the State Historical Society of Missouri
![George Graham Vest. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Legislators Portraits, P1084]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-09/1.%20George%20Graham%20Vest.jpg?h=ca2cada9&itok=e06Ku0Tq "George Graham Vest. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Legislators Portraits, P1084]")
George Graham Vest, who served four terms as a US senator from Missouri (1879–1903), was…
![Jonas Viles with his wife, Ruth, and their four sons. [Image courtesy of the Boone County Historical Society’s Digital Collections]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20Jonas%20Viles_0.jpg?itok=DhuXhAh3 "Jonas Viles with his wife, Ruth, and their four sons. [Image courtesy of the Boone County Historical Society’s Digital Collections]")
Jonas Viles, a longtime professor of history at the University of Missouri, was born in…
![Chris Von der Ahe. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N45223]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-Chris-Von-der-Ahe.jpg?h=8913bb03&itok=-t0p8nOg "Chris Von der Ahe. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N45223]")
Christian Frederick Wilhelm Von der Ahe, a pioneering figure in early professional baseball…
![Henry von Phul. [J. Thomas Scharf, History of Saint Louis City and County, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts & Co., 1883)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20Henry%20von%20Phul.jpg?h=46441fa5&itok=3DIg7Gc5 "Henry von Phul. [J. Thomas Scharf, History of Saint Louis City and County, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts & Co., 1883)]")
Henry von Phul was born in Philadelphia in 1784, the son of Johann Wilhelm (later William)…
![William Bradford Waddell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Waddell Smith Photograph Collection, P0727]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20William%20Bradford%20Waddell.jpg?h=fb232171&itok=P2hTq5Cy "William Bradford Waddell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Waddell Smith Photograph Collection, P0727]")
William Bradford Waddell typified the mid-nineteenth-century entrepreneur who shaped the…
![Rolla Wells. [William Hyde and Howard L. Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis (St. Louis: Southern History Co., 1899)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20Rolla%20Wells.jpg?h=8da26324&itok=CvyBApCu "Rolla Wells. [William Hyde and Howard L. Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis (St. Louis: Southern History Co., 1899)]")
Rolla Wells, a businessman and mayor of St. Louis, was born in St. Louis on June 1, 1856,…
![Osage Chief with Two Warriors, oil painting on card by George Catlin. [National Gallery of Art, Paul Mellon Collection, 1965.16.68]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-06/1.-white-hair-paw-hiu-skah.jpg?itok=1uI0lp8Y "Osage Chief with Two Warriors, oil painting on card by George Catlin. [National Gallery of Art, Paul Mellon Collection, 1965.16.68]")
![Otto Widmann in 1883. [Wilson Bulletin, September 1927]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-07/1.%20Otto%20Widmann.jpg?h=dcae2d79&itok=LL3zQoQ0 "Otto Widmann in 1883. [Wilson Bulletin, September 1927]")
![Roy Wilkins in 1963. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsc-01273]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20Roy%20Wilkins.jpg?h=0bae65ef&itok=7q4A-9Ux "Roy Wilkins in 1963. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsc-01273]")
Roy O. Wilkins was born on August 30, 1901, in St. Louis. Five years earlier, the US…
Missouri’s third governor, Abraham J. Williams served in that office for less than six…