the State Historical Society of Missouri
![French artist Louis-Leopold Boilly’s rendering of members of an Osage traveling party in Europe, including Big Soldier (at right). [Smithsonian Institution, National Portrait Gallery, object # S/NPG.2011.5]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Big-Soldier.jpg?h=86a29125&itok=SubP6M24 "French artist Louis-Leopold Boilly’s rendering of members of an Osage traveling party in Europe, including Big Soldier (at right). [Smithsonian Institution, National Portrait Gallery, object # S/NPG.2011.5]")
Big Soldier, a Little Osage war leader, was probably born in 1773 in a village near the…
![Daniel Bissell. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, Portraits, N38584]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Daniel-Bissell.jpg?h=a09a8e46&itok=sWzc640r "Daniel Bissell. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, Portraits, N38584]")
The builder and commandant of Fort Bellefontaine, General Daniel Bissell served with…
![Francois M. Guyol de Guiran created this portrait of Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau, the “founding mother” of St. Louis, in 1810. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MHS Objects Collection, 1950-084-0002]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-Marie-Therese-Bourgeois-Chouteau.jpg?h=fa71d962&itok=Z7OIpIoD "Francois M. Guyol de Guiran created this portrait of Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau, the “founding mother” of St. Louis, in 1810. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MHS Objects Collection, 1950-084-0002]")
Marie Thérèse Bourgeois Chouteau was born in New Orleans on January 14, 1733, but she was…
![Painting titled Cler-mónt, First Chief of the Tribe, by George Catlin, 1834. [Smithsonian American Art Museum, SAAM-1985.66.29_1]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Clermont%20II.jpg?h=ef4b444f&itok=kE06LUdf "Painting titled Cler-mónt, First Chief of the Tribe, by George Catlin, 1834. [Smithsonian American Art Museum, SAAM-1985.66.29_1]")
Following the death of Clermont (Gra-Mon or “Arrow-Going-Home”) in 1796, his son, also…
Henri Peyroux de Ia Coudrenière was born in France around 1743, the son of Marguerite-…
![This depiction of colonial Ste. Genevieve by artist Oscar Berninghaus is among the murals in the Missouri State Capitol. [State Historical Society of Missouri, color transparency in Ralph Walker Photographs Collection, P0108-017298-1]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Augustin%20Charles%20Fremon%20de%20Lauriere_0.jpg?itok=B9g8N34s "This depiction of colonial Ste. Genevieve by artist Oscar Berninghaus is among the murals in the Missouri State Capitol. [State Historical Society of Missouri, color transparency in Ralph Walker Photographs Collection, P0108-017298-1]")
The French Revolution induced many royalists to emigrate to the Louisiana Territory in the…
![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…
John Hardeman, best remembered for the botanical showplace he created on the banks of the…
![Francis White Cloud. Portrait by George Catlin, circa 1844–1845. [Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/Francis-White-Cloud.jpg?h=46afd397&itok=EItLaSEK "Francis White Cloud. Portrait by George Catlin, circa 1844–1845. [Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art]")
The Ioways did not live in what is now Missouri for much of the historical era.…
![An artist’s depiction of Fort San Carlos. Constructed under orders from Fernando de Leyba, it played a crucial role in stopping the British attack on St. Louis in 1780. [Walter B. Stevens, ed., History of St. Louis the Fourth City, 1764–1909, vol. 1 (1909)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Fernando_de_Lebya.jpg?h=e98014da&itok=NUd_VvtK "An artist’s depiction of Fort San Carlos. Constructed under orders from Fernando de Leyba, it played a crucial role in stopping the British attack on St. Louis in 1780. [Walter B. Stevens, ed., History of St. Louis the Fourth City, 1764–1909, vol. 1 (1909)]")
Controversy swirled around Upper Louisiana’s third lieutenant governor in life and in death…