe during World War II, we’ll look at how a small Missouri railroad town took on the war. The story and its pictures come from the weekly Pleasant Hill Times and from letters it published from men and women serving at home and abroad. In the postwar years, a young Bill Cloud, often tagged along when his father, Tilghman Cloud, who took pictures for the family-owned newspaper. Now, after 42 years of teaching copy editing at the University of North Carolina and previous professional work at Newsday and The Miami Herald, Bill Cloud returns to his hometown in this presentation on the hardships, tragedies, and anxious townspeople who lived through the war and remember the years leading up to the start of the first peacetime draft in American history.
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History on Elm series explores a variety of topics each month, ranging from Missouri art and authors to unique SHSMO collections. The public is invited to attend. Registration is not required. The programs begin promptly at 12 p.m. and lasts one hour.
History on Elm series is held inside Cook Hall at the State Historical Society of Missouri Center for Missouri Studies, 605 Elm St., Columbia.