Thank you so much for attending the focus group meetings to discuss ideas for celebrating the state’s bicentennial. You gave us so many great ideas! The first round of statewide focus groups is complete, and we are working to identify common themes and ideas from all the meetings. To keep you up to date on the progress of the bicentennial celebration, the State Historical Society of Missouri will be sending emails with announcements of upcoming events. Stay tuned for additional updates on the Missouri Bicentennial Celebration!

Missouri Happenings

1815 Map of the Northern Part of Missouri Territory

There is an event coming up in Springfield that you may want to attend. Missouri State University is hosting a traveling exhibit from the American Bar Association and the Library of Congress. “Magna Carta: Enduring Legacy, 1215-2015” will run from October 12-23, 2015, and will include auxiliary displays that highlight local holdings illustrating the “rule of law” as it relates to Missouri.  The displays will include items from cultural heritage institutions across Southern Missouri as well as one of the State Historical Society’s most significant manuscript items: an 1817 Missouri statehood petition.

Apparently one of several petitions circulated throughout the Missouri Territory and signed by its residents in the fall of 1817, this petition is from the Washington County region. The petitions were presented to Congress in 1818, marking the first attempt to have Missouri admitted as a state.

If you have more suggestions or comments, please email us at: contact@missouri2021.org.