the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Joan Crawford in 1928. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-133571]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-Joan-Crawford.jpg?h=3a3a887f&itok=dzrcMkNh "Joan Crawford in 1928. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-133571]")
Joan Crawford was born Lucille LeSueur on March 23, 1908, in what she described as “a drab…
![Franscisco Cruzat served two terms as lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana in New Spain. [Alcée Fortier, A History of Louisiana, 1904]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-07/1.%20Francisco%20Cruzat.jpg?h=c5468509&itok=axq6uBu4 "Franscisco Cruzat served two terms as lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana in New Spain. [Alcée Fortier, A History of Louisiana, 1904]")
Francisco Cruzat, the only Spanish lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana to occupy that…
![Samuel Ryan Curtis. [State Historical Society of Missouri, James C. Joplin Photograph Collection, P0850-20239]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Samuel%20Ryan%20Curtis.jpg?h=450002ec&itok=0582yCuY "Samuel Ryan Curtis. [State Historical Society of Missouri, James C. Joplin Photograph Collection, P0850-20239]")
Samuel Ryan Curtis figured largely in Missouri’s Civil War history from August 1861 through…
![John F. Darby. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Prints and Photographs Division, N12110]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20John%20F.%20Darby.jpg?h=8f644ba2&itok=Fp9PWpyi "John F. Darby. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Prints and Photographs Division, N12110]")
John Darby was a highly accomplished and distinguished lawyer, banker, philanthropist, and…
![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/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-Jane-Darwell.jpg?h=1ca7a6de&itok=LFTKxWAv "Jane Darwell in a photo taken in 1918. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, 22471]")
Jane Darwell, a pioneering film actress whose career spanned more than sixty years, was…
Henri Peyroux de Ia Coudrenière was born in France around 1743, the son of Marguerite-…
Perl D. Decker was an attorney who served three terms from 1913 to 1919 as a US congressman from Jasper County,…
![A detail from Thomas Hutchins’s 1778 map of the Illinois Country showing Ste. Genevieve, Kaskaskia, and Fort de Chartres. [Courtesy of the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Image 5045002]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-07/1.%20Marie-Joseph%20Deguire.jpg?itok=qusVsjPP "A detail from Thomas Hutchins’s 1778 map of the Illinois Country showing Ste. Genevieve, Kaskaskia, and Fort de Chartres. [Courtesy of the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Image 5045002]")
During the first half of the eighteenth century, marriages between Native Americans and…
![Charles de Hault Delassus. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N36696]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-07/1.%20Charles%20de%20Hault%20Delassus.jpg?h=9a83fe1d&itok=iH6qI-8F "Charles de Hault Delassus. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N36696]")
Following the Louisiana Purchase, Charles de Hault Delassus, Upper Louisiana’s last Spanish lieutenant…
![Jeffrey Deroine (second from right) with Ioways. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Robert Wright Photograph Collection, P0011]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Jeffrey_Deroine.jpg?h=05ab4653&itok=58Uzeivu "Jeffrey Deroine (second from right) with Ioways. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Robert Wright Photograph Collection, P0011]")
Jeffrey Deroine (pronounced Der-oh-NAY) defied many of the limitations placed on enslaved people in early…