the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Joan Crawford in 1928. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-133571]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-Joan-Crawford.jpg?h=3a3a887f&itok=dzrcMkNh "Joan Crawford in 1928. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-133571]")
Joan Crawford was born Lucille LeSueur on March 23, 1908, in what she described as “a drab…
![Franscisco Cruzat served two terms as lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana in New Spain. [Alcée Fortier, A History of Louisiana, 1904]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-07/1.%20Francisco%20Cruzat.jpg?h=c5468509&itok=axq6uBu4 "Franscisco Cruzat served two terms as lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana in New Spain. [Alcée Fortier, A History of Louisiana, 1904]")
Francisco Cruzat, the only Spanish lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana to occupy that…
![Samuel Ryan Curtis. [State Historical Society of Missouri, James C. Joplin Photograph Collection, P0850-20239]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Samuel%20Ryan%20Curtis.jpg?h=450002ec&itok=0582yCuY "Samuel Ryan Curtis. [State Historical Society of Missouri, James C. Joplin Photograph Collection, P0850-20239]")
Samuel Ryan Curtis figured largely in Missouri’s Civil War history from August 1861 through…
![John F. Darby. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Prints and Photographs Division, N12110]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20John%20F.%20Darby.jpg?h=8f644ba2&itok=Fp9PWpyi "John F. Darby. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Prints and Photographs Division, N12110]")
John Darby was a highly accomplished and distinguished lawyer, banker, philanthropist, and…
![Jane Darwell in a photo taken in 1918. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, 22471]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-Jane-Darwell.jpg?h=1ca7a6de&itok=LFTKxWAv "Jane Darwell in a photo taken in 1918. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, 22471]")
Jane Darwell, a pioneering film actress whose career spanned more than sixty years, was…
Henri Peyroux de Ia Coudrenière was born in France around 1743, the son of Marguerite-…
Perl D. Decker was an attorney who served three terms from 1913 to 1919 as a US congressman from Jasper County,…
![A detail from Thomas Hutchins’s 1778 map of the Illinois Country showing Ste. Genevieve, Kaskaskia, and Fort de Chartres. [Courtesy of the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Image 5045002]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-07/1.%20Marie-Joseph%20Deguire.jpg?itok=qusVsjPP "A detail from Thomas Hutchins’s 1778 map of the Illinois Country showing Ste. Genevieve, Kaskaskia, and Fort de Chartres. [Courtesy of the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Image 5045002]")
During the first half of the eighteenth century, marriages between Native Americans and…
![Charles de Hault Delassus. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N36696]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-07/1.%20Charles%20de%20Hault%20Delassus.jpg?h=9a83fe1d&itok=iH6qI-8F "Charles de Hault Delassus. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N36696]")
Following the Louisiana Purchase, Charles de Hault Delassus, Upper Louisiana’s last Spanish lieutenant…
![Jeffrey Deroine (second from right) with Ioways. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Robert Wright Photograph Collection, P0011]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Jeffrey_Deroine.jpg?h=05ab4653&itok=58Uzeivu "Jeffrey Deroine (second from right) with Ioways. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Robert Wright Photograph Collection, P0011]")
![1. This watercolor portrait of Henry Dodge was painted by George Catlin during the Dodge-Leavenworth Expedition of 1834. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, 1962-192-0001]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Henry%20Dodge.jpg?h=300a9ea0&itok=b4wr44H6 "1. This watercolor portrait of Henry Dodge was painted by George Catlin during the Dodge-Leavenworth Expedition of 1834. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, 1962-192-0001]")
Henry Dodge served his nation in a long and prosperous life on the nineteenth-century…
![This 1778 map of the Illinois Country by Thomas Hutchins depicts the region as it appeared during Israel Dodge’s lifetime. [Courtesy of the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Image 5045002]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-06/1.%20Israel%20Dodge.jpg?h=4e0e6038&itok=J2Zc_h4S "This 1778 map of the Illinois Country by Thomas Hutchins depicts the region as it appeared during Israel Dodge’s lifetime. [Courtesy of the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Image 5045002]")
Israel Dodge exemplified the adventurous spirit of a young, expanding United States at the turn of the…
Born on July 9, 1808, in Mason County, Kentucky, Alexander William Doniphan was the son of…
![Forrest Donnell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Governor Portraits, P1091-18639]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Forrest%20C.%20Donnell.jpg?h=ecf8be9c&itok=EFj4IiQn "Forrest Donnell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Governor Portraits, P1091-18639]")
Born in Quitman, Missouri, on August 20, 1884, the only child of dry-goods operator John…
![Phil Donnelly. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Governor Portraits, P1091-18639]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Phil%20Donnelly.jpg?h=a1a75ae8&itok=u_5NO6a0 "Phil Donnelly. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Governor Portraits, P1091-18639]")
Phil M. Donnelly was born in Lebanon, Missouri, on March 6, 1891. He was educated in…
![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,…
![Louis William DuBourg. [Georgetown University Archives, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Washington, DC]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Louis_William_Dubourg.jpg?h=8feb261c&itok=WJ_eksKM "Louis William DuBourg. [Georgetown University Archives, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Washington, DC]")
William DuBourg was a formidable force for Catholicism and for education in the early…
Rose Philippine Duchesne, a French pioneer missionary on the American frontier, was born on…
Elizabeth Jane Dugan, better known by her pseudonym “Rosa Pearle,” was the founder, editor…
![Daniel Dunklin. [State Historical Society of Missouri, P1042-018634]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Daniel_Dunklin_P1042-018634.jpg?h=990748b5&itok=uTgjNMck "Daniel Dunklin. [State Historical Society of Missouri, P1042-018634]")
Missouri’s fifth governor, Daniel Dunklin, was born on January 14, 1790, in the Greenville…
![James Eads. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0004-1016]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-06/1.%20James%20B.%20Eads.jpg?h=ff10fb74&itok=eL4n5_kH "James Eads. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0004-1016]")
Born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on May 23, 1820, James Buchanan Eads became an engineer of…
![Jeanne Eagels in costume. [The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, ID#100058, New York Public Library Digital Collections]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Jeanne%20Eagels.jpg?h=8b88be68&itok=FtD0mArZ "Jeanne Eagels in costume. [The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, ID#100058, New York Public Library Digital Collections]")
Although there is some dispute about the date and place of her birth, most sources state…
![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…
![Cliff Edwards. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-10109]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-08/1.%20Cliff%20Edwards.jpg?h=29e77187&itok=ShK3DfnA "Cliff Edwards. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-10109]")
Singer-actor Cliff Edwards was born in Hannibal, Missouri, on June 14, 1895, and is best…
![A publicity photo of Gordon “Wild Bill” Elliott. [Find a Grave / William Bjornstad]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-10/1.-gordon-wild-bill-elliott.jpg?h=698ee15c&itok=liAhLhoD "A publicity photo of Gordon “Wild Bill” Elliott. [Find a Grave / William Bjornstad]")
Gordon “Wild Bill” Elliott was one of the film industry’s top moneymakers in westerns…