Missouri State Museum and Missouri State Capitol

201 W. Capitol Ave.
Jefferson City, Missouri

573-751-2854

Admission is free.  Metered parking on streets and free lots within walking distance.

https://mostateparks.com/park/missouri-state-museum and
https://mostateparks.com/page/55186/missouri-state-capitol

History Hall opened in 1919; Resource Museum in 1919; and they merged into existing museum in 1923.  Capitol Building was completed in 1917. 

The current Missouri Capitol is the sixth building to serve as our state capitol since becoming a state in 1820. It is in the Roman Renaissance style of architecture. The building is five stories of 500,000 square feet and covers approximately three acres.  At the age of 102, it is currently under a $50 million renovation, thus it is currently wrapped making it hard to appreciate the exterior made of Carthage, Missouri, limestone marble and the the 77 columns. (There are 134 columns in the entire building.) 

Inside you are drawn to the dome and the beautiful view above you including a 9000 pound chandelier. It was created in 1918 by the Guth Lighting Company of St. Louis for a cost of $5,000 (equivalent to $83,285 in 2018).  In November 2006, the chandelier which had been lowered almost to the floor for maintenance, fell the remaining five feet and cost $500,000 (equivalent to $621,410 in 2018) to be restored.

On the floor under the dome is the great seal of Missouri in bronze. 

The grand staircase is before you, part of which is shown here. The walls of the rotunda corridors, vestibules, and of the grand stairway are lined with Carthage Napoleon Gray marble. The floors of all the corridors, rotundas, and all the treads of the stairway are of solid Carthage marble. 

The beautiful  paintings that cover the walls of the second floor of the rotunda were painted in England and then installed here.  This one represents the arts. 

This one represents teaching. 

The building was designed originally so as to hold two first floor museums. Looking into the Missouri State Museum Resources Hall, one sees four of eight first-floor columns from Graniteville, Missouri. 

When you enter this museum there are two walls of Missouri governors' portraits. 

Then on the south wall are the displays of Missouri's natural resources. 

In the center are eight displays showing how our natural and human resources have interacted. This is Making a Living from the Soil. 

This is Making a Living Beneath the Earth. 

This is Making a Living on the River. 

This is Making a Living from the Beauty of the Land. 

This stage coach is also on display in the center.

The North side displays Missouri's Human Resources. 

There is a section on the German immigrants and their influence. 

Late 1800's theatrical boot from German theater. 

German language and religion. 

Another section centers on slavery and African Americans. 

The Battle of Island Mound was the first Civil War engagement that involved African American troops. 

Other Missouri soldiers in battle. 

A display centering on Anglo-Southerners coming to Missouri

There is a section at the end of this hall on energy in Missouri. 

This display includes interactive displays for young people. 

The other hall in the Museum is called the History Hall with Veterans Gallery at the end. As you can see there is a lot of reconstruction going on in this area so only part of this section of the museum was open with displays. 

Early residents of Missouri. 

And then there were Europeans

This great map shows all of the early European settlements. 

The Boone boys found these salt licks in 1798 and many settlers followed. 

Items representing early settlers of the late 1700's: a sword for a soldier, a hunter's pouch, powder-horn and measure, lead ore collected by a miner, and a Bible owned by a priest. 

Early settler's home and outbuildings

The all-important pioneer tool. 

1853 violin

Battle map of the Civil War.  There are buttons for each year 1861-1865.  When pushing a button the battles for that year light up. 

A section of the World War I displays. 

Interactive display. 

Sword of Honor presented to General John J. Pershing, 1919. 

A trench theater. 

An infant scale from 1918 used to help fight child mortality during the war. 

Items of modern warfare used during World War I: includes German trench lantern, gas mask, and body armor. 

Captured German weaponry

World War I propaganda posters from around the world. 

Statue of William J. Stone, U.S. Congressman, Missouri Governor, and U.S. Senator that opposed entering the war. 

These are two displays in the Missouri Veterans Gallery. 

USS Missouri model

There is also a small room about artifacts, what they look for, and how to donate.

Here is one donation on display. 

And another one. 

The Missouri State Museum also has an outside section with 13 statues or fountains on display.  We totally missed seeing it except for this one monument that was built in 2008. 

In addition to the great Missouri State Museum, the capitol offers 45-minute tours.  We were lucky to get a private one that lasted even longer than that! This beautiful item above the first floor elevator doors informs you what floor the elevator is on. 

Upon exiting the elevator you see this beautiful view. 

One can look down from the balcony into the museum below. 

Back in 1919 when the special property tax earmarked for the building of the Capitol generated a $1 million surplus, the attorney general ruled that the money had to be used on the building. It was decided to use the money to decorate the Capitol.  The result is a splendid collection of stained glass, murals, carvings and statuary portraying Missouri's history, legends and cultural achievements.  Everywhere you walk you are faced with beautiful art. 

There are 41 painted lunettes picturing Missouri's resources and history. They were all painted from 1920 to 1922. There are two three-point perspective paintings. When you stand to the left of "The Artery of Trade", Eads Bridge covers most of the painting and the boat is just approaching the bridge.

When you stand to the right the bridge only covers half of the painting and the boat appears to be under the bridge. 

In "The Reclamation in the South", looking from the left, the tree is almost in the middle of the painting and the road goes to the right. 

On the right side, the tree is on the left of the painting and the road is to the left of center. 

In 1935, the Missouri House of Representatives commissioned Missouri native Thomas Hart Benton to paint a mural on the four walls of the House Lounge, a large meeting room on the third floor. The mural at first sparked controversy among the legislators with its bold and vivid scenes of everyday Missouri life. But it has survived and is very impressive.  

The House of Representatives Chamber has mahogany desks for its 163 members.

The mosaic glass window in the front portrays the glory of Missouri in peace and pays homage to Missouri as the start of the western expansion in the USA. 

Here are the marble walls with five of the ten side windows representing the greatest characteristics of democracy. 

The 12 columns are made of granite. 

There are lots of details throughout the chamber. 

On the back wall is the painting "The Glory of Missouri in War" depicting the unquenched fire of Missouri courage and the strenuous activity of Missouri infantry. The painting was donated by France to honor a Missouri Battle Unit during World War I. 

The Senate Chamber has 16 richly-veined marble columns,  The 34 desks for the 34 senators are the original American Walnut desks.  

There are four large murals of Missouri history.  This one depicts Thomas Jefferson greeting Lewis and Clark during the state's territorial period. 

The third floor also is the site of Hall of Famous Missourians, a group of bronze busts of prominent Missourians. 

On the first floor is the gift shop featuring a few Missouri items. 

Comments:  This is an amazing building!  Fortunately for us today, the Missouri voters in 1912 approved more bonds than were needed for the actual building construction and the remainder was used to beautify the building with artwork.  It is truly beautiful.  

We were able to arrange through our local legislator for a tour of the building. If you visit January-May your tour can include up to 60 4th graders with teachers, but in September we got a private tour!  Our guide, a retired teacher, did a wonderful job and gave us about 75 minutes rather than the usual 45 minutes. And at that we still did not see everything he could have shown to us. I highly recommend taking a guided tour!  

Somehow I failed to take pictures of the Law Library and the Hall of Missourians which were both interesting areas. Also we had hoped through our senator's office we would get to visit the Whispering Gallery, high within the dome, but was unable to do that. The gallery was the first time ever that a whispering gallery was successfully laid out by a celebrated expert on acoustics. 

We ended up rushing through the museum because we spent extra time on the tour. We probably needed more time there to appreciate it completely.  The Resource Hall was interesting and had easy-to-read displays and quite a few artifacts.  The History Hall also included a number of artifacts and good displays but was difficult at times to follow because of all of the construction. We rushed through in about 45 minutes. 

One of my big disappointments was that we didn't know to schedule time to walk the outdoor portion of the museum.  I think we would have really enjoyed it though it was quite humid and hot when we were in Jeff City. 

Parking is tricky.  There are some street-side metered spots near the museum but there are also free parking lots within a couple of blocks. The map of parking lots can be found online. 

We definitely hope to return when the construction is completed.  Next time I for sure want to visit the Whispering Gallery and the outside portion of the museum. Going when the students aren't there is a must!  We scheduled coincidentally our trip during the Veto Session which meant we did get to see both branches open their sessions.  However we also paid 40% more for our hotel rooms that week than normal because of the Veto Session.