Missouri Historical Society (MHM)

Soldiers memorial: mhs operates and manages the soldiers memorial military museum under an agreement with the city of st. louis. Mhs opened the soldiers memorial and the court of honor in november of 2018 after an extensive $30 million revitalization and renovation project. The city of st. louis partnered with the mhs after consideration of our extensive experience with museum operations. The mhs is an accredited museum by the american alliance of museums. In 2023, soldiers memorial welcomed nearly 23,000 visitors. Operations: soldiers memorial military museum fulfills three primary roles for the st. louis community. First, it serves as a public memorial to remember those who gave their lives in service. The museum building and the outdoor court of honor are home to memorials to world war i, world war ii, the korean war, the vietnam war, and service members who have given their lives while in service since 1975. Secondly, with its multiple meeting rooms, soldiers memorial hosts a wide array of public programs that educate on st. louis' role in service since its earliest days. In collaboration with external partners, the meeting rooms are also used to provide direct services to veterans. The meeting rooms are also used by many veteran service organizations for their recurring meetings. Finally, soldiers memorial serves as a museum that hosts a 4,000 square foot permanent gallery that shares the story of "st. louis in service" from the revolutionary war through today. Throughout 2023, the memorial was also home to a 4,600 square foot temporary gallery, "vietnam: at war and at home." The exhibition shared the experiences of st. louisans during the vietnam war.

Exhibitions: the Missouri Historical Society presents many exhibits each year, both permanent and temporary. The temporary exhibits are a combination of exhibits that focus on the st. louis story created by in-house teams and traveling exhibits that tell national and global stories developed by the country's leading museums. In the last few years, exhibits have included the opening of mhs's first new 1904 world's fair exhibit in 20 years to exhibits on st. louis's rich built environment and lgbtqia+ history - with visitors diving into the Historical contributions of queer st. louisans and even being invited to color on the walls of the Missouri history museum. Past exhibits have showcased everything from a major exploration of st. louis's contributions to american music, to the experiences of st. louisans during the vietnam war, both at war and at home; have shared stories of why st. louis is called the gateway to the west and how st. louis women fought for a voice even before they had the vote and how they played an instrumental part in the passage of the 19th amendment. In 2023, mhs saw steady attendance gains, welcoming more than 270,000 visitors to its three locations, and projects returning to pre-pandemic attendance levels in 2024.

Library and collections and digital initiatives: the Missouri Historical Society holds the premier regional history collection documenting st. louis, Missouri, the Mississippi and Missouri valleys, the Louisiana purchase territory and the american west. An integrated and multi-format collection, it serves an audience of diverse local, national and international readers and researchers. Library and collections and digital initiatives includes the expenses associated with stewardship of the collection overall covering salaries and supplies associated with conserving, cataloging, processing, housing, digitizing and making accessible the collections. Mhs collections are accessible to the public through the library and research center, exhibitions at the museum and soldiers memorial, through loans to other institutions, our online website including the online collections search, and various social media platforms. In 2023, in-person visitation to the library and research center was 3,595. Staff provided remote reference services to 3,313 researchers via phone, fax, mail, or email, an increase of 21% from 2022. There were 122,458 research visits to mohistory.org and 2,218,808 viewed pages to our mohistory.org website. The collections currently consist of more than 179,000 artifacts in a variety of formats that document the everyday life of the diverse inhabitants of our region. The library contains more the 100,000 volumes. The manuscript collections comprise more that 7,900 linear feet of original manuscript records. The photographs and prints collections contain more than 1 million images. The sound and moving images collection includes more than 74,000 items. In 2023, there were 207 donations made by donors to the mhs collections along with 10 purchases of items using mhs acquisitions funds.

Education and community engagement (ece): this department offers programs that engage and educate audiences of all ages and abilities. Members of the ece team create programs that appeal to a wide audience, develop field trips and other educational efforts geared to k-12 students, and coordinate programs aimed at our youngest learners. 2023 saw continued growth in mhs's programming portfolio, including the Missouri history museum's popular twilight thursdays concert series, the continued of thursday nights at the museum, and increased numbers of onsite student field trips. Leveraging capabilities built during the pandemic, the ece team offered and will continue to share a wide array of programming in person, virtually, and in hybrid formats in the years ahead.

Marketing and communications and graphics departments: the marketing and communications department provides marketing and public relations activities for the Missouri history museum, the library and research center, and soldiers memorial military museum. Activities include media relations, marketing, advertising, social media, graphic design, promotions, crisis communications, etc. The marketing and communications department prepares and distributes media material to print, electronic, and online media to promote institutional exhibitions, events, programs, and general awareness. Departmental personnel coordinate all interviews related to the institution. The marketing and communications department staff oversees all advertising and marketing opportunities and promotional partnerships, including developing marketing plans, placing all paid advertising related to the institution; and establishing strategic marketing collaborations. The graphics team members design and produce institutional collateral material; quarterly member magazine; banners; brochures; direct mail pieces; posters; web-based electronic promotional and marketing material; and the social media team within the department coordinates the institutional presence across all social media channels, including facebook, twitter, pinterest, and youtube.

Publications: the publications department provides several services for the museum. In addition to publishing books each year (new titles or reprints of books previously published by the museum), they also publish an annual members magazine and maintain an online magazine with continuously changing articles. They provide editing services for other departments in the museum. In 2023, this department published "come fly with me and "st. louis streetscapes" by a.a. fischer.

Museum services, public history, and evaluation: the museum services, public history, and evaluation divisions provide administrative/supervisory support to library and collections, digital initiatives, exhibition and research, the publications division, and marketing and communications including participation in strategic planning efforts, budget oversight, board committee responsibilities, and various initiatives.

African american history initiative: through the african american history initiative (aahi), mhs has committed to collecting more black history, sharing more black history, and taking a leading role in diversifying the museum field. In 2023, mhs hired an aahi director, adding to a team that includes a public historian, a community programming specialist, a curator of urban landscape and community identity, a deia managing director, and others who are dedicated to exploring st louis's rich black history. These positions reach across many different departments, ensuring the work of aahi permeates all of the institution's efforts. Mhs has also launched a new paid internship program for black college and high school students that are designed to further diversity the teams at the Missouri Historical Society and train museum leaders of the future.