St. Louis immortalized in photos from SLAM’s collection

Founded in 1764, St. Louis has made its name as the Gateway to the West, the birthplace of legends, and home to several proud cultural institutions. 

In honor of 314 Day, take a moment to reflect on the city’s past as told by photographs in the Saint Louis Art Museum’s collection. These photographs can be viewed in the Print Study Room upon request.

Storybook Hour – Saint Louis 

In this 1954 photograph, Black and white St. Louis schoolchildren sit side-by-side, eagerly listening to a story. That year, the United States Supreme Court determined school segregation to be illegal, which made photographer Moneta Sleet Jr.’s choice of subject matter particularly relevant. This everyday classroom scene was part of Sleet’s assignment for Our World magazine. His work was featured in an article titled “St. Louis’ Small Fry,” which highlighted the city’s children. 

South Side, Saint Louis, 1992

This photograph illustrates a critical moment, and test of skill, for a young girl living on the South Side. The image features a group of girls playing on the sidewalk. Presumably two girls (one is unseen) hold a length of rope high above their heads, while a third girl tries to jump up and touch the rope with her foot. Another girl watches, possibly waiting for her turn. The photographer, Anna Kuperberg, captures the expression of gritty determination on the jumping girl’s face. The blurred effect of the girl’s foot in the center of the photograph gives the viewer an immediate sense of movement and action. The children who lived in this neighborhood spent much of their time outdoors and were eager to pose for a picture. 

Protest, Vietnam Veterans Against the War

The black and white grain of this photograph mimics the solemn tone of its subjects. Carrying a wooden coffin, two war veterans march ahead, stone-faced against the rain. A crowd follows behind, an American flag hoisted in the air by a fellow protester. This photograph was taken during an anti-war protest in 1971, during the final years of the catastrophic Vietnam War. 

Documentary photographer Ken Light spent several weeks in St. Louis during 1971, during which he captured various families in Soulard, as well as another portrait of the veteran shown above on the right.

Untitled (St. Louis Arch Under Construction) 

This 1965 photo showcases the final stages of construction of St. Louis’s famous Gateway Arch. Two large cranes set materials that inch closer and closer to each other; they will eventually meet in the middle, completing the years-long construction of this monumental landmark. The Arch was completed in late 1965, not long after this photograph was taken. 

The above image is considered a vernacular photo—one captured by someone who is amateur and often unknown taking photos for personal reasons rather than to make fine art. This and other vernacular photos prove it is not necessary to know who took the photographs for the resulting images to be fascinating, amusing, or moving to the viewer. 

Camera Obscura Image of Saint Louis Looking East in Building Under Construction 

Abelardo Morell made this photograph of the St. Louis skyline from the then-new Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse, located on the downtown Gateway Mall. Based on the principles of the camera obscura (Latin for “dark chamber”), he transformed a room on the 26th floor of the building into a giant camera. By covering the windows and creating a small opening, an image of the outside was projected upside-down onto the opposing wall. He placed his view camera in the prepared room, then recorded its contents and the camera obscura projection simultaneously over an eight-hour exposure. The most prominent building in the view was Busch Stadium. Its distinctive roof of concrete arches, designed by Edward Durell Stone, resonated with Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch nearby. The stadium was demolished in 2005 to make way for the current stadium. 

Race Wall, St. Louis, Missouri 

Ken Light photographed two men sitting among painted portraits of Black leaders. This photograph documents one of St. Louis’s most important community-based art projects: a three-story mural created in 1968 by volunteers from local civil rights groups. This Wall of Respect was part of a national urban-mural movement celebrating African American achievement. 

A hub for Black activism, concerts, and rallies, the mural also became a target for vandalism, such as the white paint that partially defaces several portraits. Despite these acts, the mural held a central place in its community for over a decade, before its building was demolished in the 1980s.  

St. Louis Missouri

Featured in the 1994 exhibition, Songs of My People: African Americans: A Self-Portrait, this D. Michael Cheers image was taken in front of the US Custom House and Post Office. The subjects of the photo, Steven Cousins and Sandra Moore, grew up in the same neighborhood. Though they went their separate ways as adults, their experiences with racism and discrimination led them both to the legal profession. After 20 years, they rekindled their friendship. At the time of Songs of My People, Moore was an administrative judge for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Cousins was a nationally recognized attorney who specializes in corporate bankruptcy. Today, Moore is the Managing Director and Chief Impact Officer at Advantage Capital, an investment company in Clayton. Cousins is president and CEO of Cousins Allied Strategic Advisors; he was also named the Mound City Bar Association’s 2024 Legal Legend. 

St. Louis Downtown at Night 

Born in St. Louis in 1920, Thelma Blumberg studied photography, sculpture, and life drawing at the Institute of Design on the GI bill. In early 1950, she moved to Los Angeles, where she studied at the Los Angeles Arts Center and pursued photography independently. She returned to St. Louis around 1952 and worked as a freelance photographer for the St. Louis Globe–Democrat for 17 years, a newspaper that ceased publication in 1986. Blumberg’s studio was near Gaslight Square, an arts and entertainment district active during the 1950s and 1960s. While there, she produced an extended document of the vibrant community.