the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Cliff Edwards. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-10109]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-08/1.%20Cliff%20Edwards.jpg?h=29e77187&itok=ShK3DfnA "Cliff Edwards. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-10109]")
Singer-actor Cliff Edwards was born in Hannibal, Missouri, on June 14, 1895, and is best…
![A publicity photo of Gordon “Wild Bill” Elliott. [Find a Grave / William Bjornstad]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-10/1.-gordon-wild-bill-elliott.jpg?h=698ee15c&itok=liAhLhoD "A publicity photo of Gordon “Wild Bill” Elliott. [Find a Grave / William Bjornstad]")
Gordon “Wild Bill” Elliott was one of the film industry’s top moneymakers in westerns…
![John Breckenridge Ellis. [History of Clinton and Caldwell Counties, Missouri, 1923]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-11/1.-john-breckinridge-ellis_0.jpg?h=0b4ce3a6&itok=Ot5r910v "John Breckenridge Ellis. [History of Clinton and Caldwell Counties, Missouri, 1923]")
John Breckenridge Ellis wrote more than twenty-five books during his long life. At eighteen months, he…
![David Rowland Francis. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Straus Studio Photographs, P0879]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-01/1.-david-rowland-francis_0.jpg?h=b1c9098b&itok=Jlt-ze6G "David Rowland Francis. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Straus Studio Photographs, P0879]")
Mayor of St. Louis, governor of Missouri, secretary of the interior, president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition…
![Lloyd Gaines. [University of Missouri School of Law, Lloyd Gaines Collection]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Lloyd-Gaines.jpg?h=416ef11d&itok=iYyUVG7t "Lloyd Gaines. [University of Missouri School of Law, Lloyd Gaines Collection]")
Lloyd Gaines’s efforts to obtain a legal education in Missouri resulted in a Supreme Court…
![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]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-11/1.-good-roads-movement.jpg?h=0cd267b8&itok=cLdsW5XX "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…
Kate Leila Gregg, a professor of English at Lindenwood College in St.…
![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]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/Handy-at-Sportsman%27s-Park.jpg?h=3922e451&itok=pT3BzbVU "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]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-06/Jean-Harlow-Pub-Still.jpg?h=4cc55283&itok=QHj0lS7X "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…
![Phoebe Apperson Hearst. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Ralph Gregory Photographs Collection (P0604), P0604-10921]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Phoebe-Apperson-Hearst.jpg?h=1b8b84bf&itok=qbqmm_sb "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…