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…

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…

David Franklin Houston in 1921. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-nclc-05268]

David Franklin Houston distinguished himself in three careers: academic, political, and business. A political…

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,…

George Husmann. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Men in Agriculture Portraits Collection, P1201-011356]

George Husmann was born on November 4, 1827, in Meyenburg, Prussia, the son of J. H. Martin and Louise…

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.…

Herman Jaeger. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Southwest Missouri Region Photograph Collection, P1110]

Herman Jaeger was born in Brugg, Switzerland, on March 23, 1844, the sixth of seven…