the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Jane Darwell in a photo taken in 1918. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, 22471]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-Jane-Darwell.jpg?h=1ca7a6de&itok=LFTKxWAv "Jane Darwell in a photo taken in 1918. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, 22471]")
Jane Darwell, a pioneering film actress whose career spanned more than sixty years, was…
Perl D. Decker was an attorney who served three terms from 1913 to 1919 as a US congressman from Jasper County,…
Elizabeth Jane Dugan, better known by her pseudonym “Rosa Pearle,” was the founder, editor…
![Father Peter Joseph Dunne. [Rev. J. W. Gormley, History of Father Dunne’s News Boys Home and Protectorate]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-12/1.-father-dunne.jpg?h=8595de87&itok=GpoLkFFp "Father Peter Joseph Dunne. [Rev. J. W. Gormley, History of Father Dunne’s News Boys Home and Protectorate]")
Fighting Father Dunne, an RKO film, premiered in St. Louis on May 11, 1948. The black-…
![James Eads. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0004-1016]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-06/1.%20James%20B.%20Eads.jpg?h=ff10fb74&itok=eL4n5_kH "James Eads. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0004-1016]")
Born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on May 23, 1820, James Buchanan Eads became an engineer of…
![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 Breckenridge Ellis. [History of Clinton and Caldwell Counties, Missouri, 1923]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-11/1.-john-breckinridge-ellis_0.jpg?h=0b4ce3a6&itok=Ot5r910v "John Breckenridge Ellis. [History of Clinton and Caldwell Counties, Missouri, 1923]")
John Breckenridge Ellis wrote more than twenty-five books during his long life. At eighteen months, he…
![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…
![Fleming’s Riverside Farm Inn, circa 1910. [Courtesy of Alan Banks]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-06/1.-riverside-farm-inn-rppc-elk4f-from-alan-banks-dated-1910.jpg?itok=e5Yx9D3s "Fleming’s Riverside Farm Inn, circa 1910. [Courtesy of Alan Banks]")
![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…