the State Historical Society of Missouri
![James Milton Turner, circa 1870. [Lincoln University]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-James-Milton-Turner.jpg?h=d64323c3&itok=nkqu6MYa "James Milton Turner, circa 1870. [Lincoln University]")
Although numerous secondary accounts of James Milton Turner’s life list his birth date as…
![Marianne Billeron Vallé’s signature on a baptismal record in 1768. She signed as the godmother to Marie-Louise, the daughter of an enslaved Native American woman. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Ste. Genevieve Parish Records, C3040]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-12/marianne-signature.jpg?h=a2d61f04&itok=bibb_dHf "Marianne Billeron Vallé’s signature on a baptismal record in 1768. She signed as the godmother to Marie-Louise, the daughter of an enslaved Native American woman. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Ste. Genevieve Parish Records, C3040]")
Marianne Billeron Vallé was born in Kaskaskia around 1729, the daughter of…
![Charles van Ravenswaay. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Charles van Ravenswaay Photograph Collection, P0014-027765]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-09/1.%20Charles%20van%20Ravenswaay.jpg?h=91b16d31&itok=0nDW2uXL "Charles van Ravenswaay. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Charles van Ravenswaay Photograph Collection, P0014-027765]")
Charles van Ravenswaay, an author, horticulturist, and museum director, was most of all…
![1. George Vaughn. [State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri, Saint Louis Black History Project Collection (S0201)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-09/1.%20George%20L.%20Vaughn.jpg?h=395d379b&itok=xQ9EjRqA "1. George Vaughn. [State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri, Saint Louis Black History Project Collection (S0201)]")
George L. Vaughn, a prominent Black St. Louis attorney and political activist, was born in…
![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,…