Laws Observatory refers to three successive University of Missouri observatories in Columbia, named for former president Samuel S. Laws and rooted in a campus astronomy tradition that began earlier. The university’s first observatory, built in 1853 near Academic Hall, housed a 4 1/16-inch Henry Fitz refractor and was described as the first observatory in the western United States. After the university acquired a larger telescope from Shelby College, Laws personally provided funds to move it to Columbia and begin a new building, completed in 1880. Expanded over time, the observatory was demolished in 1919 and rebuilt in 1920 at a third site, reflecting repeated relocation, adaptation, and preservation of its instruments.