My Corner Online
Missouri State Capitol and Museum
I have lived all of my life in Missouri and am deeply rooted Missourian, and yet have never visited the Missouri State Capitol. On August 9, 2024, we took the opportunity of a live-in dog sitter (aka son) to take a vacation trip where the activities were much inside where we could not take our dogs. I am not usually a museum and indoor type of vacationer, but we enjoyed our visit none-the-less. In the coming videos, you will see we explored the outdoors around the capitol.
These first photos were taken with my nice camera, so I am going to share them all. Here is the front of the capitol building. The orange and white striped barriers kind of mess up the view.
This is a nicer photo of the entire building. A statue of Thomas Jefferson, who the city was named after, is in the middle. To the left is the Missouri River Statute and to the right is the Mississippi River Statute. On the top is the Ceres.
I was really drawn the the architecture, but moreso to the art. I found these paintings in the center of the capital to be of muted colors and very soft, which was a huge contrast to the Thomas Hart Benton murals.
I loved the color on the ceilings with the white and gold and the repeating architecture view down the hallways.
This is the view of the House Chamber from the visitor's gallery on the fourth floor.
This is the ceiling of the House chamber. Everywhere I looked it was so ornate with such detail that there was no way to see it all from one visit.
Of course, look at the above video for more information.
This is a view of the grand staircase on the first floor. In the center is The Great Seal of Missouri designed in 1822 by Judge Robert Wells, with the Latin motto "Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law." Again, I love the muted murals. Each has a theme as well. There is a book (The Art of the Missouri Capitol) you can buy to learn more about all of the art.
This photo and down were taken with my cell phone while recording the above video. This is the back side where we parked our vehicle.
This is the entrance on the side of the building. Later we would stand on that balcony and there are photos below looking out over the city and the bridge.
This is the view as we turned the corner of the front of the capitol.
There are two fountains across the street from the front of the capitol and this is the "fountain of the arts." The other one is the "fountain of the sciences" and it is shown in the above video.
Another shot of the front of the capitol.
This is the Missouri River statue. We were first taken aback that a Greek-like goddess would be of such prominence at the front of the capitol. We later learned that this is a statue for the "Mother of Waters," being the Missouri River. The Missouri River is considered the “Center of Life” as the main artery for exploration, food, trade, and transportation for millions of people over thousands of years. On the right side of the building, which we saw as we left the building in the above video, is the statute for the "Father of Waters," being the Mississippi River, which was named by Algonquian-speaking Indians, and can be translated as "Father of Waters." The Mother of Waters rests her left arm on a cornucopia of fruit while holding a stalk of corner in her left hand. The turtle by her knee represents animals dependent upon the river. The catfish and four smaller fish behind her represent fishing in the river. The oxen skull representing the loss of life and property due to flooding or drought.
Then there are panels underneath the statute. The front and back panels have the sun god and life-giving rays. The side panels represent "Water is Power" and "Water is Life."
We entered through the carriage house.
The ceiling of the carriage house was fabulous.
This is the grand staircase which is what we saw when we first entered.
To the left and the right of the grand staircase on the first floor is the museum. We stopped to enjoy the stage coach as seen the above video.
At the end of the museum hallway was where we waited for our tour guide for the tour to start. Hubby insisted we could go out the door there. We were on the balcony which was an amazing view. Then we could not get back in! The door had locked behind us! Hubby had to run around to the front and come back to let me in.
This is the view from the balcony and you can see the Missouri River bridge.
This is looking up front the balcony. Cool, huh?
Again, the ceiling color and the repeating designs are awesome.
On the tour we climbed to the second floor.
This is a Father of Waters mural. There was a companion mural next to it.
This is the Hall of Famous Missourians on the third floor. The above video shows a view of them, including a guy who was only President of the United States for one day.
I really loved the House Lounge on the third floor with the Thomas Hart Benton mural which was completed in 1936. The mural is called "A Social History of the State of Missouri." The colors are so rich and there is a lot of depth to the art with the good and subtle use of shadows. I was intrigued.
I could have sat with a cup of tea and studied this mural all day!
The above video shows the mural and we talk about some of the sections and what they depict.
This is the ceiling of the House Chamber again.
This was after the tour when we walked down the museum hallway.
Being that we live in Cape Girardeau, I was surprised to see a doorway (I failed to get a photo but it is in the above video) of a mansion in Cape Girardeau called the Rosedale! "As early as 1839, one of the finest Georgian homes for many miles, the Ellis-Wathen-Ranney house, was erected on a tract of land that adjoined the James Reynold property on the south," which was located at 623 North Main. So the Rosedale was to the North of the Reynold's house (I think it was 501 North Main). The Ellis-Wathen-Ranney House was razed in 1958.
He just had to go up the grand staircase!
Our tour guide told us about the controversy painted into the Thomas Hart Benton mural.
This was taken as we left the building.
This is the Missouri Supreme Court building across the street.
On top of the capital is Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain and agriculture and therefore selected as the patron goddess of Missouri, which is a strong agricultural state. Her left hand holds a sheaf of grain and she extends her right hand forward in perpetual blessing over the state.