the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Rupert Hughes and his second wife, Adelaide Manola Mould Bissell. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-32320]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-04/1.%20Rupert%20Hughes.jpg?h=70a94650&itok=RrY2h_E1 "Rupert Hughes and his second wife, Adelaide Manola Mould Bissell. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-32320]")
Rupert Hughes, a versatile popular writer, was born in Lancaster, Missouri, on January 31,…
![Fannie Hurst. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-22169]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Fannie_Hurst.jpg?h=bd99ae02&itok=_VJZe3C7 "Fannie Hurst. [New York Public Library Digital Collections, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, TH-22169]")
Fannie Hurst, the daughter of Rose Koppel and Samuel Hurst, was born at the home of her maternal grandparents…
![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.…
![Lonnie Johnson performing in 1965 at the Folk Festival Show, Palisades Amusement Park, New Jersey. [Cornell University Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Amsterdam News Photograph Archive, #8084]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Alonzo_Johnson.jpg?h=28015916&itok=kGea3NPZ "Lonnie Johnson performing in 1965 at the Folk Festival Show, Palisades Amusement Park, New Jersey. [Cornell University Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Amsterdam News Photograph Archive, #8084]")
Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson was an extraordinarily gifted blues guitarist and talented singer who pioneered a…
![Josephine Winslow Johnson. [Simon and Schuster, photo provided by the Johnson Estate]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-12/1.-josephine-johnson.jpg?h=96864416&itok=u0dti5r- "Josephine Winslow Johnson. [Simon and Schuster, photo provided by the Johnson Estate]")
St. Louis writer and naturalist Josephine Johnson became the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction…
![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…
![Joseph James Jones, circa 1937. [Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, Forbes Watson Papers, 1840–1967, 2976]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Joseph_Jones.jpg?h=41bf56ee&itok=KEJRPQoc "Joseph James Jones, circa 1937. [Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, Forbes Watson Papers, 1840–1967, 2976]")
The biography of Joseph James Jones is both the story of the life of an American artist and…
![Scott Joplin. [New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, 1692841]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-09/1-Scott_Joplin.jpg?h=edbf73d2&itok=TOkAbMii "Scott Joplin. [New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, 1692841]")
Known during his lifetime as the “King of Ragtime Writers,” Scott Joplin was an African…
![William T. Kemper in 1902. [Political History of Jackson County: Biographical Sketches of the Men Who Have Helped to Make It (1902)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-11/1.-william-t.-kemper.jpg?h=e68902a0&itok=dLv2-_ZK "William T. Kemper in 1902. [Political History of Jackson County: Biographical Sketches of the Men Who Have Helped to Make It (1902)]")
Progenitor of two of Missouri’s most prominent banking families, William T. Kemper also…
![Emma R. Knell, circa 1926. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Knell Family Photographs Collection, P0708-015517]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-04/1.%20Emma%20R.%20Knell.jpg?h=c427acad&itok=yJMP7Qme "Emma R. Knell, circa 1926. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Knell Family Photographs Collection, P0708-015517]")
Emma R. Knell, a businesswoman and politician, was born in Moline, Illinois, on October 21…