the State Historical Society of Missouri
![A detail from the Finiels map of the Mississippi River showing the area around St. Louis. The original is in the Archives de la Marine, Chateau, Vincennes, France. [Courtesy of Carl J. Ekberg]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-07/1.%20Nicolas%20de%20Finiels.jpg?h=198c041c&itok=zTGl8JJc "A detail from the Finiels map of the Mississippi River showing the area around St. Louis. The original is in the Archives de la Marine, Chateau, Vincennes, France. [Courtesy of Carl J. Ekberg]")
Nicolas de Finiels, an expatriate French engineer who served the Spanish monarchy during…
Curt Flood spent most of his baseball career with the St. Louis Cardinals, playing center field for them from 1958…
![David Rowland Francis. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Straus Studio Photographs, P0879]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-01/1.-david-rowland-francis_0.jpg?h=b1c9098b&itok=Jlt-ze6G "David Rowland Francis. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Straus Studio Photographs, P0879]")
Mayor of St. Louis, governor of Missouri, secretary of the interior, president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition…
Daniel Marsh Frost, a Confederate army officer, was born on August 9, 1823, in Mariaville,…
![Julia Dent Grant, circa 1875. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Prints and Photographs Collection, N29746]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Julia%20Dent%20Grant.jpg?h=19a91294&itok=b0JaGOqg "Julia Dent Grant, circa 1875. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Prints and Photographs Collection, N29746]")
Although best known as a general’s wife and a first lady, Julia Dent Grant left an…
![Charles Gratiot. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N12406]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Charles%20Gratiot.jpg?h=da3dda78&itok=P4mvgJCd "Charles Gratiot. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N12406]")
At the time of the Louisiana Purchase, Charles Gratiot’s outspoken support for the incoming…
![James S. Green. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-26803]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-04/1.%20James%20S.%20Green.jpg?h=3e1a2513&itok=wqr4fvFN "James S. Green. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-26803]")
James S. Green was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, on February 28, 1817, and settled in…
![W. C. Handy playing at the fifth annual American Negro Music Festival in St. Louis’s Sportsman’s Park in 1944. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Arthur Witman 120mm Photograph Collection (S0732), 732.31462]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/Handy-at-Sportsman%27s-Park.jpg?h=3922e451&itok=pT3BzbVU "W. C. Handy playing at the fifth annual American Negro Music Festival in St. Louis’s Sportsman’s Park in 1944. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Arthur Witman 120mm Photograph Collection (S0732), 732.31462]")
Although William Christopher Handy spent relatively little of his long life in Missouri,…
Born on September 10, 1835, in North Killington, Connecticut, William Torrey Harris was a…
![Samuel Hawken. [Missouri Historical Society, Prints and Photographs Division, N38641]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/William-Henry-Hatch.jpg?h=90cf89e6&itok=nicdSEFZ "Samuel Hawken. [Missouri Historical Society, Prints and Photographs Division, N38641]")
Christian Hawken, a respected gunsmith of Hagerstown, Maryland, taught his six sons and…