the State Historical Society of Missouri
Zoë Byrd Akins was born on October 30, 1886, in Humansville, Missouri, the second of three children of Thomas…
![The Ben Bolt Theatre. [Courtesy of Danny Knouse]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Ben-Bolt-Theatre.jpg?h=c4576eea&itok=2PYOXnlz "The Ben Bolt Theatre. [Courtesy of Danny Knouse]")
The Ben Bolt Theatre was a spectacular building that stood for half a century as a notable…
![Kenneth Brown Billups Sr. [National Association of Negro Musicians]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Kenneth-Brown-Billups-Jr.jpg?h=58aae8de&itok=fQIuobvD "Kenneth Brown Billups Sr. [National Association of Negro Musicians]")
Kenneth Brown Billups Sr. was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 14, 1918, the son of…
![William K. Bixby. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N20996]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-William-Bixby.jpg?h=79938f3b&itok=wGp-dj86 "William K. Bixby. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N20996]")
One of the key St. Louis businessmen and philanthropists of his generation in St. Louis,…
Kate Chopin began and ended her life in St. Louis, with an interlude as a young wife and mother in New…
![W. C. Handy playing at the fifth annual American Negro Music Festival in St. Louis’s Sportsman’s Park in 1944. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Arthur Witman 120mm Photograph Collection (S0732), 732.31462]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/Handy-at-Sportsman%27s-Park.jpg?h=3922e451&itok=pT3BzbVU "W. C. Handy playing at the fifth annual American Negro Music Festival in St. Louis’s Sportsman’s Park in 1944. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Arthur Witman 120mm Photograph Collection (S0732), 732.31462]")
Although William Christopher Handy spent relatively little of his long life in Missouri,…
Patricia C. McKissack dedicated her career as a writer to showcasing black voices through children’s books and…
![William Rockhill Nelson. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Press Portraits Collection, P1196-014545]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-William-Rockhill-Nelson.jpg?h=8a606310&itok=rezhFlPS "William Rockhill Nelson. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Press Portraits Collection, P1196-014545]")
Of British, Quaker, and Huguenot heritage, William Rockhill Nelson was born five miles west…