the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Herman Dreer. [State Historical Society of Missouri, UMSL Black History Project Photograph Collection, S0336-167]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Herman%20Dreer.jpg?h=231045b5&itok=_jirNr2L "Herman Dreer. [State Historical Society of Missouri, UMSL Black History Project Photograph Collection, S0336-167]")
Herman Dreer, a respected Black St. Louis educator and scholar, was born on September 12,…
![Cliff Edwards. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-10109]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-08/1.%20Cliff%20Edwards.jpg?h=29e77187&itok=ShK3DfnA "Cliff Edwards. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-10109]")
Singer-actor Cliff Edwards was born in Hannibal, Missouri, on June 14, 1895, and is best…
![A publicity photo of Gordon “Wild Bill” Elliott. [Find a Grave / William Bjornstad]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-10/1.-gordon-wild-bill-elliott.jpg?h=698ee15c&itok=liAhLhoD "A publicity photo of Gordon “Wild Bill” Elliott. [Find a Grave / William Bjornstad]")
Gordon “Wild Bill” Elliott was one of the film industry’s top moneymakers in westerns…
Curt Flood spent most of his baseball career with the St. Louis Cardinals, playing center field for them from 1958…
Kate Leila Gregg, a professor of English at Lindenwood College in St.…
![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,…
![Harold L. Holliday Sr. [Official Manual of the State of Missouri, 1969–1970]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-08/1.-harold-holliday-sr.jpg?h=26649f55&itok=SKI26BWb "Harold L. Holliday Sr. [Official Manual of the State of Missouri, 1969–1970]")
Harold L. Holliday devoted his career to advancing the cause of civil rights in Missouri. He spent twenty-…
Born on April 27, 1896, at Winters, Texas, Rogers Hornsby began his professional baseball…
![Jessie Housley. [Your St. Louis and Mine, 1937]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-03/1.-jessie-housley.jpg?h=a66815ff&itok=k5kgpxeq "Jessie Housley. [Your St. Louis and Mine, 1937]")
Jessie Housley was a successful Missouri artist and educator in the mid-twentieth century. She…
![Fannie Hurst. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-22169]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Fannie_Hurst.jpg?h=bd99ae02&itok=_VJZe3C7 "Fannie Hurst. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-22169]")
Fannie Hurst, the daughter of Rose Koppel and Samuel Hurst, was born at the home of her maternal grandparents…