Richard Spener and Toni Armstrong are a St. Louis-area husband-and-wife team of photographers who have spent years advocating for the preservation of wilderness areas through the Eastern Missouri Group of the Sierra Club and service on the board of the Alaska Wilderness League. Spener’s nature and wildlife photographs have been published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, National Wildlife Federation, Audobon Society of Missouri, and the Alaska Wilderness League.

The “50 Years of Wilderness” exhibit featured photographs by Spener and Armstrong. The exhibit celebrated the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964 and promoted Missouri’s eight wilderness areas: Hercules Glade Wilderness, Bell Mountain Wilderness, Devils Backbone Wilderness, Irish Wilderness, Mingo Wilderness, Paddy Creek Wilderness, Piney Creek Wilderness, and Rock Pile Mountain Wilderness. The traveling exhibit was at the Missouri History Museum from 2013-2014 and made stops at the following Missouri sites: University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou), Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center in Kansas City, the U. S. Forest Service, Kirksville, and the Discovery Center in Springfield.