Thomas Allen portrait

Thomas Allen was among the most prominent and powerful individuals who led St. Louis in its transition from…

James Eads. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0004-1016]

Born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on May 23, 1820, James Buchanan Eads became an engineer of…

The Figure 8 roller coaster at Lakeside Park, added in 1907, was a “huge reversing spiral” in which cars rushed down a half-mile curving track with “three figure eights in a descent of 50 feet.” [Courtesy of the Joplin Historical & Mineral Museum]

 “Once the most important and popular play place of the Tri-State district,” Lakeside Park…

Albert Bond Lambert with Orville Wright in St. Louis, circa 1910. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0059-00002]

Important in the history of business in Missouri, Albert Bond Lambert made even larger…

Alexander Majors. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Kansas City Research Center]

Those familiar with the Pony Express recognize Russell, Majors, and Waddell as the…

Hugh Robinson. [Courtesy of DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University]

Hugh Armstrong Robinson, a member of the distinguished Early Birds…

Frisco logo

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, popularly known as the Frisco, was a regional freight and passenger carrier…

Van Horn Tavern in 1913

The Gentry–Threlkeld–Van Horn Tavern, usually referred to as the Van Horn Tavern, was…

William Bradford Waddell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Waddell Smith Photograph Collection, P0727]

William Bradford Waddell typified the mid-nineteenth-century entrepreneur who shaped the…