MSSU Archives & Special Collections Exhibits: Smaller Archival Collections

4-State Sport(s) Show

The 4-State Sport(s) Show was a sports equipment exhibit with the first annual show being held in February of 1955. The Show was jointly sponsored by the Missouri conservation commission, Jasper County conservation federation, Joplin Izaak Walton league, and Joplin Chamber of Commerce. The income from the show was then put towards the Willing Workers for Wildlife organization for conservation efforts. 

Each year the 4-State Sport had taken place in Memorial Hall of Joplin Missouri during February or March. The 1955 show took place February 25-27. The 1956 show took place February 24-26. The 1957 show took place March 22-24.  

Willing Workers for Wildlife (WWW) was an organization, first started in 1954, that gave money to Jasper and Newton 4-H clubs that complete certain conservation projects. These projects had those in 4-H clubs working with local farmers to create and maintain wildlife habitat areas for wildlife to feed and nest in and projects related to properly treating and fertilizing soil for sustainability. 

The Metro Sport Show occurs in Springfield and often worked with the 4-state show in sharing equipment / entertainment both happen around same time but with a couple weeks difference.  

Dolph Shaner Collection

Dolph Shaner, previously named Adolph Schoenherr, was born on September 12, 1877, in Mine La Motte, Madison County, Missouri and later passed away in 1966. According to an article found among this collection’s newspaper clippings which announces the court accepted name change, Shaner changed his name to distance himself from the name’s German roots. He is best known for his historian, real estate, insurance, and Rotarian work in Joplin, Missouri. 

His parents were Charles and Elizabeth Schoenherr. He had two brothers: William Shaner and Otto Shaner. He was married in 1906 to his wife Nannie Beulah McClelland Shaner.  

One of ten founders of the Rotary Club in Joplin (October 13,1915). He was the Secretary from 1916-1923 and stayed involved in the Club’s operations for many years past that. He would frequently write letters to those connected with the Club and over the years gave multiple speeches at Rotary meetings. He also occasionally wrote for the Joplin Chats, the Joplin Rotary Club’s publication. Shaner was also one of the founding members and the first president of the Jasper County Historical Society from 1953-1954.  

Shaner authored and published multiple pamphlets, booklets and articles about Jasper County and surrounding areas’ history such as: “Roanoke: Joplin’s Beautiful Residence District” (1944), "Sherwood: The Ghost Town" (1934), and “John Baxter of Baxter Springs: Picturesque Character of Frontier Days” (1943). He also published a book, The Story of Joplin in 1948, in which he tells the story of how the city of Joplin was first founded and how it developed.

Philip and Betty Jones Collection

Philip Laurence Jones was born in England on October 25, 1904, and died in Joplin, Mo on March 23, 2000. He worked as a consulting engineer where he worked on mining and drilling projects in the southwest Missouri area. He was previously on the board of Spiva Art Center and was connected with the Joplin Rotary. He also became an American Field Service area representative for Missouri in 1964. In 1977, he became a trustee for AFS.   

Evelyn Milligan Jones was born August 11, 1913, and died on March 19, 1978. She was on staff at the Joplin globe where she did many book reviews. In 1962 her book “Tales about Joplin”, a book about the origins of various innovations in Joplin, was published. She along with Philip Jones became an American Field Service area representative for Missouri in 1964, later becoming a trustee in 1977.  

Mary Betty Jones was born on January 22, 1918, and died on March 16, 2015.  She had served on the Joplin Little Theatre board as President and had served as President for the Joplin County Medical Auxiliary. She was also on the board of Joplin’s woman’s club. 

Ozark Playgrounds Association

The Ozark Playground Association was officially created in 1920 to increase tourism in what was considered the ‘Playgrounds of the Ozarks’ area by the association. The idea behind the association was created on November 25, 1919, leaders of local businesses in Joplin, Missouri reached out to surrounding towns and their businesses in both Missouri and Arkansas promoting the idea of a cooperative group for tourism advertising the Ozark area. Originally the area covered included Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas, but in 1937 Northwest Oklahoma joined the organization.  

The Ozark Playground Association’s main goal was to increase tourism in the area. They did this by creating pamphlets and booklets which advertised local places to stay, places to eat at including specific Ozark specialties to try, and activities to do in the area. They focused on the more country life in these areas and on the natural environment, pushing tourists to see the caves and rivers in the area. 

The Ozark Playground Association often ran contests to get the locals involved in the advertising. One such example is the creative writing contests such as the Flaming Fall Revue Poetry and Essay Contest in 1938. A contest they regularly held and that was important to the organization was the Smile Girl contest. The contest was a photo contest that specifically focused on photographs of smiling local women. The winning woman would then appear on the Association’s pamphlets and fliers as the advertisement for the “The Land of a Million Smiles”, the slogan for the Playgrounds of the Ozarks area. 

The Ozark Playground Association often worked with businesses in the Playgrounds of the Ozarks areas, they would later include some of these businesses in the pamphlets to both stir up tourism in the area and patronage of the business. The association also closely worked with the realty industry, both working together to increase local property purchases from those non-local to the area. 

The collection was donated by Marie Kolb who had been the Bureau Manager of the Ozark Playgrounds Association for several years. She collected information for potential article ideas for the group, and she wrote several articles about and for the group.