the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Mathias Splitlog (Dyut-Ru-Tu-Re), Washington, DC, 1896. [Smithsonian Institution, NAA.PhotoLot.176, Item BAE GN 00976A, photo by William Dinwiddie]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-04/1.%20Mathias%20Splitlog.jpg?h=ab7009da&itok=bgQTiSF4 "Mathias Splitlog (Dyut-Ru-Tu-Re), Washington, DC, 1896. [Smithsonian Institution, NAA.PhotoLot.176, Item BAE GN 00976A, photo by William Dinwiddie]")
The life of Mathias Splitlog is a classic story of a man who went from rags to riches. The son of a French…
![Gladys Swarthout with costar Jan Kiepura from the movie Give Us This Night (1936). [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, psnypl_the_5262]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Gladys-Swarthout.jpg?h=2a2f5c0c&itok=IA3blMPc "Gladys Swarthout with costar Jan Kiepura from the movie Give Us This Night (1936). [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, psnypl_the_5262]")
Gladys Swarthout, a concert and operatic mezzo-soprano, was born in Deepwater, Missouri,…
![Marion Talley. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Marion-Talley.jpg?h=88722253&itok=XstERWmK "Marion Talley. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs]")
Marion Talley was born on December 20, 1907, in Nevada, Missouri, the daughter of a…
![Virgil Thomson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-42533]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20Virgil%20Thomson.jpg?h=2342cc65&itok=wQD4NJzC "Virgil Thomson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-42533]")
Pulitzer Prize–winning composer and music critic Virgil Thomson was born in Kansas City,…
![Melvin Tolson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-134556 DLC]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20Melvin%20B.%20Tolson.jpg?h=c73b0fce&itok=4_Bo8Bag "Melvin Tolson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-134556 DLC]")
Through most of his life, Melvin B. Tolson claimed he was born with the twentieth century…
![Bess Truman’s official White House portrait by Greta Kempton. [Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 2008-149]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20Bess%20Truman.jpg?h=ed1f4180&itok=8klDJrns "Bess Truman’s official White House portrait by Greta Kempton. [Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 2008-149]")
Born in Independence, Missouri, on February 13, 1885, Elizabeth Virginia Wallace, who as…
![Harry S. Truman with Missouri mules. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Gerald R. Massie Photographs, P0016]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-09/1.-truman-with-mules-shsmo-gerald-r.-massie-photographs-p0016.jpg?itok=8tI1RJod "Harry S. Truman with Missouri mules. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Gerald R. Massie Photographs, P0016]")
Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri on May 8, 1884, the oldest child of John Anderson Truman, a farmer and…
![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…
![Josephine Silone Yates. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-50313]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20Josephine%20Silone%20Yates.jpg?h=a1d10b62&itok=TxEIQ_Ft "Josephine Silone Yates. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-50313]")
Josephine Silone was born in Mattituck, New York, in 1859, the youngest daughter of…