the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Chippewa Street, which was once part of Route 66 in St. Louis. [Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo by Philip Leara]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-02/1.-ted-drewes-frozen-custard.jpg?itok=P6Cj_H4S "Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Chippewa Street, which was once part of Route 66 in St. Louis. [Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo by Philip Leara]")
When pundits make lists of the foods most associated with St. Louis, they often include such…
![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…
![Helen Francesca Traubel. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N13460]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Helen%20Francesca%20Traubel.jpg?h=25357cd3&itok=Id6NGelY "Helen Francesca Traubel. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N13460]")
One of the world’s great Wagnerian sopranos, Helen Traubel was born in south St. Louis on…
![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…
![Lucile Morris Upton. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Press Portraits, P1196-018227]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-05/1.-lucile-morris-upton.jpg?itok=h1uYGQwA "Lucile Morris Upton. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Press Portraits, P1196-018227]")
Family stories and tales of the place where she grew up propelled Lucile Morris Upton into a lifelong…
![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…
![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…