the State Historical Society of Missouri
![J. Christian Bay. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Jens Christian Bay Portraits, P0206-027598]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-J_Christian_Bay.jpg?h=8bcc14f3&itok=RY5bMuWK "J. Christian Bay. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Jens Christian Bay Portraits, P0206-027598]")
J. Christian Bay was born to Lars and Doris Christiansen Bay on October 12, 1871, in…
![Henry Marvin Belden. [University of Missouri Archives, Collection C:1/141/6]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-03/1.%20Henry%20Marvin%20Belden_0.jpg?h=53c868f4&itok=KpZx02e_ "Henry Marvin Belden. [University of Missouri Archives, Collection C:1/141/6]")
Henry Marvin Belden, a pioneer in the study of Missouri balladry and song, was born October…
![Frederic L. Billon. [Billon, Annals of St. Louis in Its Territorial Days from 1804 to 1821 (St. Louis: Nixon-Jones Printing Co., 1888), frontispiece]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Frederic-Billon.jpg?h=1128d52b&itok=O2ASotLW "Frederic L. Billon. [Billon, Annals of St. Louis in Its Territorial Days from 1804 to 1821 (St. Louis: Nixon-Jones Printing Co., 1888), frontispiece]")
Frederic L. Billon’s amateur antiquarian pursuits in the mid-nineteenth century resulted in…
![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…
![Henry Marie Brackenridge. [State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20Henry%20Marie%20Brackenridge.jpg?h=a4270221&itok=PGRUmb1N "Henry Marie Brackenridge. [State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory]")
A lawyer, author, diplomat, and journalist in the early Federal and Jacksonian eras, Henry…
![Nathaniel C. Bruce (right) and an unidentified student from the Bartlett Agricultural and Industrial School. [State Historical Society of Missouri photo collections]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Nathaniel-C-Bruce.jpg?h=65d6c70f&itok=DxLXYkGH "Nathaniel C. Bruce (right) and an unidentified student from the Bartlett Agricultural and Industrial School. [State Historical Society of Missouri photo collections]")
Although his date of birth remains uncertain, Nathaniel C. Bruce was probably born in 1868…
![Arthur Holly Compton. [University of Chicago Library, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-01878]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-01/1.-arthur-holly-compton.jpg?h=c249c502&itok=k2I3fXR9 "Arthur Holly Compton. [University of Chicago Library, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-01878]")
Arthur Holly Compton earned international recognition for his research in X-rays, sharing the 1927 Nobel Prize for…
![Oliver Cromwell Cox as he appeared in Lincoln University’s yearbook in 1962. [The Archives, Lincoln University, 1962]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-06/1.%20Oliver%20Cromwell%20Cox.jpg?h=b830025e&itok=YUZObNqW "Oliver Cromwell Cox as he appeared in Lincoln University’s yearbook in 1962. [The Archives, Lincoln University, 1962]")
Oliver Cromwell Cox was arguably one of the most controversial mid-twentieth-century social…
![Herman Dreer. [State Historical Society of Missouri, UMSL Black History Project Photograph Collection, S0336-167]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Herman%20Dreer.jpg?h=231045b5&itok=_jirNr2L "Herman Dreer. [State Historical Society of Missouri, UMSL Black History Project Photograph Collection, S0336-167]")
Herman Dreer, a respected Black St. Louis educator and scholar, was born on September 12,…
![Lloyd Gaines. [University of Missouri School of Law, Lloyd Gaines Collection]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Lloyd-Gaines.jpg?h=416ef11d&itok=iYyUVG7t "Lloyd Gaines. [University of Missouri School of Law, Lloyd Gaines Collection]")
Lloyd Gaines’s efforts to obtain a legal education in Missouri resulted in a Supreme Court…