Lesson Plan

Missouri Capital Mural 7th & 8th Grade

Black and white photo of a man painting a large mural.

Thomas Hart Benton painting mural at Missouri State capitol, Jefferson City, 1936

Minneapolis Institute of Art/Ruth Rust

Grade Level:
Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
Subject:
Social Studies
Lesson Duration:
60 Minutes
State Standards:
Missouri:  Using an American history lens, examine the origins and impact of social structures and stratification on societies and relationships between people.
Kansas:  Consider reasons for settlement & consider beliefs, ideas, diversity, relationships
Additional Standards:
between people and their environment & change over time.
Oklahoma:  8.9 Students will analyze the social & economic transformations of the early twentieth century.
Thinking Skills:
Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Creating: Bring together parts (elements, compounds) of knowledge to form a whole and build relationships for NEW situations. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.

Essential Question

How is art used to impact the views of society?

Objective

Students will be able to deconstruct art in order to gain insight into the intent and message of the depictions.
Student Friendly Objective:  I will be able to pick out vignettes in the mural and explain what they represented to the social history of Missouri.

Background

Review the paper, "Who's at Home in Missouri?: The Radical Visualization of Race in Thomas Hart Benton's The Social History of Missouri in the Missouri State Capitol," available in the Lesson Materials section of this page. It is written by Joan Stack, the Art Curator for the State Historical Society in Missouri, and has a great deal of background information for discussion of Benton's mural. It has been added to be used at the teacher's discretion either in parts or entirety based on the maturity of students in your class.

Preparation

Show: Background Thomas Hart Benton
Paper, pens/pencils/markers/colored pencils

The following links are to various portions of Thomas Hart Benton's Missouri State Capitol Mural, "Social History of Missouri:

Materials

Joan Stack of The State Historical Society of Missouri at the University of Missouri analyzes "The Social History of Missouri," a mural on the Missouri Capitol House Lounge by Missouri painter Thomas Hart Benton.

Download Who's at Home in Missouri?: The Radical Visualization of Race in Thomas Hart Benton's The Social History of Missouri in the Missouri State Capitol

Lesson Hook/Preview

Have students choose an artist they know and like (visual-actor, audio-music, any). Have them write responses to the following prompts:

  1. Who is the artist?
  2. What is the medium that the artist works in?
  3. What do you like about the artist?
  4. What are three messages or things you get from the artist's work?
  5. Is the artist depicting (showing/telling) about their life or the life of others? (How can you tell?)
  6. How do other people react to the work of your artist?
Then have students share their responses with the class.
  • Were there any artists that were chosen by more than one classmate?
  • Were there any artists that students had never heard of?

Procedure

Show on Smartboard the following clips:

Following links are to various portions of Thomas Hart Benton's Missouri State Capitol Mural, "Social History of Missouri"

Background of Thomas Hart Benton

Discuss the background of Thomas Hart Benton. Ask students to guess what type of art he would produce. Have students describe the art using the Best Guess document. After showing various portions of the Missouri State Capitol mural, ask students to compare their responses to his actual work. Have them share with a partner and respond to the following prompts:

  1. How accurate were you?
  2. What were you most accurate about?
  3. What were you least accurate about?
  4. What surprised you about the work of Thomas Hart Benton?

Have students respond to the questions:

  • How can the same work of art communicate different messages to different people?
  • Why was the mural so controversial at it's unveiling?

They must create a visual illustration of their response and a written explanation. Students will then need to share and compare their responses with others.

Then have students guess how the people of Missouri responded to the art of Thomas Hart Benton at the reveal of his art and today.

  • Do you think that the perceptions of like/dislike have changed?
  • What would cause a change in perception of the mural?


Teacher directed concluding discussion:

  • How does art help us understand the lives of people of different times, places, and cultures?

Vocabulary

Ragtime Music:

  1. rhythm characterized by strong syncopation in the melody with a regularly accented accompaniment in stride-piano style
  2. music having ragtime rhythm.

Thomas Joseph Pendergast (July 22, 1872 - January 25, 1945), also known as T.J. Pendergast was an American political boss who controlled Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri, from 1925 to 1939.

Supports for Struggling Learners

Ask students to respond to what the following prompts as it relates to viewing art:
What is most important?

  1. MOST important:
  2. VERY important:
  3. Just important:
  4. NOT VERY important:
  5. NOT important at ALL:
Once students have ranked their responses they need to give ONE reason WHY they selected the ranking they did.
  • The time period it is showing?
  • The time period it was created?
  • The subject matter (who/what is in it)?
  • The format/medium it was created in?
  • The color choice?

Enrichment Activities

Have students create their own version of a mural by Thomas Hart Benton. Suggest that a new section of the Missouri State Capitol is being built and they have been commissioned to contribute art. They are free to construct any visual type of art they see fit. Have students include a written explanation of:

  • Their intended message.
  • Why they chose the images that they did?
  • What message or feeling do they want those that see their art to feel/do?

Contact Information

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Last updated: September 8, 2025