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The Missouri State Archives
web site gives several theories as to the origin of Missouri’s
unique nickname:
“There are a number of stories and legends behind Missouri's
sobriquet "Show-Me" state. The slogan is not official,
but is common throughout the state and is used on Missouri license
plates.
The most widely known legend attributes the phrase to Missouri's
U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United
States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903. While a member
of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Vandiver attended
an 1899 naval banquet in Philadelphia. In a speech there, he declared,
"I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs
and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies
me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me." Regardless
of whether Vandiver coined the phrase, it is certain that his speech
helped to popularize the saying.
Other versions of the "Show-Me" legend place the slogan's
origin in the mining town of Leadville, Colorado. There, the phrase
was first employed as a term of ridicule and reproach. A miner's
strike had been in progress for some time in the mid-1890s, and
a number of miners from the lead districts of southwest Missouri
had been imported to take the places of the strikers. The Joplin
miners were unfamiliar with Colorado mining methods and required
frequent instructions. Pit bosses began saying, "That man is
from Missouri. You'll have to show him."
However the slogan originated, it has since passed into a different
meaning entirely, and is now used to indicate the stalwart, conservative,
noncredulous character of Missourians. “
Patrons may wish to consult the following resources:
The Local History and Genealogy Department maintains an information
file on the origins of the “Show-Me” nickname entitled
"Nicknames
-- Missouri".
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