the State Historical Society of Missouri
![The Ben Bolt Theatre. [Courtesy of Danny Knouse]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Ben-Bolt-Theatre.jpg?h=c4576eea&itok=2PYOXnlz "The Ben Bolt Theatre. [Courtesy of Danny Knouse]")
The Ben Bolt Theatre was a spectacular building that stood for half a century as a notable…
![The Administration Building at the Missouri State Penitentiary, 1955. Missouri carried out executions at the penitentiary’s gas chamber from 1937 until switching to lethal injection in 1989 and moving its death row to the Potosi Correctional Center in Washington County. [Missouri State Archives/Missouri Digital Heritage, Mark Schreiber Collection, MS297_255_009]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-06/1.-capital-punishment-in-missouri.jpg?h=436a5d0a&itok=-rpMGoZ7 "The Administration Building at the Missouri State Penitentiary, 1955. Missouri carried out executions at the penitentiary’s gas chamber from 1937 until switching to lethal injection in 1989 and moving its death row to the Potosi Correctional Center in Washington County. [Missouri State Archives/Missouri Digital Heritage, Mark Schreiber Collection, MS297_255_009]")
With the exception of two years in the early twentieth century, the state of Missouri has always allowed 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.…
![Jolly Mill circa 2022. [Photo by Ross Brown]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-03/1.-jolly-mill.jpg?h=7e5f5b54&itok=YZl1LG4V "Jolly Mill circa 2022. [Photo by Ross Brown]")
Jolly Mill, a grist mill and whiskey distillery, was built in the late 1840s on Capps Creek in…
Patricia C. McKissack dedicated her career as a writer to showcasing black voices through children’s books and…
![<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…
![Mo-Hon-Go (Sacred Sun), an Osage woman, and her child. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Image Collection, 021180]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Osage-woman-and-child.jpg?h=238c05a8&itok=9oO6EF7v "Mo-Hon-Go (Sacred Sun), an Osage woman, and her child. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Image Collection, 021180]")
![Saukie and Fox on the St. Louis waterfront by Karl Bodmer, 1834. [State Historical Society of Missouri Art Collection, 1958.0010c2]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-10/1.-sac-and-fox.jpg?h=aa59a2db&itok=1y6DpE0c "Saukie and Fox on the St. Louis waterfront by Karl Bodmer, 1834. [State Historical Society of Missouri Art Collection, 1958.0010c2]")
The Sac and Fox were not native to Missouri, but were significant in Missouri’s territorial and early…
![Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Chippewa, which was once part of Route 66 in St. Louis. [Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo by Philip Leara]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-02/1.-ted-drewes-frozen-custard.jpg?itok=P6Cj_H4S "Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Chippewa, which was once part of Route 66 in St. Louis. [Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo by Philip Leara]")
When pundits make lists of the foods most associated with St. Louis, they usually highlight such…