Some of America’s most compelling Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs will be part of two new exhibitions coming to the Missouri History Museum next month.
“Pulitzer Prize Photographs” and “In Focus: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Photographs” open Saturday, Aug. 3.
“Pulitzer Prize Photographs” is a traveling show developed by the Newseum (headquartered in Washington D.C.) that features the most comprehensive collection of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs ever assembled.
“In Focus: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Photographs” is a locally focused exhibit featuring approximately 75 photos of everyday life in St. Louis from the 1920s to the present day. “In Focus” was developed by the Missouri History Museum in collaboration with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Long before historians try to make sense of the past, reporters and photographers record history as it happens,” said Jody Sowell, a former journalist and the museum’s current director of exhibitions and research. “A single photo can be one of the most powerful portals to the past. Each captured moment in time is its own small history lesson.”
Items featured in “Pulitzer Prize Photographs” include print and digital formats, plus an original Newseum film. The exhibit displays more than 1,000 images and 15 hours of video and audio compiled from interviews with prize-winning photographers. Some of the iconic photos included are: U.S. Marines raising an American flag on Iwo Jima in 1945, photographed by Joe Rosenthal; Nathaniel Fein’s “Babe Ruth’s Final Farewell” capturing the June 1948 day when the baseball legend stepped onto the field for his final farewell, just two months before his passing; and Jack Ruby’s assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, photographed by Robert H. Jackson in 1964.
The photos presented in “In Focus: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Photographs” are separated into three themes: sports, protest, and moments. Some of the pictures included are: The 1978 rematch between St. Louis boxer Leon Spinks and Muhammed Ali photographed by J.B. Forbes; a photo of Pope John Paul II praying in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel during his 1999 St. Louis, taken by Odell Mitchell Jr.; photographer David Carson’s image capturing the sheer joy of an 8-year-old St. Louis boy leaping through the spray of a cooling station in July 2011, the fourth-hottest summer in St. Louis history.
Photojournalists from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch received the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography for their images documenting the unrest in Ferguson following the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown. The “Pulitzer Prize Photographs” exhibit features one image from the Ferguson photographs package.
For 102 years, the Pulitzer Prizes have honored excellence in journalism, literature, music and drama. Named for 19th-century newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who established the prizes in his will, the Pulitzer Prizes were first awarded in 1917 for work published in 1916. The first Pulitzer Prize for photography was awarded in 1942 to St. Louis native Milton Brookes.
“Pulitzer Prize Photographs” and “In Focus: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Photographs” will be on view from Aug. 3 to Jan. 20, 2020 at the Missouri History Museum. Admission is free. Please note that some material in these exhibits may be too intense for young children.
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