Weekly beauty: Missouri mural

On our way to Kansas City last weekend, my parents and I stopped at a rest stop / welcome center near Eagleville, Missouri, where we found this lovely work of art.





The woman working in the welcome center saw me taking pictures and kindly brought me a brochure explaining the piece's history and images. It's a glass tile mosaic and was created by Carl and Sandra Bryant, owners of Showcase Mosaics of Lynden, Washington.

Images below include outlaw Jesse James (born and later killed in Missouri), tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins (a nod to the great KC jazz tradition), explorers Lewis and Clark, the Liberty Memorial and National World War I Museum (in Kansas City), and a baseball player representing the Negro National League, organized in Kansas City in 1920.





Depicted in this half are Missouri wildflowers and wildlife, artist Thomas Hart Benton (born in Neosho, MO), President Harry S. Truman (born in Independence, MO), and the barn from Walt Disney's youth (in Marceline, MO).





Finally, the center portion features pioneers using the many major wagon trails that passed through Missouri.





As a lover of both beauty and history, I thought this mural was captivating. And what an unexpected place to find such a work!