Unions' Public Art Blog

Academic Hall Exhibit is located on the second floor of the Missouri Student Center in the Traditions Lounge. Academic Hall, whose cornerstone was laid in 1840, was the academic heart of Missouri State University, as the University of Missouri-Columbia was known in the nineteenth century. Students had both classes and extracurricular activities in this building. The original Academic Hall on the quadrangle on a snowy day. Courtesy of the State Historical Society Manuscript Collection (Joseph L. Douglass Studio Photographs P0434). A close-up of Academic Hall. Missouri Alumnus 1922. Also part of the original Academic Hall was a museum of natural history that contained mounted animals such as gorillas, a giraffe, a hippo, a rhino, a manatee, a whale, caribou, and many birds.  One of the most notable animals in the museum was Emperor the Elephant.  Emperor was the impetus for the museum and was purchased by Samuel Spahr Laws, the University President from 1876-18...

With election season upon us, the Missouri Student Unions turns to election history right here in Missouri and at the University of Missouri. Come see our prints of George Caleb Bingham and Missouri politics on the ground floor of the MU Student Center  Come see our exhibit about politics at MU in the Traditions Lounge on the second floor of the MU Student Center. GEORGE CALEB BINGHAM AND MISSOURI POLITICS Renowned nineteenth-century Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham composed a triad of paintings relating to politics right here in Missouri, two of which are currently on display on the ground floor of the Missouri Student Center.  Bingham himself was active in the Missouri political scene, being a member of the Whig party, only leaving it over the divisive slavery issue.  Then he joined Abraham Lincoln and the Republican party, but by 1872 he was associated with the Democratic party instead.  Bingham was also an active participant in the politics ...