the State Historical Society of Missouri
![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…
![Plan of Hardeman’s Garden, also called Fruitage Farm, with labyrinth. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Glen O. Hardeman Collection, C3655]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20John%20Hardeman.jpg?itok=r4CSXw-u "Plan of Hardeman’s Garden, also called Fruitage Farm, with labyrinth. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Glen O. Hardeman Collection, C3655]")
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.…
![John Rice Jones. [Columbia Missouri Herald: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary, 1895]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-06/1.-john-rice-jones.jpg?h=6234be0d&itok=zgUYOJ_3 "John Rice Jones. [Columbia Missouri Herald: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary, 1895]")
John Rice Jones, a pioneering jurist renowned for his erudition, was one of the principal framers of Missouri…
![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…
Regis (Registre) Loisel was born near Montreal, Canada, in about 1773, and at an early age…
![This watercolor rendering of “Plan de Luzieres” is thought to show the French ancestral home of Pierre-Charles Delassus de Luzières. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, X08600]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-07/1.-pierre-charles-delassus-de-luiziere.jpg?h=d41dc4b5&itok=m0JPiZsI "This watercolor rendering of “Plan de Luzieres” is thought to show the French ancestral home of Pierre-Charles Delassus de Luzières. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, X08600]")
Pierre-Charles Delassus de Luzières played an important role in the history of Upper Louisiana during the…
![A late nineteenth-century illustration of French missionaries traveling by canoe with Native Americans. [Harper’s Monthly, April 1892]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-04/1.%20Pierre%20Gabriel%20Marest.jpg?h=816a8e6d&itok=isPnDzQI "A late nineteenth-century illustration of French missionaries traveling by canoe with Native Americans. [Harper’s Monthly, April 1892]")
Pierre Gabriel Marest, a Jesuit priest in the Illinois Country, was among a group of French…
![A cathedral mosaic of Father Sebastien Louis Meurin performing a baptism. [Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-05/1.%20Father%20Meurin_0.jpg?h=e873ed3d&itok=KdWbvtwt "A cathedral mosaic of Father Sebastien Louis Meurin performing a baptism. [Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis]")
Sebastien Louis Meurin served as the parish priest in Ste. Genevieve from 1764 through 1768…
![<em>Missouri Indian, Oto Indian, Chief of the Puncas</em>, portraits made by Karl Bodmer during an exploration of the Missouri River and its environs led by Prince Maximilian of Wied in 1833–1834. The Missouria man portrayed is Mahinkacha (Maker of Knives). [State Historical Society of Missouri Art Collection, <a href=https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/art/id/477/> 1958.0007c1</a>]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-03/1.-missouria.jpg?itok=Qzyu2w6o "<em>Missouri Indian, Oto Indian, Chief of the Puncas</em>, portraits made by Karl Bodmer during an exploration of the Missouri River and its environs led by Prince Maximilian of Wied in 1833–1834. The Missouria man portrayed is Mahinkacha (Maker of Knives). [State Historical Society of Missouri Art Collection, <a href=https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/art/id/477/ >1958.0007c1</a>]")
When French explorer Robert La Salle passed by the mouth of the Missouri River in 1682, he wrote that on its banks…