the State Historical Society of Missouri
Kenn Thomas
Kenn Thomas is a retired senior archivist at the State Historical Society of Missouri.
![Francois M. Guyol de Guiran created this portrait of Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau, the “founding mother” of St. Louis, in 1810. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MHS Objects Collection, 1950-084-0002]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-03/1-Marie-Therese-Bourgeois-Chouteau.jpg?itok=Lpgn1Ask "Francois M. Guyol de Guiran created this portrait of Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau, the “founding mother” of St. Louis, in 1810. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MHS Objects Collection, 1950-084-0002]")
Marie Thérèse Bourgeois Chouteau (1733–1814)
Marie Thérèse Bourgeois Chouteau was born in New Orleans on January 14, 1733, but she was to become the matriarch of a founding family of St. Louis.
C. David Rice
C. David Rice is emeritus professor of history at the University of Central Missouri.
![Joan Crawford in 1928. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-133571]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-03/1-Joan-Crawford.jpg?itok=95UXNw8m "Joan Crawford in 1928. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-133571]")
Joan Crawford (1908–1977)
Joan Crawford was born Lucille LeSueur on March 23, 1908, in what she described as “a drab little place on the wrong side of the tracks” in San Antonio, Texas.
![Jane Darwell in a photo taken in 1918. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, 22471]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-03/1-Jane-Darwell.jpg?itok=73J3ema2 "Jane Darwell in a photo taken in 1918. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, 22471]")
Jane Darwell (1879–1967)
Jane Darwell, a pioneering film actress whose career spanned more than sixty years, was born Patti Woodward on October 15, 1879, in Palmyra, Missouri, where her family maintained a summer home. Her father, W. R.
![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/large/public/2021-03/1-John-Wesley-Emerson.jpg?itok=wC7xaqhA "John Wesley Emerson, circa 1880. Photograph by John A. Scholten. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0233-2542]")
John Wesley Emerson (1830–1899)
John Emerson, a lawyer in Ironton, Missouri, became a small-town Victorian gentleman who lived a significant public life in southeast Missouri and St. Louis.
![William Jewell. [Walter Williams, ed., A History of Northeast Missouri (Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1913)]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-03/1-William-Jewell_0.jpg?itok=q7kHMG7g "William Jewell. [Walter Williams, ed., A History of Northeast Missouri (Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1913)]")
William Jewell (1789–1852)
In some respects, William Jewell’s story is similar to those of thousands of others who settled in Missouri between the War of 1812 and the 1830s.
Robert Faust
Robert Faust is a senior instructor in the Department of History at the University of South Alabama.
![Virginia Minor. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-95372]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2021-03/1-Minor-v-Happersett.jpg?itok=DF1H2Ko2 "Virginia Minor. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-95372]")
Minor v. Happersett
Decided in 1873 by the Supreme Court of Missouri and in 1874 by the US Supreme Court, Minor v.
Hannah Hall
Hannah Hall served as an intern in the Missouri House of Representatives and the Supreme Court of Missouri in 2019.