"21st by 21"

Let's bring our 19th-century museum practices into the 21st century in time for our statehood bicentennial in 2021. To help accomplish that goal, we have focused much of our grant-making since the Fall of 2005 on local projects that take steps out of the old and into the new. There are new audiences to be involved and new donations to be raised if we all get together and move! We'd love to see fifty new projects on this page by the end of 2010!

2005

Blackworld History Museum, St. Louis
"Wrapped In Pride: Ghanaian Kente Cloth and African American Pride"
When the Blackworld History Museum was selected as a site for a touring exhibit from NEH, they needed funds to help renovate a large basement room in their building to create a suitable gallery environment. The $2,500 grant was part of $30,000 worth of work to produce an array of interesting public programs and to permanently upgrade the capacity of a museum.
Waverly Citizens for Progress
"Waverly Community History Project"
In a town of fewer than a thousand residents, the Waverly Citizens for Programs sponsored an MHC charette, followed up with a workshop on "community involvement," and developed a project to develop a Virtual Museum on the internet. They began with the town's Civil War history and an existing inventory of Ante-Bellum houses in the vicinity. A grant of $4,875 got them started in a direction in which every theme in their virtual museum will be developed with help from residents.

2006

The Laura Ingalls Wilder/Rose Wilder Home and Museum in Mansfield obtained funding from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks to create an interpretive plan for the 21st century. At the same time, the Missouri Humanities Council awrded a $2,000 grant to enable the museum to replicate a Wilder exhibit produced in 2005 by the Springfield/Greene County Library and to circulate the exhibit to schools. The aim is to help create a new generation of enthusiasts for the wonderful "Little House" stories that were written in Mansfield, Missouri.
The Helen & George Washburn Center for Women's Leadership at Cottey College
"Woman's Chautauqua Institute"
A week-long training program open to women from 11th grade onward. The training program was developed to interest women in a unique form of dramatic presentation based on solid scholarship. A grant of $4,935 supported the project.
Boat People S.O.S., St. Louis
"Rising from the Ashes: Thirty Years of the Vietnamese-American Experience"
Development of a photo exhibit and community forums to reflect on the exodus of Vietnamese people to America in the late 1970s. A grant of $3,857 supported this first community history project of the Vietnamese in Missouri.
The History Museum for Springfield-Greene County secured major foundation funding to develop a new interpretive plan made for 21st century museum-goers.
The National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial, Kansas City
A complete makeover of exhibits and interpretation by the same design firm that made New York's Holocaust Museum so impressive. Although MHC did not fund this work, anything that represents state-of-the-art will be tallied a "win" for all of us.
The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal completed an exciting new interpretive plan with help from the Museum Studies program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum sponsored a Smithsonian touring exhibit, "Between Fences," and created a local photography project for children. The photos were uploaded to a Missouri Humanities Council site at Flickr.com, and an interactive slide show of the photos was then implanted in the "Between Fences" web page.
The George Washington Carver Birthplace District Association organized a Chautauqua Showcase in several towns as part of the Thomas Hart Benton Festival. A grant of $4,928 supported this expansion of programming.
The National Frontier Trails Center broke new programming ground in 2006 when it developed a teacher's institute on "The American Indian in History." An institute in 2005 had dealt with the westward-bound pioneers. In preparing for a workshop on Native American history, the National Frontier Trails Center formed a partnership with the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site in Fairway, Kansas. A grant of $4,180 supported this new direction in programming.
Cass County Historical Society, Harrisonville
"Century Farms Oral History Project"
In this imaginative project, the historical society collected information on the 80 Century Farms and developed an exhibit for display during the annual Living History Festival. A $2,500 grant supported this breakthrough approach to involving members of the community in creating an exhibit's content.
Chillicothe Area Arts Council
"Voices of Farm Women"
When the Arts Council booked a touring photography exhibit on farm women, they also developed an array of community programs much like we do with the touring Smithsonian exhibits. A grant of $3,435 supported these creative ideas to bring townspeople into the process of interpretation.
Old Mines Area Historical Society
"French Heritage Seminar"
The society decided to revitalize its membership with two days of activities related to the French heritage of the region. The seminar was a great success and has been repeated in subsequent years. A grant of $2,500 got them started on this path.

2007

The Mark Twain Home Foundation took a critical strategic step when it developed summer teachers instituties on "Teaching Mark Twain." A grant of $10,000 enabled two institutes in 2007. The lesson plans developed in these institutes were made available on the Mark Twain Museum's web site, and within a few months, those lesson plans had been downloaded 18,000 times.
The Winston Churchill Memorial and Library in Fulton completed a major overhaul of its interpretive strategy and exhibits with exciting, state-of-the-art methodology. This museum is now in a leadership position in Missouri.
Nodaway County Historical Society
"Nodaway County Aesthetic History"
Following a two-part charette in 2006 and early 2007, the historical society developed a concept to produce three exhibits with extensive community input. The project capitalized on extensive teaching experience on the board of the historical society and gave the museum many new ways of involving people. A grant of $5,576 supported the project.
Waverly Arts Council
"Civil War History Festival"
In the town without a museum, the idea for a large public festival grew out of a grant to help the Citizens for Progress create a "virtual museum" on the internet. A grant of $4,455 supported the festival.
Blackworld History Museum, St. Louis
"Dred Scott Interpretation"
A grant of $8,000 enabled this highly innovative museum to upgrade its exhibit on Dred Scott and to develop public programs in connection with it.
Missouri-Kansas Border War Network Podcasts
The Border War Network is an association of history organizations who are working together to upgrade the know-how at more than twenty venues. A grant of $16,108 to the Cass County Historical Society enabled training in oral history interview techniques and digital recording technology. By the end of 2007, the network was humming with activity and its web site was loading up with podcasts produced by people who didn't know how to operate an iPod four months earlier.
Etc. Senior Theatre and Campbell House Museum, St. Louis
"The Oregon Trail" Visitor Tours
This theatre company does research and writes scripted scenes for special-event visits at the Campbell House Museum. A grant of $2,494 enabled production of a script for a scheduled tour of two houses in St. Louis, the Chatillon-DeMenil House and the Campbell House. The "drama" entails a visit by the American historian, Francis Parkman, author of "The Oregon Trail," to his friend, Henri Chatillon, and then to Chatillon's friend, Robert Campbell.
National Frontier Trails Museum, Independence
"The American Indian in the Midwest"
A grant of $5,125 enabled a follow-up teachers' institute with Native American presenters and field trips to a Native American reservation in Kansas. The institute was conducted in partnership with the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site in Fairway, Kansas.
Union of the Citizens of Prijedor
"Prijedor: Lives from the Bosnian Genocide"
Funding for creation of an exhibit by St. Louis's Bosnian community on the persecution they suffered in the city of Prijedor. The exhibit opened to huge crowds at the St. Louis Holocaust Museum. It will go on a national tour in 2008. A grant of $5,000 supported the project.
Missouri State University's Center for Archaeoligical Research
"Where the Wilson Meets the James"
Creation of a "virtual museum" on the significant archaeology going on south of Springfield, where the Delaware people created settlements around the turn of the 19th century. A grant of $5,987 supports this expansion of internet involvement at the Center for Archaeological Research.

2008

Butler County Historical Society, Poplar Bluff
"Community History on the Web"
Under new leadership, the historical society gave up ownership of a Victorian house that was too small to operate as a museum. The society teamed up with the local cable TV station and set out to create an interactive community history enterprise. A grant of $11,458 enables development of digital assets and deployment of rich content on a new web site.
Mark Twain Home Foundation, Hannibal
"Expanded Teachers Institutes on Teaching Mark Twain"
Following a very successful set of institutes in 2007, the Mark Twain Museum has expanded to hold three institutes in 2008. A grant of $10,000 supports the project.
National Frontier Trails Center, Independence
"Teaching About the Border War"
After two summers of teachers' institutes on Native American history, the Frontier Trails Center is joining with the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site in Fairway, Kansas, to offer an institute on teaching the Border War. A grant of 4,870 supports the project.
Waverly Citizens for Progress
"Living History Festival"
The second annual history festival in the small river town of Waverly will be followed this year with the creation of an affiliated organization devoted to history, the "General Joseph O. Shelby Iron Brigade Association." A grant of $5,254 supports the growth of this community-involvement enterprise.
The Lexington Historical Museum is completing a three-year project to establish a permanent exhibit on Osage Heritage with help from the Osage Tribal Museum and tribal officials and friends. Designer Greg Leech is also preparing a smaller, touring version that will be circulated by the Missouri Humanities Council. MHC organized the team to carry out this project with funds from the NEH "We The People" initiative.
The Bollinger County Museum of Natural History is also completing a three-year project in partnership with the Delaware Nation, the Eastern Shawnee tribe and the Absentee Shawnee tribe. The result is a permanent exhibit on Missouri's Shawnees and Delawares, who settled in the Cape Girardeau region in the late 18th century. MHC organized the team to carry out this project with funds from the NEH "We The People" initiative. Delilah Tayloe.