WELCOME to the Powers Museum in Carthage, Missouri

The Powers Museum wants you to visit today!

Since 1988, the Powers Museum has been serving Carthage as a local history museum with rotating exhibits from the post-Civil War period to the 20th century.  For 2010 schedule and programs, click here.

You can also follow the museum on Twitter (PowersMuseum).  We post updates, program notices, arrivals in the gift shop and historical tidbits. 

Marian Powers Winchester 1905-1981

Museum Established

The Powers Museum is a gift from Marian Powers Winchester to the City of Carthage. At her death in 1981, Mrs. Winchester left a bequest "for the establishment and operation of a museum for the citizens of Carthage and the surrounding area." She requested the museum's name honor her beloved parents Dr. Everett Powers (1869–1954) and Marian Wright Powers (1880–1969).

In addition to the original museum collection left by the Winchester estate, the museum accepts donations of artifacts and archival pieces related to the history of Carthage and her citizens in order to expand the founding collection. Click here to see an example of recent gifts.

Powers Museum Visitor (in 2009) Otis Lutz plays Mrs. Powers' 1905 Knabe piano to the delight of staff and visitors.

The museum has presented dozens of public exhibits since 1988.  In addition, the Powers Museum is an active supportor and participant in National History Day at the regional and state levels. Currently the museum is involved in several special educational projects including one Teaching American History Grant, the Carthage Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, and two on-going, multi-institutional research projects devoted to U. S. Highway 66 and the Jefferson Highway (international route from Canada to New Orleans). Museum staff members are available to talk to school and adult groups about these activities and more. Click here to see our Speakers Bureau offerings.

Other Museum Services

The museum's Local History Reference Library is open until 4:00 PM (on days the museum is open to the public) for self-directed consultation. Access to additional research resources housed in the Archives (now including Vertical Files Collection) requires an advance appointment for use.

The museum also conducts oral history interviews, particularly with war veterans and homefront workers in Jasper County for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project at www.loc.gov/vets. For more information on the local project, click here.  If you know of someone who should be interviewed, please call the museum at 417-237-0456 or email powersmuseum@att.net.

On site is a Museum Gift Shop featuring books, family tree charts, posters, Route 66 and Jefferson Highway souvenirs, and reproduction holiday items. Four-state tourist brochures, Missouri state tourism guides and Route 66 driving directions for Carthage and Jasper County are available, too.

 Museum Support & Administration

The museum is administered by a board of seven community volunteers appointed by the Mayor of Carthage and they meet monthly at the museum, usually on the third Monday evening of the month. Public notices are posted at Carthage City Hall and at the museum. Visitors are welcome to attend.

The Powers Museum receives no tax support and is operated through donations, museum shop revenue, fundraising projects and the original Winchester bequest to the City of Carthage. If you would like to donate to the museum, please send checks or money orders to Powers Museum, P.O. Box 593, Carthage, MO 64836.

The Powers Museum's endowment is managed by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.  Again, thanks goes to the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri for its 2009-2010 grant to the museum that replaced a digital projects laptop and provided financial assistance to offer honorariums to our fall and spring interns.

Other grant support this year has come from the Helen S. Boylan Foundation (for the Carthage Acoustic Music Festival) and the Carthage Convention and Visitors Bureau (for marketing/performance fees for Carthage Acoustic Music Festival and another grant for marketing the Lee and Grant exhibit).

And as announced above, the Helen S. Boylan Foundation provided support for the Civil War Chautauqua, Sept. 17-19. 

The National Endowment for Humanities has pledged $1,000 for programming support to go along with the Lee and Grant NEH On the Road exhibit.

The Powers Museum thanks all our partners for their support and encouragement!