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The premier center for the study of Missouri history and culture Cape Girardeau    Columbia    Kansas City    Rolla    St. Louis    Springfield Who will tell Missouri's story? Perhaps Mark Twain said it best, “News is history in its first and best form.” The SHSMO newspaper collection offers a first rough draft of Missouri's narrative, weaving an intricate tapestry from the fabric of weekly and daily dispatches on events across the state.  Your story is Missouri's story.  Whether you are a serious history scholar, just looking for an account of your own exploits, or tracking down even a brief mention of a shadowy ancestor, you can probably find it in the newspaper collection. The State Historical Society of Missouri has more than 54 MILLION pages of Missouri newspapers on microfilm, dating back to the first newspaper in St. Louis in 1808.   Microfilm More than 57,000 reels hold the stories of our past, starting with the July 26, 1808, issue of the Missouri Gazette. SHSMO films all of the nearly 300 current newspaper titles it receives. In addition to microfilming present-day newspapers, the Society remains active in locating and preserving old papers, making these formerly unavailable resources accessible for local historical research. Missouri Newspapers Online A forgotten event, an obscure detail about a building, or the mention of a long-ago relative: these can be found in Missouri's newspapers. Your support has helped SHSMO digitize over 1.4 million newspaper pages that are now freely available to patrons worldwide. With your help, SHSMO can digitize more than 180,000 pages of newspapers from eight Missouri counties that have no digitized newspaper content available—anywhere. Become a REEL Supporter The State Historical Society of Missouri cannot continue to collect, microfilm, and digitize newspapers without your help. Your donation is a statement about what matters—preserving Missouri's story—and it is a gift to your descendants a century from now who might want to discover you. I AM A REEL SUPPORTER! Header Image Description: Michigan City News Newsroom [National Women and Media Collection, Dorothy Misener Jurney Papers, C3904]