the State Historical Society of Missouri
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 father, Mont Clair…
![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…
![William Hirth. [Boone County Historical Society, Henry Holborn Studio Photography Collection]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-04/1.%20William%20Hirth.jpg?h=e5a74f32&itok=MB2afVqJ "William Hirth. [Boone County Historical Society, Henry Holborn Studio Photography Collection]")
Born in Tarrytown, New York, on May 28, 1875, William Hirth moved to Missouri with his…
![Hooker Cut as it looked upon completion in 1945. This view is looking east on Route 66. [Courtesy of Missouri State Archives, Missouri Department of Transportation Collection]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-04/1.-hooker-cut.jpg?itok=dhAd3zbv "Hooker Cut as it looked upon completion in 1945. This view is looking east on Route 66. [Courtesy of Missouri State Archives, Missouri Department of Transportation Collection]")
By the middle of 1940, Europe was engulfed in war. On September 16, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation…
Born on April 27, 1896, at Winters, Texas, Rogers Hornsby began his professional baseball…
![Louis Houck visiting one of his rail lines. [Southeast Missouri State University, Special Collections]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2026-01/1.-louis-houck.jpg?h=64cd13ab&itok=N9mOp8Ap "Louis Houck visiting one of his rail lines. [Southeast Missouri State University, Special Collections]")
Often credited as being the “Father of Southeast Missouri,” Louis Houck was a lawyer, journalist,…
![Jessie Housley. [Your St. Louis and Mine, 1937]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-03/1.-jessie-housley.jpg?h=a66815ff&itok=k5kgpxeq "Jessie Housley. [Your St. Louis and Mine, 1937]")
Jessie Housley was a successful Missouri artist and educator in the mid-twentieth century. She…
![David Franklin Houston in 1921. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-nclc-05268]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-08/1.-david-franklin-houston.jpg?h=ebcc97d7&itok=fYwNV0Mm "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…