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 Leake in the 1920s

Dorothy Van Dyke Leake, an educator noted for her ecological work and her efforts to…

The Lemp Brewery bottling plant at Cherokee Street and Carondelet Avenue

The Lemp Brewery in St. Louis was established by Johann Adam Lemp in the early…

Abiel Leonard. The Green Bag (April 1891): 167.

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)]

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)]

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]

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)]

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]

Theodore Carl Link is best known as the architect of St. Louis’s Union Station, but if he…

Lewis Linn. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-06434]

A frontier doctor, Jacksonian Democrat, and US senator, Lewis F. Linn has been called both…

Isidor Loeb. [State Historical Society of Missouri Photographs, 1896–2010, P0137-12873]

Isidor Loeb, a longtime Missouri educator and authority on state government and taxation,…

Log City, circa 1942. [State Historical Society of Missouri, John F. Bradbury Jr. Postcard Collection, R1551]

Log City was a filling station, tourist camp, store, and café on Route 66 in Jasper County, Missouri.…

Missouri Encyclopedia logo

Regis (Registre) Loisel was born near Montreal, Canada, in about 1773, and at an early age…

Edward V. Long (left) at the inauguration of Missouri governor Warren E. Hearnes, 1965. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Gerald R. Massie Photograph Collection, P0016-045]

Edward V. Long was born on July 18, 1908, in Lincoln County, Missouri. He received his…

Louisiana Territory transfer ceremony

The Louisiana Purchase, an 1803 land deal between the United States and France, doubled the size of the United…

John B. C. Lucas. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N29998]

When John B. C. Lucas died in St. Louis in 1842 at the age of eighty-four, his obituary described him as “…

This watercolor rendering of “Plan de Luzieres” is thought to show the French ancestral home of Pierre-Charles Delassus de Luzières. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, X08600]

Pierre-Charles Delassus de Luzières played an important role in the history of Upper Louisiana during the…

Nathaniel Lyon. Engraving by John A. O’Neill. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Art Collection, 15613]

Nathaniel Lyon, a US Army officer from 1841 to 1861, was born in rural Ashford (later…

Susan Shelby Magoffin. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N12846]

Susan Shelby Magoffin was born on July 30, 1827, at Arcasia, her father’s estate near…

Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Mary Kathy Dains Photograph Collection, P0300]

Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey was a lifelong newspaper and magazine journalist, and a regional poet. Born in Boone…

Alexander Majors. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Kansas City Research Center]

Those familiar with the Pony Express recognize Russell, Majors, and Waddell as the…

John Malang. [Floyd Calvin Shoemaker, Missouri and Missourians: Land of Contrasts and People of Achievements, 1943]

John Malang, “The Father of Missouri Roads,” was born on September 9, 1866 or 1867. Sources provide…

Annie Malone photo

Annie Minerva Turnbo Pope Malone was born in Metropolis, Illinois, on August 9, 1869, to Robert and Isabella Cook…

Curtis Fletcher Marbut, circa 1930s. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Curtis F. Marbut Papers, C3720]

Curtis Fletcher Marbut revolutionized American thinking in soil science and had an…

A late nineteenth-century illustration of French missionaries traveling by canoe with Native Americans. [Harper’s Monthly, April 1892]

Pierre Gabriel Marest, a Jesuit priest in the Illinois Country, was among a group of French…