Blunt Receives Jonas Viles Award
from the Friends of the Missouri State Archives

Jefferson City, Mo. —– Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and the Friends of the Missouri State Archives are happy to announce former U.S. Senator Roy Blunt as the recipient of the 2026 Jonas Viles Award.

The Friends of the Missouri State Archives presents the Jonas Viles Award each year to a person or organization that has made a significant contribution to the preservation of the state’s heritage. Named after the University of Missouri professor that rescued thousands of documents from the capitol lawn after the 1911 fire, Jonas Viles Award recipients possess a deep commitment to the preservation and study of Missouri’s history and have made a positive impact on the safekeeping, accessibility, scholarship and/or promotion of the state’s past.

Roy Blunt spent 50 years in public service as a county clerk, Missouri Secretary of State, a U.S. Representative, and a U.S. Senator. He began as a young county clerk in Greene County, where he recognized many issues with local government records storage and management. When Blunt became Secretary of State, he supported the establishment of the Local Records Preservation Program to assist local officials with records management and preservation. Blunt recognized records staff needed to be regional, not just based in Jefferson City, to most effectively assist in archival efforts. Due to efforts Blunt initiated, Local Records (LR) and the Missouri State Archives continues to serve as a national model, and is emulated by other states.

In 1991, the new Secretary of State’s Office was built as a specialized archives space, complete with the conservation lab to mitigate compromised records. Since then, the lab has completed 2,300 projects. In that same time, the Archives has answered 1,078,418 reference requests. In addition to innumerable preservation projects, Local Records has awarded more than $8 million in grant funding. Since founding, the LR program has also created nearly 90,000 rolls of microfilm of local government records (approximately 177 million pages of records).

The Friends of the Missouri State Archives announced Blunt as this year’s Jonas Viles Award recipient at their 2026 annual meeting, held Saturday, June 13, 2026, at the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center in Jefferson City.

The Friends of the Missouri State Archives annually presents the Viles as one of four awards to individuals who exhibit a particularly strong commitment to the work of the Missouri State Archives and the Local Records section. Three of these awards are designated for volunteers.  The Lynda Stubblefield Award is made to honor an in-house Archives volunteer, this year’s recipient is Andrea Beck from Cole County; the e-Volunteer Award recipient is Claudia Hoke from Jackson County; and the Local Records Volunteer Award recipient is Janet Hawley from Nodaway County.

For more information about the Friends of the Missouri State Archives, visit https://friendsofmsa.org/awards/index.php.

 

Visit www.sos.mo.gov to learn more about the Office of the Missouri Secretary of State.