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Missouri History Museum's History

the jefferson statue in the Missouri History Museum
Chris Yunker | Creative Commons

1866 -Missouri Historical Society created. The private organization was started to save “from oblivion the early history of the city and the state.

1913 - Jefferson Memorial Building dedicated. It was built at the site of the main entrance to the 1904 World’s Fair with proceeds from that event.

1988 - Missouri History Museum joins the tax-supported Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District (1987 election). It retains its own board for day-to-day operations and a subdistrict board is added to oversee tax money.

1988 - Robert Archibald is hired.

1991 - The Former United Hebrew Synagogue, 225 S. Skinker, was renovated and opened in as the Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center.

1993 - The Missouri History Museum first accredited by the American Association of Museums (now the American Alliance of Museums).

1994 – History Museum awarded one of the top honors by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, which said the St. Louis institution was “a model for creating programs that use history as a context for today’s concerns.”

2000 - Emerson Center completed. The addition to the main building in Forest Park expanded exhibition space, added an auditorium, classrooms, a restaurant, and a gift shop.

2006 – Museum buys tract of land at 5863 Delmar Blvd. for a community center. The purchase price was $875,000 (an appraisal this year said the value at that time would have been $260,000. One of the owners was former Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. who also had served on the history museum board.

2012 – Archibald resigns

2013 – Former Sen. John C. Danforth sets up a new governance system.

2014 – Frances Levine named to head the museum.

See also:

History lesson: How the ZMD and History Museum got to where they are today (Charlene Prost, Oct. 29, 2012) 

Donna Korando started work in journalism at SIU’s Daily Egyptian in 1968. In between Carbondale and St. Louis Public Radio, she taught high school in Manitowoc, Wis., and worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the copy editor and letters editor for the editorial page from 1973-77. As an editorial writer from 1977-87, she covered Illinois and city politics, education, agriculture, family issues and sub-Saharan Africa. When she was editor of the Commentary Page from 1987-2003, the page won several awards from the Association of Opinion Page Editors. From 2003-07, she headed the features copy desk.