the State Historical Society of Missouri
![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…
![George Washington Carver. [Courtesy of Tuskegee University Archives]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/George-Washington-Carver.jpg?h=c1b467ab&itok=XYqrNEG3 "George Washington Carver. [Courtesy of Tuskegee University Archives]")
Historians have been unable to determine the exact date, or even year, of George Washington Carver’s birth.…
![The Cassville and Exeter’s Railway engine number 345 was purchased in 1935. [State Historical Society of Missouri Rolla Research Center, Cassville & Exeter Railway Company Records, R0421]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-06/1.-dinky.png?itok=e7Ukc-G1 "The Cassville and Exeter’s Railway engine number 345 was purchased in 1935. [State Historical Society of Missouri Rolla Research Center, Cassville & Exeter Railway Company Records, R0421]")
One of the shortest standard-gauge railway lines in the United States was built in Barry County, Missouri, by…
![Arthur Holly Compton. [University of Chicago Library, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-01878]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-01/1.-arthur-holly-compton.jpg?h=c249c502&itok=k2I3fXR9 "Arthur Holly Compton. [University of Chicago Library, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-01878]")
Arthur Holly Compton earned international recognition for his research in X-rays, sharing the 1927 Nobel Prize for…
![Howard A. Cowden (right) with former president Harry S. Truman. [Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 64-1411]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Howard%20A.%20Cowden.jpg?h=6e1caf6f&itok=Jv0Nn8tA "Howard A. Cowden (right) with former president Harry S. Truman. [Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 64-1411]")
The founder of the Consumers Cooperative Association (CCA) and the original field man for…
![Joan Crawford in 1928. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-133571]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-Joan-Crawford.jpg?h=3a3a887f&itok=dzrcMkNh "Joan Crawford in 1928. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-133571]")
Joan Crawford was born Lucille LeSueur on March 23, 1908, in what she described as “a drab…
![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,…
![Forrest Donnell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Governor Portraits, P1091-18639]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Forrest%20C.%20Donnell.jpg?h=ecf8be9c&itok=EFj4IiQn "Forrest Donnell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Governor Portraits, P1091-18639]")
Born in Quitman, Missouri, on August 20, 1884, the only child of dry-goods operator John…
![Phil Donnelly. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Governor Portraits, P1091-18639]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-03/1.%20Phil%20Donnelly.jpg?h=a1a75ae8&itok=u_5NO6a0 "Phil Donnelly. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri Governor Portraits, P1091-18639]")
Phil M. Donnelly was born in Lebanon, Missouri, on March 6, 1891. He was educated in…