the State Historical Society of Missouri
Rhonda Chalfant
Rhonda Chalfant, a writer and historical consultant in Sedalia, Missouri, holds a PhD in history from the University of Missouri in Columbia and is the author of Show Me the Fair: A History of the Missouri State Fair.
![Virginia Minor. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-95372]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-09/1-Minor_Virginia.jpg?itok=_R-5MuCh "Virginia Minor. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-95372]")
Virginia Louisa Minor (1824–1894)
Virginia Louisa Minor was born on March 27, 1824, in Caroline County, Virginia, the second of seven children of Warner and Maria Timberlake Minor. She was descended from a long line of distinguished Virginia planters.
LeeAnn Whites
LeeAnn Whites is professor emerita in history at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
![John B. C. Lucas. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N29998]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2025-02/1.-john-b.-c.-lucas.jpg?itok=RTAxrWD8 "John B. C. Lucas. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N29998]")
John B. C. Lucas (1758–1842)
When John B. C. Lucas died in St.
Regis Loisel (1773?–1804)
Regis (Registre) Loisel was born near Montreal, Canada, in about 1773, and at an early age he entered the fur trade.
![Isidor Loeb. [State Historical Society of Missouri Photographs, 1896–2010, P0137-12873]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-09/1-Isidor_Loeb.jpg?itok=NhaoGtyS "Isidor Loeb. [State Historical Society of Missouri Photographs, 1896–2010, P0137-12873]")
Isidor Loeb (1868–1954)
Isidor Loeb, a longtime Missouri educator and authority on state government and taxation, was born on November 5, 1868, in the Howard County, Missouri, village of Roanoke.
![Theodore Link, circa 1890. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N27617]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-09/1-Theodore_Carl_Link.jpg?itok=xsCLLFj2 "Theodore Link, circa 1890. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N27617]")
Theodore Carl Link (1850–1923)
Theodore Carl Link is best known as the architect of St. Louis’s Union Station, but if he had never worked on the massive structure, he would still have been a major Missouri architect.
Joni L. Kinsey
Joni L. Kinsey is a professor of art history at the University of Iowa.
![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/large/public/2021-09/1-Fernando_de_Lebya.jpg?itok=eRYSGDVg "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)]")
Fernando de Leyba (?–1780)
Controversy swirled around Upper Louisiana’s third lieutenant governor in life and in death.
![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/large/public/2021-09/1-Zenas_Leonard.jpg?itok=BGlXGG_l "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 (1809–1857)
Zenas Leonard, a fur trapper best known as the author of Adventures of a Mountain Man, a classic work in the literature of the Rocky Mountain fur trade, was born in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, on March 19, 180