the State Historical Society of Missouri
![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…
![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…
In 1824–1825, the Marquis de Lafayette, famous veteran of the Revolutionary War, returned to America to make a…
![The Figure 8 roller coaster at Lakeside Park, added in 1907, was a “huge reversing spiral” in which cars rushed down a half-mile curving track with “three figure eights in a descent of 50 feet.” [Courtesy of the Joplin Historical & Mineral Museum]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-06/1.%20Figure%208%20Roller%20Coaster%20Lakeside%20Park%20Joplin%20Museum%20Complex.JPG?h=c36628e1&itok=hcrmvx97 "The Figure 8 roller coaster at Lakeside Park, added in 1907, was a “huge reversing spiral” in which cars rushed down a half-mile curving track with “three figure eights in a descent of 50 feet.” [Courtesy of the Joplin Historical & Mineral Museum]")
“Once the most important and popular play place of the Tri-State district,” Lakeside Park in Jasper…
![Albert Bond Lambert with Orville Wright in St. Louis, circa 1910. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0059-00002]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-10/1.-lambert-with-orville-wright-p0059-00002-mhs-stl.jpg?h=8899aa07&itok=Th08gJ4r "Albert Bond Lambert with Orville Wright in St. Louis, circa 1910. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0059-00002]")
Important in the history of business in Missouri, Albert Bond Lambert made even larger…
![Fran Landesman at the Crystal Palace, 1961. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Thelma Blumberg Collection, S0402]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-09/1.-fran-landesman.jpg?h=743325c3&itok=C1Xi1lIz "Fran Landesman at the Crystal Palace, 1961. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Thelma Blumberg Collection, S0402]")
Fran Landesman launched her career as a jazz lyricist in St. Louis in the 1950s. A native New Yorker, she was…
![Portrait of William Carr Lane by A. J. Conant after Chester Harding. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, 1950-087-0001]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-William_Carr_Lane.jpg?h=c35f98b2&itok=z0lEeTib "Portrait of William Carr Lane by A. J. Conant after Chester Harding. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, 1950-087-0001]")
Born on December 1, 1789, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, William Carr Lane spent most of…
Dorothy Van Dyke Leake, an educator noted for her ecological work and her efforts to…
The Lemp Brewery in St. Louis was established by Johann Adam Lemp in the early…
Abiel Leonard, a lawyer, jurist, and political leader, was born in Windsor, Vermont, on May…
![Nathaniel Leonard. [State Historical Society of Missouri, James M. Denny Photograph Collection (P0809)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Nathaniel_Leonard.jpg?h=bf6d059c&itok=euwfBqtt "Nathaniel Leonard. [State Historical Society of Missouri, James M. Denny Photograph Collection (P0809)]")
A prominent farmer and stock raiser of Cooper County, Missouri, and the founder of…
![A facsimile of the title page in the first edition of Zenon Leonard’s narrative about his experiences. [Adventures of Zenon Leonard (Cleveland: Burrows Brothers Co., 1904)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Zenas_Leonard.jpg?h=cab23028&itok=lEAzXXCf "A facsimile of the title page in the first edition of Zenon Leonard’s narrative about his experiences. [Adventures of Zenon Leonard (Cleveland: Burrows Brothers Co., 1904)]")
Zenas Leonard, a fur trapper best known as the author of Adventures of a Mountain Man…
![This 1806 map was reproduced from William Clark’s original map that traced the expedition’s journey across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean. [State Historical Society of Missouri Map Collection, 800.4 C549m 1804-1806]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20Lewis%20and%20Clark.jpg?h=48be2a7f&itok=wWe64dFT "This 1806 map was reproduced from William Clark’s original map that traced the expedition’s journey across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean. [State Historical Society of Missouri Map Collection, 800.4 C549m 1804-1806]")
Between May 1804 and September 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition made its way up…
![An artist’s depiction of Fort San Carlos. Constructed under orders from Fernando de Leyba, it played a crucial role in stopping the British attack on St. Louis in 1780. [Walter B. Stevens, ed., History of St. Louis the Fourth City, 1764–1909, vol. 1 (1909)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Fernando_de_Lebya.jpg?h=e98014da&itok=NUd_VvtK "An artist’s depiction of Fort San Carlos. Constructed under orders from Fernando de Leyba, it played a crucial role in stopping the British attack on St. Louis in 1780. [Walter B. Stevens, ed., History of St. Louis the Fourth City, 1764–1909, vol. 1 (1909)]")
Controversy swirled around Upper Louisiana’s third lieutenant governor in life and in death…
![Theodore Link, circa 1890. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N27617]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Theodore_Carl_Link.jpg?h=1ec86aa2&itok=7WFB8PCo "Theodore Link, circa 1890. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N27617]")
Theodore Carl Link is best known as the architect of St. Louis’s Union Station, but if he…