The State Historical Society of Missouri

The 630-foot Gateway Arch dominates the St. Louis skyline, and images documenting its construction will cover the walls of the State Historical Society’s Main Gallery when Under Construction: Images of the Gateway Arch by Art Witman opens on June 20, 2009.

By its completion in 1965, the Gateway Arch had been 30 years in the making.  President Franklin Roosevelt named the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial the first site under the Historic Sites Act in 1935, but it was not until 1947 that architect Eero Saarinen won a design contest to construct the memorial, and work on the Arch did not begin until 1963.  St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer Art Witman joined workers high above the city and took breathtaking shots of the monument’s various stages of creation.  The resulting mural-sized, full-color photographs were donated by Witman to the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-St. Louis in 1984.

Under Construction will be on display through September 5, 2009.  The State Historical Society of Missouri is located in Ellis Library at the intersection of Hitt Street and Lowry Mall on the University of Missouri campus, with parking available in three nearby garages.