the State Historical Society of Missouri
![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)…
![William Bradford Waddell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Waddell Smith Photograph Collection, P0727]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20William%20Bradford%20Waddell.jpg?h=fb232171&itok=P2hTq5Cy "William Bradford Waddell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Waddell Smith Photograph Collection, P0727]")
William Bradford Waddell typified the mid-nineteenth-century entrepreneur who shaped the…
![Rolla Wells. [William Hyde and Howard L. Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis (St. Louis: Southern History Co., 1899)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20Rolla%20Wells.jpg?h=8da26324&itok=CvyBApCu "Rolla Wells. [William Hyde and Howard L. Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis (St. Louis: Southern History Co., 1899)]")
Rolla Wells, a businessman and mayor of St. Louis, was born in St. Louis on June 1, 1856,…
![The Whig Party’s national ticket in 1848 included presidential candidate Zachary Taylor and vice presidential candidate Millard Fillmore. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-09004]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Whig-Party-1848-election.jpg?h=71843103&itok=jpR2qCOY "The Whig Party’s national ticket in 1848 included presidential candidate Zachary Taylor and vice presidential candidate Millard Fillmore. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-09004]")
Though not organized until several years after the party had formed at the national…
![Osage Chief with Two Warriors, oil painting on card by George Catlin. [National Gallery of Art, Paul Mellon Collection, 1965.16.68]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-06/1.-white-hair-paw-hiu-skah.jpg?itok=1uI0lp8Y "Osage Chief with Two Warriors, oil painting on card by George Catlin. [National Gallery of Art, Paul Mellon Collection, 1965.16.68]")
![Otto Widmann in 1883. [Wilson Bulletin, September 1927]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-07/1.%20Otto%20Widmann.jpg?h=dcae2d79&itok=LL3zQoQ0 "Otto Widmann in 1883. [Wilson Bulletin, September 1927]")
![Roy Wilkins in 1963. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsc-01273]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20Roy%20Wilkins.jpg?h=0bae65ef&itok=7q4A-9Ux "Roy Wilkins in 1963. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsc-01273]")
Roy O. Wilkins was born on August 30, 1901, in St. Louis. Five years earlier, the US…
Missouri’s third governor, Abraham J. Williams served in that office for less than six…
![Arsania Williams. [State Historical Society of Missouri St. Louis Research Center, University of Missouri Saint Louis Black History Project Photograph Collection (S0201)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-12/1.%20Arsania%20Williams.jpg?h=3ecb33db&itok=mYANYVHL "Arsania Williams. [State Historical Society of Missouri St. Louis Research Center, University of Missouri Saint Louis Black History Project Photograph Collection (S0201)]")
Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, around 1875—sources differ on the year of her birth—Arsania…
![Carl Wimar, circa 1860. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N38636]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-12/1.%20Carl%20Wimar.jpg?h=8fbf2b56&itok=SGFB1113 "Carl Wimar, circa 1860. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N38636]")
In his St. Louis studio, Charles “Carl” Ferdinand Wimar painted the Missouri River frontier…
![John Gabriel Woerner. [William F. Woerner, J. Gabriel Woerner: A Biographical Sketch (1912)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20John%20Gabriel%20Woerner.jpg?h=d4c90db7&itok=tEHMYccH "John Gabriel Woerner. [William F. Woerner, J. Gabriel Woerner: A Biographical Sketch (1912)]")
John Gabriel Woerner, a celebrated St. Louis lawyer, legal scholar, journalist, and…
![William S. Woods. [A Memorial and Biographical Record of Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri, 1896]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-12/1.%20William%20Stone%20Woods.jpg?h=3cf6c07a&itok=Qmhg7cWS "William S. Woods. [A Memorial and Biographical Record of Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri, 1896]")
William Stone Woods was born on November 1, 1840, the son of James Harris and Martha Jane…
The 1944 World Series was the first played entirely west of the Mississippi River. St. Louis,…
![Prison photographs of Cleo Wright. [Courtesy of Missouri State Archives]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20Cleo%20Wright.jpg?h=280643a4&itok=7G0GP4Sk "Prison photographs of Cleo Wright. [Courtesy of Missouri State Archives]")
Born in Jefferson County, Arkansas, on June 16, 1916, Ricelor Cleodas Watson was the son of…
![Josephine Silone Yates. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-50313]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20Josephine%20Silone%20Yates.jpg?h=a1d10b62&itok=TxEIQ_Ft "Josephine Silone Yates. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-50313]")
Josephine Silone was born in Mattituck, New York, in 1859, the youngest daughter of…
The Yocums, a prolific clan in the interior Ozarks for two centuries, are inextricably…
![Cole Younger, circa 1866. [State Historical Society of Missouri, B. James George Sr. Photograph Collection, P0010-024263]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-08/1.-cole-younger.jpg?h=154323ae&itok=WaT_D9Vi "Cole Younger, circa 1866. [State Historical Society of Missouri, B. James George Sr. Photograph Collection, P0010-024263]")
Thomas Coleman “Cole” Younger left his family’s Missouri farm in 1862, at age seventeen, to join William…