About Cole County Vintage Photographs

The original mission of this website was to provide a mechanism for the collection and archival of photographs significant in the history of Jefferson City and Cole County, Missouri, to provide a secure location and preserve the photos for viewing by future generations. The website was developed about five years ago; however it was never openly released to the public. In view of the current social changes as a result of the CoVid-19 pandemic and the bicentennial celebration, we repurpose this website to provide historical information to help celebrate this bicentennial and to provide an outlet for those interested indivituals that are self-confined or self-quarantined. This is the initial offering and we will hope to improve on the amount and quality of the historical information presented.

The Vintage Cole Photos has made a committment to seeing that the significant vintage photographs of Cole County and Jefferson City, Missouri are collected, archived and protected by assuring that they are donated to organizations and agencies which have the facilities to safely store, protect and preserve these images for future generations. These organizations and agencies must have the physical facilities to preserve the images and make digital images available to the public on demand.

In addition to these sizeable collections of photographs, these organizations and agencies are acquiring state primary records that are scheduled for destruction once they have been microfilmed. These retired primary records are valuable resources for history and genealogy studies and are currently being stored with the vintage photographs. Please lend your support to these organizations through membership and active participation.

These organizations and agencies which are located in the Central Missouri area that are fully equipped to adequately handle these historic photographs and records are as follow: