the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Edmond J. Eckel. [Elwood L. McDonald, History of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Missouri, 1915]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Edmond_Eckel.jpg?h=bcaf3a14&itok=ehIhMyxo "Edmond J. Eckel. [Elwood L. McDonald, History of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Missouri, 1915]")
Born on June 22, 1845, in Strasbourg, France, Edmond Jacques Eckel demonstrated an early…
![John Wesley Emerson, circa 1880. Photograph by John A. Scholten. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0233-2542]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-John-Wesley-Emerson.jpg?h=698ee15c&itok=_VkQiIl9 "John Wesley Emerson, circa 1880. Photograph by John A. Scholten. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0233-2542]")
John Emerson, a lawyer in Ironton, Missouri, became a small-town Victorian gentleman who…
![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…
![Gert Goebel. [Courtesy of Edith Moore]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/Gert-Goebel.jpg?h=e6a97a35&itok=BgcFo_EZ "Gert Goebel. [Courtesy of Edith Moore]")
Gert Goebel came to Missouri in 1834 as an eighteen-year-old German immigrant, settling 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,…
![Jean Harlow in a publicity photo. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection Photograph File, ID# TH-190010]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/Jean-Harlow-Pub-Still.jpg?h=4cc55283&itok=QHj0lS7X "Jean Harlow in a publicity photo. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection Photograph File, ID# TH-190010]")
Jean Harlow was born Harlean Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911. Her…
Born on September 10, 1835, in North Killington, Connecticut, William Torrey Harris was a…
![William Henry Hatch. [University Archives, University of Missouri, collection C:3/25/28]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/William-Henry-Hatch_0.jpg?h=69100914&itok=sWtMV5zq "William Henry Hatch. [University Archives, University of Missouri, collection C:3/25/28]")
Born near Georgetown, Kentucky, on September 11, 1833, to Quaker parents the Reverend…
![Phoebe Apperson Hearst. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Ralph Gregory Photographs Collection (P0604), P0604-10921]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Phoebe-Apperson-Hearst.jpg?h=1b8b84bf&itok=qbqmm_sb "Phoebe Apperson Hearst. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Ralph Gregory Photographs Collection (P0604), P0604-10921]")
When she was a little girl in pigtails, Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson sometimes rode on the…
![Rupert Hughes and his second wife, Adelaide Manola Mould Bissell. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-32320]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-04/1.%20Rupert%20Hughes.jpg?h=70a94650&itok=RrY2h_E1 "Rupert Hughes and his second wife, Adelaide Manola Mould Bissell. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-32320]")
Rupert Hughes, a versatile popular writer, was born in Lancaster, Missouri, on January 31,…