Historic Map Exhibit Runs Through June 30

The State Historical Society of Missouri recently opened a new exhibit depicting the history of the region in maps in its main gallery. "The Stories They Tell: Understanding Missouri History through Maps" is a collection of thirty maps dating from 1822 to 2002 and was organized by Walter Schroeder, associate professor emeritus of geography at Missouri University.

Among the maps on display are an 1895 map of Sedalia, Missouri depicting a state capitol building in the southwest part of town as part of an effort to relocate the state capitol to the town. While the effort to relocate the state capitol failed, the town's ambitions remain memorialized in a map.

The exhibit also features a map (shown at upper right) of the harbor of St. Louis during the 1830s. That map was drawn by a 30-year-old Army Corps of Engineers Lieutenant. The cartographer, Robert E. Lee, would later serve as commander of the Confederate Army.

The exhibit runs through June 30 at the society's headquarters in the Elmer Ellis Library on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia.