An exhibit celebrating America’s 250th anniversary will open Saturday at the Missouri Capitol with historical artifacts and images representing the history of Missouri and the United States.
The exhibit was put together with students at the University of Missouri’s Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, which is planning an opening ceremony from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Missouri State Museum in the Capitol in Jefferson City.
Called “Stars, Stripes and Celebrations,” the exhibit includes artifacts under a broad patriotic theme, such as a quilt from 1976, a wheelbarrow from 1876, grasshopper plates from 1876 and political cartoons.
“We’ve got this fascinating wheelbarrow that some men from Jasper County, Missouri, decided they wanted to be at the big national centennial celebration in Philadelphia and show off what Missouri had to offer the country,” said Lily Santoro, an associate teaching professor at MU and leader of Kinder Public History ASH team.
The exhibit was put together by the Kinder Public History ASH team, a group of student researchers at the University of Missouri who develop projects to communicate elements of history to the public.
Both graduate and undergraduate students began working on the exhibit in May 2025. They were majors in history, constitutional democracy, political science majors, education and journalism.
“That was really wonderful that we had these different experiences from across campus that they could share with each other,” Santoro said. “It was nice to have them be able to support each other.”
The starting point for the exhibit was to define what the anniversary means to Missourians, and to look back and see how the state commemorated America’s founding.
The result explores a series of time periods — the American Jubilee (50th anniversary), the Centennial (1876), the Sesquicentennial (1926) and the Bicentennial (1976).
“Stars, Stripes and Celebrations” will be open for a year, through May 2027. Missouri Humanities was a partner and a sponsor for the exhibit.
“I think it’s nice to see, to be reminded of how much Missouri is a big part of the national story and that the national story is important to us,” Santoro said. “I think we often ignore, and I’ll say this, I grew up on the East Coast and we should not ignore Missouri.”
