the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Gladys Swarthout with costar Jan Kiepura from the movie Give Us This Night (1936). [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, psnypl_the_5262]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Gladys-Swarthout.jpg?h=2a2f5c0c&itok=IA3blMPc "Gladys Swarthout with costar Jan Kiepura from the movie Give Us This Night (1936). [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, psnypl_the_5262]")
Gladys Swarthout, a concert and operatic mezzo-soprano, was born in Deepwater, Missouri,…
![Marion Talley. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Marion-Talley.jpg?h=88722253&itok=XstERWmK "Marion Talley. [University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs]")
Marion Talley was born on December 20, 1907, in Nevada, Missouri, the daughter of a…
![Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Chippewa Street, 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 Street, 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 often include such…
![Virgil Thomson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-42533]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20Virgil%20Thomson.jpg?h=2342cc65&itok=wQD4NJzC "Virgil Thomson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-42533]")
Pulitzer Prize–winning composer and music critic Virgil Thomson was born in Kansas City,…
![Melvin Tolson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-134556 DLC]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-07/1.%20Melvin%20B.%20Tolson.jpg?h=c73b0fce&itok=4_Bo8Bag "Melvin Tolson. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-134556 DLC]")
Through most of his life, Melvin B. Tolson claimed he was born with the twentieth century…
![Helen Francesca Traubel. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N13460]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Helen%20Francesca%20Traubel.jpg?h=25357cd3&itok=Id6NGelY "Helen Francesca Traubel. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, N13460]")
One of the world’s great Wagnerian sopranos, Helen Traubel was born in south St. Louis on…
![Bess Truman’s official White House portrait by Greta Kempton. [Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 2008-149]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20Bess%20Truman.jpg?h=ed1f4180&itok=8klDJrns "Bess Truman’s official White House portrait by Greta Kempton. [Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 2008-149]")
Born in Independence, Missouri, on February 13, 1885, Elizabeth Virginia Wallace, who as…
![Charles van Ravenswaay. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Charles van Ravenswaay Photograph Collection, P0014-027765]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-09/1.%20Charles%20van%20Ravenswaay.jpg?h=91b16d31&itok=0nDW2uXL "Charles van Ravenswaay. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Charles van Ravenswaay Photograph Collection, P0014-027765]")
Charles van Ravenswaay, an author, horticulturist, and museum director, was most of all…
![1. George Vaughn. [State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri, Saint Louis Black History Project Collection (S0201)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-09/1.%20George%20L.%20Vaughn.jpg?h=395d379b&itok=xQ9EjRqA "1. George Vaughn. [State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri, Saint Louis Black History Project Collection (S0201)]")
George L. Vaughn, a prominent Black St. Louis attorney and political activist, was born in…
![Jonas Viles with his wife, Ruth, and their four sons. [Image courtesy of the Boone County Historical Society’s Digital Collections]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20Jonas%20Viles_0.jpg?itok=DhuXhAh3 "Jonas Viles with his wife, Ruth, and their four sons. [Image courtesy of the Boone County Historical Society’s Digital Collections]")
Jonas Viles, a longtime professor of history at the University of Missouri, was born in…