the State Historical Society of Missouri
![John Breckenridge Ellis. [History of Clinton and Caldwell Counties, Missouri, 1923]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-11/1.-john-breckinridge-ellis_0.jpg?h=0b4ce3a6&itok=Ot5r910v "John Breckenridge Ellis. [History of Clinton and Caldwell Counties, Missouri, 1923]")
John Breckenridge Ellis wrote more than twenty-five books during his long life. At eighteen months, he…
![John Wesley Emerson, circa 1880. Photograph by John A. Scholten. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0233-2542]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-John-Wesley-Emerson.jpg?h=698ee15c&itok=_VkQiIl9 "John Wesley Emerson, circa 1880. Photograph by John A. Scholten. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0233-2542]")
John Emerson, a lawyer in Ironton, Missouri, became a small-town Victorian gentleman who…
![A detail from the Finiels map of the Mississippi River showing the area around St. Louis. The original is in the Archives de la Marine, Chateau, Vincennes, France. [Courtesy of Carl J. Ekberg]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-07/1.%20Nicolas%20de%20Finiels.jpg?h=198c041c&itok=zTGl8JJc "A detail from the Finiels map of the Mississippi River showing the area around St. Louis. The original is in the Archives de la Marine, Chateau, Vincennes, France. [Courtesy of Carl J. Ekberg]")
Nicolas de Finiels, an expatriate French engineer who served the Spanish monarchy during…
Curt Flood spent most of his baseball career with the St. Louis Cardinals, playing center field for them from 1958…
![Paul Follenius. [State Historical Society of Missouri, William G. Bek Photograph Collection, P0586]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-04/1.%20Paul%20Follenius.jpg?h=9fce5577&itok=_Vv-bUxU "Paul Follenius. [State Historical Society of Missouri, William G. Bek Photograph Collection, P0586]")
![David Rowland Francis. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Straus Studio Photographs, P0879]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-01/1.-david-rowland-francis_0.jpg?h=b1c9098b&itok=Jlt-ze6G "David Rowland Francis. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Straus Studio Photographs, P0879]")
Mayor of St. Louis, governor of Missouri, secretary of the interior, president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition…
![This depiction of colonial Ste. Genevieve by artist Oscar Berninghaus is among the murals in the Missouri State Capitol. [State Historical Society of Missouri, color transparency in Ralph Walker Photographs Collection, P0108-017298-1]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Augustin%20Charles%20Fremon%20de%20Lauriere_0.jpg?itok=B9g8N34s "This depiction of colonial Ste. Genevieve by artist Oscar Berninghaus is among the murals in the Missouri State Capitol. [State Historical Society of Missouri, color transparency in Ralph Walker Photographs Collection, P0108-017298-1]")
The French Revolution induced many royalists to emigrate to the Louisiana Territory in the late eighteenth…
Daniel Marsh Frost, a Confederate army officer, was born on August 9, 1823, in Mariaville,…
![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…
![Carte-de-viste of Hamilton Rowan Gamble. [US National Park Service, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, WICR 11505]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-10/1.-hamilton-gamble.jpg?h=2fb71d81&itok=51aoXoVC "Carte-de-viste of Hamilton Rowan Gamble. [US National Park Service, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, WICR 11505]")
Born on November 29, 1798, Hamilton R. Gamble was the youngest son of Joseph and Anne…
![Westport Landing by pioneer and watercolor artist W. H. Jackson. [William Henry Jackson, Scotts Bluff National Monument, SCBL 19]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20William%20Gilliss.jpg?h=ca4d8aa0&itok=xYuqqVSr "Westport Landing by pioneer and watercolor artist W. H. Jackson. [William Henry Jackson, Scotts Bluff National Monument, SCBL 19]")
Later in life William Gilliss would be a successful trader, real estate speculator, and…
![Gert Goebel. [Courtesy of Edith Moore]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/Gert-Goebel.jpg?h=e6a97a35&itok=BgcFo_EZ "Gert Goebel. [Courtesy of Edith Moore]")
Gert Goebel came to Missouri in 1834 as an eighteen-year-old German immigrant, settling in…
![A muddy road in Lafayette County, Missouri, circa 1910s. At the dawn of the automobile era, the predicament of drivers in Missouri and elsewhere sparked a nationwide Good Roads Movement. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Leonard D. and Marie H. Rehkop Collection of Algert T. Peterson Photographs, C3888-G0043]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-11/1.-good-roads-movement.jpg?h=0cd267b8&itok=cLdsW5XX "A muddy road in Lafayette County, Missouri, circa 1910s. At the dawn of the automobile era, the predicament of drivers in Missouri and elsewhere sparked a nationwide Good Roads Movement. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Leonard D. and Marie H. Rehkop Collection of Algert T. Peterson Photographs, C3888-G0043]")
Two convoys of army trucks left St. Louis and Kansas City on September 27, 1920. Their mission was to travel…
![Julia Dent Grant, circa 1875. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Prints and Photographs Collection, N29746]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Julia%20Dent%20Grant.jpg?h=19a91294&itok=b0JaGOqg "Julia Dent Grant, circa 1875. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Prints and Photographs Collection, N29746]")
Although best known as a general’s wife and a first lady, Julia Dent Grant left an…
![Charles Gratiot. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N12406]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Charles%20Gratiot.jpg?h=da3dda78&itok=P4mvgJCd "Charles Gratiot. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N12406]")
At the time of the Louisiana Purchase, Charles Gratiot’s outspoken support for the incoming…
![James S. Green. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-26803]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-04/1.%20James%20S.%20Green.jpg?h=3e1a2513&itok=wqr4fvFN "James S. Green. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-26803]")
James S. Green was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, on February 28, 1817, and settled in…
![Josiah Gregg. [Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 4316.5964]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-04/1.%20Josiah%20Gregg.jpg?h=ae68c2af&itok=CzvoyQ82 "Josiah Gregg. [Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 4316.5964]")
From his father, Wheelwright Harmon Gregg, Josiah Gregg inherited a roving spirit that…
Kate Leila Gregg, a professor of English at Lindenwood College in St.…
![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,…
![Plan of Hardeman’s Garden, also called Fruitage Farm, with labyrinth. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Glen O. Hardeman Collection, C3655]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20John%20Hardeman.jpg?itok=r4CSXw-u "Plan of Hardeman’s Garden, also called Fruitage Farm, with labyrinth. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Glen O. Hardeman Collection, C3655]")
John Hardeman, best remembered for the botanical showplace he created on the banks of the…
![Jean Harlow in a publicity photo. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection Photograph File, ID# TH-190010]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/Jean-Harlow-Pub-Still.jpg?h=4cc55283&itok=QHj0lS7X "Jean Harlow in a publicity photo. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection Photograph File, ID# TH-190010]")
Jean Harlow was born Harlean Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911. Her…
Born on September 10, 1835, in North Killington, Connecticut, William Torrey Harris was a…
![William Henry Hatch. [University Archives, University of Missouri, collection C:3/25/28]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/William-Henry-Hatch_0.jpg?h=69100914&itok=sWtMV5zq "William Henry Hatch. [University Archives, University of Missouri, collection C:3/25/28]")
Born near Georgetown, Kentucky, on September 11, 1833, to Quaker parents the Reverend…
![Samuel Hawken. [Missouri Historical Society, Prints and Photographs Division, N38641]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/William-Henry-Hatch.jpg?h=90cf89e6&itok=nicdSEFZ "Samuel Hawken. [Missouri Historical Society, Prints and Photographs Division, N38641]")
Christian Hawken, a respected gunsmith of Hagerstown, Maryland, taught his six sons and…