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Exhibit Summary from the Box Gallery Website 

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This exhibit was curated by Jonathan Casey, the director of the National WWI Museum and Memorial Archives and Edward Jones Research Center. The exhibit offered images of Kansas City during World War I, including those of residents celebrating victory. The exhibit covered topics related to military service and the homefront, as well as the efforts of Kansas City resident to build what is now the National WWI Museum and Memorial.

For Home and Country" The Great War in Kansas City

Located on the first floor of the Commerce Bank Building, the Box Gallery offers rotating exhibits related to the history, art, and culture of Kansas City. The gallery offers 830 square feet of exhibit space –just the right size to host exhibits that can be viewed during a lunch hour or over a coffee break. Thanks to underwriting from Commerce Bank, exhibitors are provided exhibit and marketing support, and all shows are free and open the public. This innovative, community exhibition space is a win-win: Financial District regulars discover new KC culture – and KC organizations have an opportunity to reach a new audience. The gallery is open to all at no cost, and visitors can park for free with a validation stamp at the Security office next to the escalators. Visitors should park at the Commerce Bank Building Garage at 1025 Main Street and then take the garage elevator to the 2nd floor to enter the Arcade.

The Box Gallery is an exhibition space located inside the Commerce Bank Building at 1000 Walnut Street in Kansas City. The gallery can be found inside the Arcade on the main floor. For nine years the gallery has served a Downtown audience of residents, workers and visitors, with a wide range of cultural arts and history-themed exhibits. The shows often feature artwork by local artists or collectors, or stem from partnerships with KC art organizations, museums, businesses or universities.

The Box Gallery

With the support of the National WWI Museum, the Box Gallery hosted this exhibit from November 2019 to February 2020

Past Exhibit: For Home and Country: The Great War in Kansas City

The Box Gallery hosted this exhibit about Harry Truman's life in Kansas City in the fall of 2019

This past exhibit, titled Harry S. Truman: Kansas City’s Commander in Chief, was created in partnership with the Truman Presidential Library and Museum. The show ran from September 6 - October 25, 2019, during the institution's major remodel project.

This past exhibit, titled Harry S. Truman: Kansas City’s Commander in Chief, was created in partnership with the Truman Presidential Library and Museum. The show ran from September 6 - October 25, 2019.On April 12, 1945, Missouri-born Vice President Harry S. Truman unexpectedly became president in the final months of World War II. President Truman went on to lead our nation through eight of the most explosive years in history—establishing postwar peace, desegregating the military, recognizing the state of Israel, and entering the Korean War. Harry S. Truman: Kansas City’s Commander in Chief explores the challenges Truman faced, the decisions he made to shape our democracy, and the milestones that sealed his place in history as one of our nation’s greatest Presidents. Discover Truman’s life in Kansas City through photographs, documents, and a downtown walking tour, and preview the renovations currently underway at the Truman Presidential Library and Museum.

Harry S. Truman: Kansas City’s Commander in Chief (Sept.6  - Oct. 25, 2019)

Past Exhibit: Harry S. Truman: Kansas City’s Commander in Chief 

Featuring the life's work of  Dr. Richard J. Gentile, this exhibit invites residents and visitors of Kansas City to imagine what the area was like during the Pleistocene Epoch when mammoths, giant ground sloths, and other large mammals roamed the region

The exhibit incorporates skeletal parts and recreations of Pleistocene (Ice Age ) animals that were recovered from sand and gravel deposits of the major rivers and tributary streams of the area. The exhibit also includes fossils found in upland areas entombed in glacial sand and gravel deposits (outwash) and in wind-blown silt (loess). Pleistocene age elephants have been reported from over half of the 114 counties in Missouri and from numerous sites in Kansas. Voorhies (1990) estimates that no fewer than 10 mammoth skeletons lie buried in the average square mile of Nebraska landscape, an indication that large numbers of these huge proboscideans once roamed across the Central Mid-Continent.The exhibit includes information on a variety of species, including ground sloths which first appeared in South America and gradually migrated into North America via the land bridge connecting the two continents that rose about 3 million years ago during the Pliocene Epoch. The species was given the scientific name Megalonyx jeffersoni in honor of President Jefferson, an amateur paleontologists, and one of the first to study extinct ground sloths. Two years before he became president, Thomas Jefferson published a description of an assortment of fossil bones including claws that had been excavated from a cave in West Virginia. Jefferson believed the claws were those from a large meat-eating animal that he named Megalonyx or “Great Claw” and instructed Lewis and Clark on their epic journey to explore the western part of the continent to watch for such a beast.The following people and organizations contributed their time and talent to bring this exhibit to the Box Gallery:Jonathan Kemper, Chairman Emeritus, Commerce Bank; Melissa Dehner, Illustrator, HoneyBee Creative; John Babcock, Illustrator, Babcock Designs, Robin Trafton, The Box Gallery; Gil Parker, Paleontology preparatory, Parker Paleontological Enterprises, Inc.; Denise Morrison, Director of Collections &amp; Curatorial Services, Kansas City Museum; Megan Medley, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Missouri-Kansas City.The exhibit was funded through a generous grant from the William T. Kemper Foundation, Commerce Bank, Trustee, and administrated by the contract and grant specialists, most notably Carrie Stewart, Commerce Bank, and Jason Elliot and Elizabeth Wheeler, University of Missouri-Kansas City.

During the Ice Age, large herds of giant mammals once dominated the landscape of what is now Kansas City. Most of the “giants” became extinct about 10,000 years ago, many leaving no descendants. Some, however, are represented by descendants of diminutive size. This exhibit compares skeletal remains of the Ice Age giants with their modern day relatives. Visitors will learn about the giant ground sloth, woolly mammoth, mastodon, saber-toothed cat, and the giant beaver. The exhibit was organized by Richard J. Gentile, Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dr. Gentile passed away on June 8, 2022. This exhibit, which features much of his life work, is now on permanent display at UMKC.

Dr. David Trowbridge interviewing Dr. Richard Gentile

PAST EXHIBIT: The Giant Ice Age Mammals that Roamed throughout the Greater Kansas City Area and Beyond

Past Exhibit: The Ice Age Mammals that Roamed Throughout the Greater Kansas City Area (Spring 2022)

On loan from the Leavenworth County Historical Society, this exhibit of historical photographs from the post-Civil War era reveals a notable segment of American history in surprising detail and reframes the rich legacy of Leavenworth, Kansas in a new light. Visitors will discover photograph images of life on the edge of the western frontier, shortly after the Kansas Territory opened for settlement. Photographs revealing early Leavenworth history, include a passenger-packed steamboat, the city’s first electric street railway, and the pontoon bridge that crossed the Missouri River. Leavenworth’s rapid growth and significance in the era is remarkably revealed. For example, the show includes a family portrait of President Ulysses S. Grant on a visit to Leavenworth after leading the Union Army to victory in the Civil War.“The Leavenworth County Historical Society holds a one-of-a-kind collection of images from the first century of Leavenworth. Considered by experts to be among the top historical photograph collections in the United States due to its size and place in time, the collection features over 30,000 negatives from the Everhard Glass Plate Negative Collection,” stated Mary Ann Sachse Brown, LCHS President. “A capital campaign was recently launched to ensure these National treasures will survive the next 100 years and become an aid to the ongoing study of remarkable events in history for Leavenworth.”

This exhibit has been extended! On view July 8 - September 27, 2022 in partnership with the Leavenworth County Historical Society.Step back in time and explore Leavenworth, the first city of Kansas, built on the edge of a new and exciting western frontier in 1854 when the Kansas Territory opened for settlement. With the arrival of steamboats and railroads, the population of the infant town exploded, becoming a launchpad of western expansion and an innovative, bustling American industry destination on the Missouri River.On loan from the Leavenworth County Historical Society, this exhibit of historical photographs from the post-Civil War era reveals a notable segment of American history in surprising detail and reframes the rich legacy of Leavenworth in a new light.

The Box Gallery

For Home and Country" The Great War in Kansas City

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