Mission Statement

The Cape Girardeau County Historical Society (CGCHS) is a non-profit organization founded in 1926 to document the people, places, things, and events of the region. In 2015, the Cape Girardeau County History Center was established at 102 South High St. in Jackson, Missouri, with support of the Shelby and Mildred Brown Trust. The History Center will serve an international audience with museum quality historic displays, educational events, cultural events, and regional cultural promotions. In 2020 the Research Annex Library was opened at 110 South High Street, in Jackson, MO, to house the library, small manuscript, military, and photographic collections of the Historical Society, in order to make them available for public use.

This mission will continuously be accomplished by:

• Collection recruitment, documentation, preservation, and exhibition;
• Creating a location for regional historic site and event promotion;
• Providing an educational environment for workshops, seminars, demonstrations, public speakers, social events, research, and media presentations including opportunities for regional schools and university students and faculty;
• Documenting regional history events;
• Participating in the Uptown Jackson historic landscape;
• Providing a headquarters for the Cape Girardeau County Historical Society;
• Contracting professional History Center site administration.