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,…
![Karl Bodmer circa 1877. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-50540]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/2-Karl_Bodmer.jpg?h=22fbc3ba&itok=0JA3FzpE "Karl Bodmer circa 1877. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-50540]")
Among the early artists to explore the trans-Mississippi River frontier, Karl Bodmer’s stay…
Kate Chopin began and ended her life in St. Louis, with an interlude as a young wife and mother in New…
![Edmond J. Eckel. [Elwood L. McDonald, History of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Missouri, 1915]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Edmond_Eckel.jpg?h=bcaf3a14&itok=ehIhMyxo "Edmond J. Eckel. [Elwood L. McDonald, History of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Missouri, 1915]")
Born on June 22, 1845, in Strasbourg, France, Edmond Jacques Eckel demonstrated an early…
![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,…
![Fannie Hurst. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-22169]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Fannie_Hurst.jpg?h=bd99ae02&itok=_VJZe3C7 "Fannie Hurst. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-22169]")
Fannie Hurst, the daughter of Rose Koppel and Samuel Hurst, was born at the home of her…
![Lonnie Johnson performing in 1965 at the Folk Festival Show, Palisades Amusement Park, New Jersey. [Cornell University Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Amsterdam News Photograph Archive, #8084]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Alonzo_Johnson.jpg?h=28015916&itok=kGea3NPZ "Lonnie Johnson performing in 1965 at the Folk Festival Show, Palisades Amusement Park, New Jersey. [Cornell University Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Amsterdam News Photograph Archive, #8084]")
Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson was an extraordinarily gifted blues guitarist and talented singer…