A major institution in town is making a big change: The Missouri History Museum is becoming the St. Louis History Museum. A unanimous vote of its board of directors yesterday made it official.
Jody Sowell is president and CEO of the Missouri Historical Society, which runs the history museum along with the Soldiers Memorial in Downtown West and the Library & Research Center on Skinker. He began quietly shepherding the change through the district a few months ago and says its impetus is clear.
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“This museum is really focused on St. Louis history,” he says. “This is not where you come to find out about Rolla or Kansas City. This is where you come to find out about St. Louis.”
Perhaps the most surprising thing about the museum’s former name is that it isn’t that old. The Missouri Historical Society dates back to 1866, with the museum opening downtown 26 years later. When it moved into its current home in Forest Park, in 1913, the name chiseled into its neoclassical facade was “Jefferson Memorial.” The “Missouri History Museum” has since been added beneath it, but while it appears to have been etched in stone, it wasn’t. “Those are applique letters,” Sowell says, “so, not so hard to change.”
Indeed, Sowell says the museum has only officially used the name Missouri History Museum since 1987, when it joined the Zoo Museum District. Even then, however, some of the campaign materials used the name “St. Louis History Museum.”
“It’s a relatively new name, but it doesn’t really describe our mission,” Sowell says. “Our mission is to protect, preserve, and share the story of St. Louis.”
In the past decade, the museum has leaned into that mission in a big way. Prior to 2014, many of its exhibits were the sort of traveling national fare that makes its way to museums across the U.S.—with a focus on, say, the Titanic, or chocolate. That year, the museum decided to say no to traveling exhibits and focus on building its own in house. The impact was immediate: Attendance increased 63 percent and hasn’t slowed down since.
“Visitors have told us time and time again that what they want from this museum is a telling of the St. Louis story in new ways and in inspirational ways, and in ways that help them use the past to build a better future for St. Louis,” Sowell says.
Those efforts hit warp speed last year with the launch of the museum’s “I am St. Louis” campaign, which drew upon a popular speech that Sowell has been giving around town (and beyond). It has now led to a social media campaign and, more recently, billboards around town that tell the St. Louis story.
In 2028, the museum plans to open a 12,000-square-foot exhibit that tells the St. Louis story decade by decade. Says Sowell, “It’s a time where we’ll be increasingly telling tourists, ‘This is where you come to really get an overview of St. Louis, the one place where you can get that overview in one spot.’ Calling ourselves the St. Louis History Museum helps with the tourist market, who’s not coming here to learn about Missouri. They’re coming here to learn about St. Louis.”
As an added benefit, it also allows the museum to better tell the story of the Metro East. People who live in Belleville, Alton, and East St. Louis aren’t Missourians—but they are very much a part of the St. Louis story. Of the new name, Sowell says: “It better defines our scope and our audience.”
But though that name is official as of yesterday, don’t expect to see the facade’s giant applique letters come down today—or any time soon. Says Sowell, “We won’t unveil the name on signage and graphics until probably the fall of next year, so that gives us a long ramp up.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story referred incorrectly to yesterday’s unanimous vote. It was of the board of the Missouri Historical Society. We regret the error.
