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Although Alexander Buckner served in Missouri’s 1820 Constitutional Convention, the state…

William C. Carr. Portrait by George Caleb Bingham. [Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, 1970.156]

William C. Carr, one of the first attorneys to practice law in Missouri, was born in…

Joseph Charless. [Thomas J. Scharf, History of St. Louis City and County, vol. 2, 1883]

Joseph Charless, the first printer in St. Louis and father of journalism west of the…

Auguste Chouteau. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, 1869-001-0001]

In the early history of St. Louis and its trans-­Mississippi hinterlands, Auguste Chouteau…

Jean Pierre Chouteau Sr. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N22207]

Jean Pierre Chouteau, known as Pierre, was a pioneer settler in St. Louis and the territory that was to…

Francois M. Guyol de Guiran created this portrait of Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau, the “founding mother” of St. Louis, in 1810. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MHS Objects Collection, 1950-084-0002]

Marie Thérèse Bourgeois Chouteau was born in New Orleans on January 14, 1733, but she was…

Pierre Chouteau Jr. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, 1922-024-0001]

Pierre Chouteau Jr., scion of the powerful early St. Louis family and the most influential…

Note of Jacques Clamorgan agreeing to pay skins worth $153 to Pierre Chouteau on July 19, 1807. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Clamorgan Family Papers, A0288-00017]

Jacques Phillippe Clamorgan arrived on the Missouri frontier in the early 1780s and spent the rest of his…

Portrait of William Clark by Charles Willson Peale, c. 1807–1809. [Courtesy of the Independence National Historical Park]

William Clark, the celebrated explorer who joined Meriwether Lewis

Painting titled Cler-mónt, First Chief of the Tribe, by George Catlin, 1834. The portrait is of Clermont II's son, also known as Clermont; there is no known image of Clermont II. [Smithsonian American Art Museum, SAAM-1985.66.29_1]

Following the death of Clermont (Gra-Mon or “Arrow-Going-Home”) in 1796, his son, also known as Clermont, was…