The editorial room of the Westliche Post, circa 1870. The paper’s prominent figures included Carl Schurz (fourth from left, seated at table), Emil Preetorius (sixth from left), and Joseph Pulitzer (not pictured). [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N01710]

Of all the ethnic groups to settle in Missouri, none embraced the press more vigorously than the Germans.…

A muddy road in Lafayette County, Missouri, circa 1910s. At the dawn of the automobile era, the predicament of drivers in Missouri and elsewhere sparked a nationwide Good Roads Movement. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Leonard D. and Marie H. Rehkop Collection of Algert T. Peterson Photographs, C3888-G0043]

Two convoys of army trucks left St. Louis and Kansas City on September 27, 1920. Their mission was to travel…

Inez Parker Griggs. [St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 28, 1907]

Inez Parker Griggs was a poet who lived in Rolla, Missouri. The daughter of formerly enslaved individuals,…

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]

Jean Harlow was born Harlean Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911. Her father, Mont Clair…

William Torrey Harris

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]

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]

When she was a little girl in pigtails, Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson sometimes rode on the…

Louis Houck visiting one of his rail lines. [Southeast Missouri State University, Special Collections]

Often credited as being the “Father of Southeast Missouri,” Louis Houck was a lawyer, journalist,…

The House of Lords, whose sign is visible on the left, was part of the James H. Worth block in downtown Joplin. [Courtesy of Kimberly Harper]

The House of Lords was a three-story brick building in Joplin that housed a saloon and restaurant, gaming…