the State Historical Society of Missouri
![This steamboat once graced northern Indian Creek in McDonald County, Missouri. [Courtesy of Ric Akehurst]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-01/1.-indian-springs.jpg?itok=O0vOq6OB "This steamboat once graced northern Indian Creek in McDonald County, Missouri. [Courtesy of Ric Akehurst]")
Indian Springs was a resort town in …
![Francis White Cloud. Portrait by George Catlin, circa 1844–1845. [Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/Francis-White-Cloud.jpg?h=46afd397&itok=EItLaSEK "Francis White Cloud. Portrait by George Catlin, circa 1844–1845. [Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art]")
The Ioways did not live in what is now Missouri for much of the historical era.…
![Claiborne Fox Jackson. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N21069]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20Claiborne%20Fox%20Jackson.jpg?h=8ea2713e&itok=ZPN0hAT_ "Claiborne Fox Jackson. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N21069]")
Claiborne Fox Jackson was born in rural Fleming County, in northeastern Kentucky, on April 4, 1806. The son…
![Hancock Lee Jackson. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Governors Portraits Collection, P1091-018866]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-04/1.%20Hancock%20Lee%20Jackson.jpg?h=27de5bd5&itok=9JgOLUvD "Hancock Lee Jackson. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Governors Portraits Collection, P1091-018866]")
Hancock Lee Jackson was born in Madison County, Kentucky, on May 12, 1796. He married…
![Herman Jaeger. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Southwest Missouri Region Photograph Collection, P1110]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Herman_Jaeger.jpg?h=edea59cd&itok=ZIxcaUYw "Herman Jaeger. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Southwest Missouri Region Photograph Collection, P1110]")
Herman Jaeger was born in Brugg, Switzerland, on March 23, 1844, the sixth of seven…
![Thomas James (right) and family. [State Historical Society of Missouri, James Memorial Library Photograph Collection, R1480]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-07/1.-thomas-james.jpg?h=3521e68b&itok=FOTxPwy5 "Thomas James (right) and family. [State Historical Society of Missouri, James Memorial Library Photograph Collection, R1480]")
Thomas James spent little of his life in Missouri, but he significantly influenced the state. With a strong…
![William Jewell. [Walter Williams, ed., A History of Northeast Missouri (Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1913)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-William-Jewell_0.jpg?h=38140c0f&itok=swOuvi2T "William Jewell. [Walter Williams, ed., A History of Northeast Missouri (Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1913)]")
In some respects, William Jewell’s story is similar to those of thousands of others who…
![Three men fishing on an Ozarks river; one stands in a johnboat named Hildalgo. [State Historical Society of Missouri, State of Missouri Collection, P0018]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-06/1.-johnboats.jpg?itok=5zaorYjm "Three men fishing on an Ozarks river; one stands in a johnboat named Hildalgo. [State Historical Society of Missouri, State of Missouri Collection, P0018]")
![Lonnie Johnson performing in 1965 at the Folk Festival Show, Palisades Amusement Park, New Jersey. [Cornell University Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Amsterdam News Photograph Archive, #8084]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Alonzo_Johnson.jpg?h=28015916&itok=kGea3NPZ "Lonnie Johnson performing in 1965 at the Folk Festival Show, Palisades Amusement Park, New Jersey. [Cornell University Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Amsterdam News Photograph Archive, #8084]")
Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson was an extraordinarily gifted blues guitarist and talented singer who pioneered a…
![Josephine Winslow Johnson. [Simon and Schuster, photo provided by the Johnson Estate]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-12/1.-josephine-johnson.jpg?h=96864416&itok=u0dti5r- "Josephine Winslow Johnson. [Simon and Schuster, photo provided by the Johnson Estate]")
St. Louis writer and naturalist Josephine Johnson became the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction…
![Jolly Mill circa 2022. [Photo by Ross Brown]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-03/1.-jolly-mill.jpg?h=7e5f5b54&itok=YZl1LG4V "Jolly Mill circa 2022. [Photo by Ross Brown]")
Jolly Mill, a grist mill and whiskey distillery, was built in the late 1840s on Capps Creek in…
![John Rice Jones. [Columbia Missouri Herald: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary, 1895]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-06/1.-john-rice-jones.jpg?h=6234be0d&itok=zgUYOJ_3 "John Rice Jones. [Columbia Missouri Herald: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary, 1895]")
John Rice Jones, a pioneering jurist renowned for his erudition, was one of the principal framers of Missouri…
![Joseph James Jones, circa 1937. [Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, Forbes Watson Papers, 1840–1967, 2976]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Joseph_Jones.jpg?h=41bf56ee&itok=KEJRPQoc "Joseph James Jones, circa 1937. [Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, Forbes Watson Papers, 1840–1967, 2976]")
The biography of Joseph James Jones is both the story of the life of an American artist and…
![Scott Joplin. [New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, 1692841]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Scott_Joplin.jpg?h=edbf73d2&itok=TOkAbMii "Scott Joplin. [New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, 1692841]")
Known during his lifetime as the “King of Ragtime Writers,” Scott Joplin was an African…
![Charles O. Finley, owner of the Kansas City Athletics, with Charlie O., the team’s mascot. [Jackson County Historical Society Archives, photo #2017.006.188]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-03/1.%20Kansas%20City%20Athletics.jpg?h=1f5e5598&itok=Q8JYw3W8 "Charles O. Finley, owner of the Kansas City Athletics, with Charlie O., the team’s mascot. [Jackson County Historical Society Archives, photo #2017.006.188]")
Kansas City’s sports fans might be forgiven for overlooking or choosing to forget that American League…
![Henry Kayser. [William Hyde and Howard Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, vol. 2, 1899]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20Henry%20Kayser.jpg?h=4066759d&itok=88UTEwMM "Henry Kayser. [William Hyde and Howard Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, vol. 2, 1899]")
Henry Kayser was a key figure in the intertwined worlds of politics and public improvements…
![Stephen Watts Kearny. [Engraving by Y. B. Welch for Graham’s Magazine, from an original daguerreotype by Peter A. Juley & Son, photographers. Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, California Faces: Selections from the Bancroft Library Portrait Collection]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Stephen_Watts_Kearny.jpg?h=cf6f823a&itok=U41HI4sO "Stephen Watts Kearny. [Engraving by Y. B. Welch for Graham’s Magazine, from an original daguerreotype by Peter A. Juley & Son, photographers. Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, California Faces: Selections from the Bancroft Library Portrait Collection]")
Stephen Watts Kearny was born on August 30, 1794, in Newark, New Jersey. He was the…
![William Keil. [Oregon Historical Society, OrHi 4508]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20William%20Keil.jpg?h=f62b8f15&itok=w7echtbx "William Keil. [Oregon Historical Society, OrHi 4508]")
William Keil was born on March 6, 1811, or 1812, in Bleicherode, Erfurt, Prussia. His…
![Frederick T. Kemper. [James Addison Quarles, The Life of Prof. F. T. Kemper A.M., a Christian Educator, 1884]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20Frederick%20T.%20Kemper.jpg?h=cfc62ba2&itok=UDCnnJbH "Frederick T. Kemper. [James Addison Quarles, The Life of Prof. F. T. Kemper A.M., a Christian Educator, 1884]")
Frederick Thomas Kemper was an educator and the founder of Kemper Military School and…
![William T. Kemper in 1902. [Political History of Jackson County: Biographical Sketches of the Men Who Have Helped to Make It (1902)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-11/1.-william-t.-kemper.jpg?h=e68902a0&itok=dLv2-_ZK "William T. Kemper in 1902. [Political History of Jackson County: Biographical Sketches of the Men Who Have Helped to Make It (1902)]")
Progenitor of two of Missouri’s most prominent banking families, William T. Kemper also…
![Austin A. King. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-cwpbh-01330]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Austin_A_King.jpg?h=1385baad&itok=zQ3Lk3ZD "Austin A. King. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-cwpbh-01330]")
Born in Sullivan County, Tennessee, on September 21, 1802, Austin A. King was educated in…
![Nathaniel N. Kinney. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Rolla Research Center, William L. Vandeventer Papers (R1428)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Nathaniel_N_Kinney.jpg?h=b52d3aca&itok=IzJ8gtIa "Nathaniel N. Kinney. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Rolla Research Center, William L. Vandeventer Papers (R1428)]")
Nathaniel “Nat” N. Kinney has a popular image as a romantic, violent, swashbuckling…
![Emma R. Knell, circa 1926. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Knell Family Photographs Collection, P0708-015517]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-04/1.%20Emma%20R.%20Knell.jpg?h=c427acad&itok=yJMP7Qme "Emma R. Knell, circa 1926. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Knell Family Photographs Collection, P0708-015517]")
Emma R. Knell, a businesswoman and politician, was born in Moline, Illinois, on October 21…
![Arnold Krekel. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Mit Feder und Hammer! The German Experience in St. Louis Records, S0941-079]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-04/1.%20Arnold%20Krekel.jpg?h=2f801a8e&itok=kE7sGgUx "Arnold Krekel. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Mit Feder und Hammer! The German Experience in St. Louis Records, S0941-079]")
Arnold Krekel, who served from 1865 to 1888 as a US judge for the Western District of Missouri, was born on…
![Kathryn J. Kuhlman. [Courtesy of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center Archives]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Kathryn_Kuhlman.jpg?h=71eec0dc&itok=gcLwm7Sd "Kathryn J. Kuhlman. [Courtesy of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center Archives]")
Kathryn Johanna Kuhlman, born in Concordia, Missouri, on May 9, 1907, became…