the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Stony Dell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, John F. Bradbury Postcard Collection, R1551]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-03/1.-stony-dell.jpg?h=46c2bdcb&itok=mUWj6J7A "Stony Dell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, John F. Bradbury Postcard Collection, R1551]")
Stony Dell, fourteen miles west of Rolla, was one of the central Missouri Ozarks’ premier tourist…
![A view of the upper Missouri River by Karl Bodmer, circa 1830s. Print by Charles Vogel. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Art Collection, 1958.0047]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-04/1.%20William%20Sublette.jpg?h=618cae78&itok=l2w5KTpm "A view of the upper Missouri River by Karl Bodmer, circa 1830s. Print by Charles Vogel. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Art Collection, 1958.0047]")
William Lewis Sublette was born at Stanford, Kentucky, on September 21, 1799. The family…
![Leonor Sullivan. [Official Manual of Missouri, 1993–1994]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-Leonor-Sullivan.jpg?h=ed5b4c08&itok=FjX91wPe "Leonor Sullivan. [Official Manual of Missouri, 1993–1994]")
Leonor Alice Kretzer Sullivan was the first woman elected to the US Congress from a…
![Gladys Swarthout with costar Jan Kiepura from the movie Give Us This Night (1936). [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, psnypl_the_5262]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Gladys-Swarthout.jpg?h=2a2f5c0c&itok=IA3blMPc "Gladys Swarthout with costar Jan Kiepura from the movie Give Us This Night (1936). [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, psnypl_the_5262]")
Gladys Swarthout, a concert and operatic mezzo-soprano, was born in Deepwater, Missouri,…
![Marion Talley. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Marion-Talley.jpg?h=88722253&itok=XstERWmK "Marion Talley. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs]")
Marion Talley was born on December 20, 1907, in Nevada, Missouri, the daughter of a…
![Charlton H. Tandy. [State Historical Society of Missouri, St. Louis Research Center, Black History Photograph Collection (S0336)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-06/1.%20Charlton%20H.%20Tandy.jpg?h=cd64e863&itok=pQh0LDTO "Charlton H. Tandy. [State Historical Society of Missouri, St. Louis Research Center, Black History Photograph Collection (S0336)]")
Charlton H. Tandy, an outspoken leader of the nineteenth-century Black civil rights…
![Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Chippewa Street, which was once part of Route 66 in St. Louis. [Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo by Philip Leara]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-02/1.-ted-drewes-frozen-custard.jpg?itok=P6Cj_H4S "Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Chippewa Street, which was once part of Route 66 in St. Louis. [Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo by Philip Leara]")
When pundits make lists of the foods most associated with St. Louis, they often include such…
The Barnsley Brothers Cutlery Company was a manufacturer and wholesaler of knives, straight razors…
![Virgil Thomson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-42533]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20Virgil%20Thomson.jpg?h=2342cc65&itok=wQD4NJzC "Virgil Thomson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-42533]")
Pulitzer Prize–winning composer and music critic Virgil Thomson was born in Kansas City,…
![Melvin Tolson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-134556 DLC]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20Melvin%20B.%20Tolson.jpg?h=c73b0fce&itok=4_Bo8Bag "Melvin Tolson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-134556 DLC]")
Through most of his life, Melvin B. Tolson claimed he was born with the twentieth century…
![Father Augustus Tolton. [Image in public domain]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-11/1.-augustus-tolton.jpg?h=b5104c6a&itok=1ONYRtk_ "Father Augustus Tolton. [Image in public domain]")
Father Augustus Tolton, recognized as the first openly African American priest in the United States…
![Helen Francesca Traubel. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N13460]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Helen%20Francesca%20Traubel.jpg?h=25357cd3&itok=Id6NGelY "Helen Francesca Traubel. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N13460]")
One of the world’s great Wagnerian sopranos, Helen Traubel was born in south St. Louis on…
While serving as Upper Louisiana’s lieutenant governor between 1792 and 1799, Zenon Trudeau…
![Bess Truman’s official White House portrait by Greta Kempton. [Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 2008-149]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20Bess%20Truman.jpg?h=ed1f4180&itok=8klDJrns "Bess Truman’s official White House portrait by Greta Kempton. [Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 2008-149]")
Born in Independence, Missouri, on February 13, 1885, Elizabeth Virginia Wallace, who as…
![Silas Turnbo. [Courtesy of the Springfield–Greene County Library District]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20Silas%20C.%20Turnbo.jpg?h=2741bb13&itok=Ot1erhP8 "Silas Turnbo. [Courtesy of the Springfield–Greene County Library District]")
Silas C. Turnbo collected stories from Ozarkers in the upper White River country of…
![James Milton Turner, circa 1870. [Lincoln University]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-James-Milton-Turner.jpg?h=d64323c3&itok=nkqu6MYa "James Milton Turner, circa 1870. [Lincoln University]")
Although numerous secondary accounts of James Milton Turner’s life list his birth date as…
![Lucile Morris Upton. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Press Portraits, P1196-018227]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-05/1.-lucile-morris-upton.jpg?itok=h1uYGQwA "Lucile Morris Upton. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Press Portraits, P1196-018227]")
Family stories and tales of the place where she grew up propelled Lucile Morris Upton into a lifelong…
![Marianne Billeron Vallé’s signature on a baptismal record in 1768. She signed as the godmother to Marie-Louise, the daughter of an enslaved Native American woman. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Ste. Genevieve Parish Records, C3040]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-12/marianne-signature.jpg?h=a2d61f04&itok=bibb_dHf "Marianne Billeron Vallé’s signature on a baptismal record in 1768. She signed as the godmother to Marie-Louise, the daughter of an enslaved Native American woman. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Ste. Genevieve Parish Records, C3040]")
Marianne Billeron Vallé was born in Kaskaskia around 1729, the daughter of…
The Gentry–Threlkeld–Van Horn Tavern, usually referred to as the Van Horn Tavern, was the last known log…
![Charles van Ravenswaay. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Charles van Ravenswaay Photograph Collection, P0014-027765]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-09/1.%20Charles%20van%20Ravenswaay.jpg?h=91b16d31&itok=0nDW2uXL "Charles van Ravenswaay. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Charles van Ravenswaay Photograph Collection, P0014-027765]")
Charles van Ravenswaay, an author, horticulturist, and museum director, was most of all…
![1. George Vaughn. [State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri, Saint Louis Black History Project Collection (S0201)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-09/1.%20George%20L.%20Vaughn.jpg?h=395d379b&itok=xQ9EjRqA "1. George Vaughn. [State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri, Saint Louis Black History Project Collection (S0201)]")
George L. Vaughn, a prominent Black St. Louis attorney and political activist, was born in…
![George Graham Vest. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Legislators Portraits, P1084]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-09/1.%20George%20Graham%20Vest.jpg?h=ca2cada9&itok=e06Ku0Tq "George Graham Vest. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Legislators Portraits, P1084]")
George Graham Vest, who served four terms as a US senator from Missouri (1879–1903), was…
![Jonas Viles with his wife, Ruth, and their four sons. [Image courtesy of the Boone County Historical Society’s Digital Collections]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20Jonas%20Viles_0.jpg?itok=DhuXhAh3 "Jonas Viles with his wife, Ruth, and their four sons. [Image courtesy of the Boone County Historical Society’s Digital Collections]")
Jonas Viles, a longtime professor of history at the University of Missouri, was born in…
![Chris Von der Ahe. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N45223]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-Chris-Von-der-Ahe.jpg?h=8913bb03&itok=-t0p8nOg "Chris Von der Ahe. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N45223]")
Christian Frederick Wilhelm Von der Ahe, a pioneering figure in early professional baseball…
![Henry von Phul. [J. Thomas Scharf, History of Saint Louis City and County, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts & Co., 1883)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20Henry%20von%20Phul.jpg?h=46441fa5&itok=3DIg7Gc5 "Henry von Phul. [J. Thomas Scharf, History of Saint Louis City and County, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts & Co., 1883)]")
Henry von Phul was born in Philadelphia in 1784, the son of Johann Wilhelm (later William)…