Named after former University President Samuel Laws, it is located in Columbia, Missouri (USA).

In 1879, MU offered $500 cash and the Fitz telescope in exchange for a 7½ inch Munich-built equatorial refractor by Merz and Soehne from the failing Shelby College in Shelbyville, Kentucky.

Shelby College agreed to the exchange, but MU found that it could not afford the transportation and reassembly of the Merz and Soehne telescope along with an adequate facility to house it.

University President Samuel S. Laws stepped in and provided $2,000 of his own money to transport the telescope and begin construction of a new observatory.

In 1920, the observatory was rebuilt on its third location, which is now the site of the west parking lot of the Harry S. Truman Veterans Hospital.