MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Programs

1. Soldiers memorial: the Missouri Historical Society (mhs) operates and manages the soldiers memorial military museum through an agreement with the city of st. Louis. Following a $30 million revitalization and renovation project, mhs reopened soldiers memorial and the court of honor in november 2018. The city of st. Louis selected mhs as its operating partner in recognition of the organization's experience in museum stewardship, public history, and institutional management. Mhs is accredited by the american alliance of museums. In 2025, soldiers memorial welcomed more than 24,000 visitors. Operations: soldiers memorial military museum fulfills three core functions for the st. Louis community: serving as a public memorial, supporting civic engagement and education, and preserving and interpreting the region's military history. As a memorial, the museum building and outdoor court of honor memorializes those who gave their lives in military service, with memorials recognizing service in world war I, world war ii, the korean war, the vietnam war, and service members who have died while serving since 1975. As a civic and educational resource, soldiers memorial offers public programs that…

   $1,527,423 spent$3,798 earned by the program
   9% of program spending

2. Library and collections and digital initiatives: the Missouri Historical Society stewards one of the nation's premier regional history collections, preserving and sharing the stories of st. Louis, missouri, the mississippi and missouri valleys, the louisiana purchase territory, and the american west. These collections are preserved, documented, digitized, and made accessible for current and future generations through the work of dedicated staff. Mhs collections serve a broad audience of researchers, students, educators, community members, media professionals, artists, and visitors from around the world. Access is provided through the library & research center, exhibitions at the missouri history museum and soldiers memorial military museum, loans to partner institutions, publications, educational programs, digital collections, and online resources. In 2025, the library & research center welcomed 5,099 in-person researchers and visitors. Staff provided reference assistance to 2,050 individuals remotely, helping people explore family histories, support academic scholarship, document community stories, and access historical resources. Mhs's digital platforms further expanded public…

   $5,462,083 spent$6,071 earned by the program
   31% of program spending

3. Exhibitions: the Missouri Historical Society presents several exhibits each year, both permanent and temporary. Temporary exhibits are primarily focused on sharing st. Louis history and created by in-house teams. On occasion, mhs also presents traveling exhibits that tell national and global stories developed by the country's leading museums. In the last few years, exhibits have included everything from the opening of mhs's first new 1904 world's fair exhibit in 20 years, to exhibits on the history of st. Louis's mill creek valley neighborhood, to an exhibit exploring the history of forest park in its 150th anniversary year. Past exhibits have showcased everything from a major exploration of st. Louis's contributions to american music, a groundbreaking exhibit on st. Louis's lgbtqia+ history, the experiences of st. Louisans during the vietnam war, both at war and at home; and how st. Louis women fought for a voice even before they had the vote and how they played an instrumental part in the passage of the 19th amendment. In 2025, mhs welcomed more than 277,000 visitors to its three locations in st. Louis, placing it among the best-attended regional history organizations in the…

   $4,574,044 spent
   26% of program spending

4. Education and community engagement (ece): the Missouri Historical Society's education teams are committed to serving st. Louisans of all ages and abilities. Members of the ece team create public programs that appeal to a wide array of st. Louis audiences, develop field trips and other educational efforts geared to k-12 students, and coordinate programs aimed at st. Louis's youngest learners. 2025 was a successful year for mhs's programming portfolio, including the missouri history museum's popular free twilight thursdays concert series, which welcomed 34,000 st. Louisans to seven concerts on the museum's imo family plaza. Throughout the rest of the year, thursday nights at the museum welcomed nearly 11,000 attendees to 39 free programs ranging from performances, to lectures, and film screenings. During the 2024-2025 school year, mhs educators served more than 21,000 students and educators through onsite field trips, in-classroom outreaches, virtual programs, and teacher trainings - all at no cost to students or districts.

   $3,115,245 spent$118,956 earned by the program
   18% of program spending

5. Marketing and communications and graphics departments: the marketing and communications department provides marketing and public relations activities for the missouri history museum, the library and research center, and soldiers memorial military museum. Activities include media relations, marketing, advertising, social media, graphic design, promotions, crisis communications, etc. The marketing and communications department prepares and distributes media material to print, electronic, and online media to promote institutional exhibitions, events, programs, and general awareness. Departmental personnel coordinate all interviews related to the institution. The marketing and communications department staff oversees all advertising and marketing opportunities and promotional partnerships, including developing marketing plans, placing all paid advertising related to the institution; and establishing strategic marketing collaborations. The graphics team members design and produce institutional collateral material; quarterly member magazine; banners; brochures; direct mail pieces; posters; web-based electronic promotional and marketing material; and the social media team within the…

   $1,534,769 spent
   9% of program spending

6. Publications: the publications department provides several services for the museum. In addition to publishing books each year (new titles or reprints of books previously published by the museum), they also publish an annual members magazine and maintain an online magazine with continuously changing articles. They provide editing services for other departments in the museum. In 2025, this department published "the wonder and complexity of the 1904 world's fair".

   $333,669 spent$17,105 earned by the program
   2% of program spending

7. Museum services, public history and evaluation: the museum services, public history, and evaluations divisions provide administrative/supervisory support to library and collections, digital initiatives, exhibition and research, the publications division, and marketing and communications including participation in strategic planning efforts, budget oversight, board committee responsibilities, and various initiatives.

   $880,917 spent
   5% of program spending

8. African american history initiative: through the african american history initiative (aahi), mhs has committed to collecting more black history, sharing more black history, and taking a leading role in diversifying the museum field. In 2023, mhs hired an aahi director, adding to a team that includes a public historian, a community programming specialist, a curator of urban landscape and community identity, a deia managing director, and others who are dedicated to exploring st. Louis's rich black history. These positions reach across many different departments, ensuring the work of aahi permeates all of the institution's efforts. Mhs has a paid internship program for black college and high school students that are designed to further diversify the teams at the Missouri Historical Society and train museum leaders of the future. In 2025, we launched the annual black writers program and collaborated with the national museum of african american history & culture on their community curation project. We welcomed over 10,000 visitors to over 60 aahi programs.

   $61,171 spent
   0% of program spending

The 8 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $17,489,321.