Missouri State Archives
Presentation Videos

Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes presents a program on Crossroads of a Continent: Missouri Railroads, 1851-1921, a 2022 book he co-authored with Peter A. Hansen and Don L. Hofsommer that tells the story of the state’s railroads and their vital role in American history. Missouri is strategically located in America’s Heartland, and by the 1920s, the state was crisscrossed with railways reaching toward all points of the compass. Schwantes will explore the history of Missouri railroads through personal, absorbing tales of the cutthroat competition between cities and between railroads that meant the difference between prosperity and obscurity, the ambitions and dreams of visionaries Fred Harvey and Arthur Stilwell and the country’s excitement for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.

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Missouri State Archives staff member and author Michelle Brooks speaks about her 2023 book, Murder & Mayhem Jefferson City. The wilderness-born Missouri capital’s first century (1821-1921) was a tumultuous time. Villainous escapes from the state’s only prison resulted in theft, abuse and even murder, the grandest attempt ending with the city’s only triple hanging. Later during this period, the capital had entrepreneurs willing to sidestep the federal Volstead Act and its prohibition on alcohol. This attracted Ku Klux Klan activity and culminated in the election of a “law and order” sheriff, whose deputies’ broke laws of their own in their enforcement efforts. Many smaller, more personal tragedies grieved the community during these years as well. Take the South Side murder of a German immigrant by a teenaged deputy caught sleeping with the victim’s daughter. Brooks recounts these and other shocking events in Jefferson City’s turbulent first century. 

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Author and scholar Gary Scharnhorst discusses his latest book, The Life of Mark Twain: The Final Years, 1891–1910, the third volume in his Twain biography series. This entry chronicles the life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, from his family's extended trip to Europe in 1891 to his death in 1910. Despite his worldwide fame during this period, he grappled with bankruptcy, causing him to return to the lecture circuit. These years also saw the death of two daughters and his wife, influencing some of his darkest, most critical works.

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Author Randy Pace discusses his 2022 book, Blood Feud on Bull Creek: The True and Complete Story of the Meadows-Bilyeu Feud and Events Leading Up to and After the Battle. Though the conflict is not commonly known these days, from 1898-1901 the violent feud between the Meadows and Bilyeu families captured American newspaper headlines. Cut off from much of the outside world, these early settlers to the Taney and Christian county area became well-established landowners who intermarried and worked closely with one another until a series of increasingly vicious acts led to the deaths of six people and more injured. Filled with betrayal, a brutal bombing, bullying, murders, spectacular court trials and acts of revenge, Blood Feud on Bull Creek is much more than the riveting account of feuding between Ozarks families struggling to survive. It reflects our own family bonds and loyalties—and the lengths to which we might go to defend our honor.

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Author Petra DeWitt discusses her book, The Missouri Home Guard: Protecting the Home Front during the Great War. Missouri was one of many states that established a defense organization to take over the duties of the National Guard that had been federalized for military service when the United States declared war on Germany in 1917. Service in the Home Guard was a way to show loyalty to one’s country, particularly for German Americans, who were frequently under suspicion as untrustworthy. Men too old or exempt from the draft for other reasons found meaning in helping with the war effort through the Home Guard while also garnering respect from the community. For similar reasons, women attempted to join the organization as did African Americans, some of whom formed units of a “Negro Home Guard.” DeWitt’s study of this organization examines the fluctuating definition of patriotism and the very real question of who did and who did not have the privilege of citizenship and acceptance in society.

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Former State Senator Jill Schupp and Missouri Humanities Executive Director Ashley Beard-Fosnow discuss You Can, Too! Journey to the Missouri Senate, a book for young adults presented by Missouri Humanities and published by Missouri Life, sharing the unique stories of the 36 women who have served in the legislative body. Mary Gant became the first woman elected to the Missouri Senate in 1972. And now, 50 years later, a record 12 of the 34 desks in the Senate chamber are held by women. Despite their differences, they all arrived at public service to help the greater good, wanting to make life better for all Missourians. Sen. Schupp and Beard-Fosnow tell the inspiring stories of these women and detail the creative process behind the project.

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In his book, Houses Divided: Evangelical Schisms and the Crisis of the Union in Missouri, author Lucas Volkman provides insight into the significance of early- to mid- 19th century rifts initially arising over the moral question of African American bondage. He examines such fractures in the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches of Missouri, then a slaveholding border state. These ruptures forged antagonistic northern and southern evangelical worldviews that increased antebellum sectarian strife and violence, energized the notorious guerilla conflict that gripped the state through the Civil War and fueled post-war vigilantism between emancipation’s opponents and proponents. Volkman discusses how the schisms produced the interrelated religious, legal and constitutional controversies that shaped pro- and anti-slavery evangelical contention before 1861, as well as during wartime Radical rule and Reconstruction’s rise and fall.

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Author Beth Pike presents a program on her 2022 book, Show-Me a Bicentennial. Pike was part of the Missouri 2021 core team that organized, promoted and carried out more than 300 events and projects statewide for the Missouri Bicentennial in 2021. The presentation will highlight the projects and events leading up to and through Missouri’s bicentennial, including photos and stories from the My Missouri 2021 photo exhibition, Missouri Community Legacies, the Missouri Bicentennial Quilt, Missouri Explorers and the Bicentennial Poster Contest, as well as photographs submitted from the 300-plus projects and events that took place to commemorate 200 years of Missouri statehood.

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A brief telling of Cherokee history by Galen Gritts, a member of the Cherokee Nation, with reference to his own experiences as a lifelong Missouri citizen. He will relate how the United States government forcibly relocated his ancestors west of the Mississippi River, his background as a Native person living in Missouri and the need for the continued presence of indigenous people in Show-Me State history, life and culture.

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Join us as Larry E. Wood presents the story of Emma Molloy?temperance revivalist, prohibitionist and accessory to murder. In the summer of 1885, ex-convict George Graham bigamously married Cora Lee, foster daughter of nationally known temperance revivalist Emma Molloy, and the three took up residence together on the Molloy family farm near Springfield, Missouri. When the body of Graham’s first wife, Sarah, was found at the bottom of an abandoned well on the property early the next year, Graham was charged with murder, while Cora and Emma were implicated as accessories. Wood will describe how this sensational story made national headlines, threatening Mrs. Molloy’s career as a prominent evangelist and temperance revivalist.

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During the 19th century, more than 300 vessels met their end in the steamboat graveyard that was the Lower Missouri River, from Omaha to its mouth. Although derided as little more than an "orderly pile of kindling," steamboats were, in fact, technological marvels superbly adapted to the river's conditions. Their light superstructure and long, wide, flat hulls powered by high-pressure engines drew so little water that they could cruise on "a heavy dew" even when fully loaded. But these same characteristics made them susceptible to fires, explosions and snags. Author James Erwin detail the perils faced on every voyage by steamboats, their passengers and crews.

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Phil S. Dixon, author and co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, offers a program on his 2019 book, The Dizzy and Daffy Dean Barnstorming Tour: Race, Media, and America’s National Pastime. The presentation will shed light on Dizzy and Daffy Dean’s All-Stars as they traversed the country in 1934, taking the field against the greatest teams in the Negro Leagues. Dixon will examine the glory of the games as well as the disingenuous journalistic tactics that proliferated during the tour with an introspective look at its impact on race relations. Highlights will include contributions from Negro League stars – such as Satchel Paige, Chet Brewer, Charlie Beverly and Andy Cooper – that were routinely glossed over by sports writers of the day, granting them their rightful due in sports history. In Dixon’s own words, “It is more than a baseball story—it is an American story.”

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Kaitlyn McConnell is a seventh-generation Ozarker, journalist, student of the past and founder of Ozarks Alive (www.ozarksalive.com), a website dedicated to the preservation of all things Ozarks local history and culture. Since the site’s inception in 2015, she has written more than 450 stories about this captivating region and its inhabitants. In this program, McConnell describes her project’s background, mission and importance for the future, sharing a few stories about the unique people and places she's discovered along the way.

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Best known for leading Union forces to victory during the American Civil War and serving as a two-term president during the Reconstruction Era, his connection to the Show-Me State is often overlooked. Author Greg Wolk explores Grant’s military career in Missouri, including interactions with his one-time commanding officer, Gen. John C. Fremont, conflict with Gen. Jeff Thompson of the Missouri State Guard and more, shedding light on this complex 19th century figure and his remarkable legacy.

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The rapid influx of 4.2 million immigrants to the United States in the 1840s and 1850s led to the country’s first anti-immigration political movement, the “nativists.” Though progressive in their support of labor rights, women’s rights and government regulation of industry, this group’s xenophobic beliefs led them to negatively target those of German and Irish origin, especially practicing Roman Catholics. By explaining the dramatic rise of the National American, or “Know Nothing,” Party in bourgeoning western cities – namely Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis – Dr. Luke Ritter of New Mexico Highlands University will illuminate the cultural, economic, and political issues that ultimately motivated (and continue to motivate) Americans’ negative reactions to foreigners.

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Census records are an essential primary source for both genealogists tracking their family over time and historians examining past events. Those in need of such records of enslaved individuals in the United States, however, often run into problems: in the federal censuses of 1850 and 1860, enumerations of enslaved individuals were recorded separately from the general population and can be difficult to use because they often lack detail. Over the last year, Missouri State Archives staff and eVolunteers have indexed the Missouri slave schedules to provide free online access to these important, underused records. Along with a major page sequencing error in the 1860 schedule that may explain anomalies that have frustrated researchers for decades, patterns and interesting details emerged during the project that provide useful historical context and genealogical insight. Missouri State Archivist John Dougan and Reference Services Manager Christina Miller go over discoveries uncovered while indexing these historically valuable records.

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Late one night in April 1891, Edward Bates Soper, a butcher in the small community of Archie, Missouri, brutally murdered his wife and their two daughters, aged four and six, before disappearing without a trace. A lucky break by California law enforcement led to Soper’s eventual capture and return to the state in 1897, where authorities discovered even more heinous crimes in his past. In this program from Michael Lear, former Missourinet bureau chief and current producer/host of Show Me Murder, a meticulously researched Missouri true crime podcast, he will guides the audience through this little known serial killers’ actions, one cold, calculating turn after another, providing forensic psychiatric details about Soper’s likely mental state.

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The admission of Missouri to the Union quickly became a constitutional crisis of the first order, inciting an intensive reexamination of the U.S. Constitution by Congress. At the heart of the matter was whether that body possessed the authority to place conditions on a territory, in this instance Missouri, regarding restrictions on slavery—before its admittance to the Union. The larger question with which the legislators grappled involved the limits of the Constitution’s provisions granting Congress the authority to affect the institution of slavery, both where it already existed and where it could expand. What would come to be known as the Missouri Crisis severely tested the still young republic and, some four decades later, would all but rend it asunder. Edited by Dr. William S. Belko, Contesting the Constitution: Congress Debates the Missouri Crisis, 1819-1821 is a collection of original essays thoughtfully engaging the intersections of history and constitutional law presented by this historic impasse. Join us for a program on this timely volume that’s certain to find eager readers among historians, legal scholars, political scientists, as well as many others who call Missouri home.

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Centuries after prehistoric Mississippian societies built mounds on the cliffs around what is now Jefferson City, the area passed into Spanish, then French hands before the United States ultimately acquired it through the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Sparsely populated when Missouri was admitted to the Union in 1821, it may have remained free of major settlement if not for a commission established by the new state to identify the future site of its capital. Later in 1821, the commission selected the unclaimed, but now familiar, site of forested limestone hills on the south bank of the Missouri River.

The bold decision to forego an existing locale meant Jefferson City truly was the “City a Capitol Built.” Its earliest settlers were mostly of southern descent, with a few of the state’s richest men purchasing land in the new capital and many more relocating from the small nearby communities of Marion and Cote Sans Dessein. Within a decade, a second wave of influential settlers appeared: German immigrants. These groups’ collective vision took the dot on a map and built it into a capital city.   

Join us for a program about the founding of the state capital taken from the new book, Hidden History of Jefferson City, from author and Missouri State Archives staff member Michelle Brooks.

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In 1849, a steamship named after President James Monroe left St. Louis for Council Bluffs, Iowa. On board along with 50-plus crewmembers and miscellaneous passengers were 135 Latter-day Saints from Philadelphia, joined in St. Louis by a group of 35 California-bound prospectors from Jeffersonville, Indiana. Shortly after departure, on what was supposed to be a routine trip, cholera broke out among the travelers. Days later, 14-year-old James McHenry discovered the steamship after a skeleton crew landed it at Jefferson City. Observing the dead and dying victims along the riverbank, several local churches opened their doors to serve as hospitals for the afflicted. Though the exact number of deaths resulting from the outbreak is unknown, with different sources recording quite different figures, it had far-reaching effects. Join us for a presentation on Facebook Live from Gary Elliott, author of The 1849 Cholera Outbreak in Jefferson City, as he details this tragic, yet historic event.

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The Arnold Research Cave, overlooking the Missouri River in southeast Callaway County, has been dry for thousands of years, making it the perfect potential location for evidence of prehistoric habitation. With these conditions, archaeological excavators in the 1950s, and later the 1980s, found remaining artifacts made of perishable materials, such as netting, twined bags and clothing, including—perhaps of the greatest popular interest—the world’s oldest open-toed sandal. In Shoes Older than the Pyramids, Dr. Candace Sall, Associate Curator of the University of Missouri’s Museum of Anthropology, will provide details on many of the artifacts found in the cave, including 35 individual shoes made of rattlesnake master, a plant native to the Show-Me State. The items unearthed at the site range in age from 800 to 9,000 years, with the earliest shoes dating back eight millennia, making them some of the oldest articles of clothing ever found in North America. Join us on Facebook Live as Dr. Sall discusses these artifacts, providing a fascinating glimpse into the lives of Missouri’s prehistoric peoples.

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Census records are a mainstay for genealogists tracking their family over time. And, while those federal population schedules open to the public are now widely available online, territorial, state and federal non-population census records can be much harder to track down. Christina Miller, Reference Services Manager for the Missouri State Archives, will discuss how to find and use Missouri’s various available census records, along with tips and tricks for using the Archives’ new Census Records and Tax Lists Database.   

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Following the passage of the 1830 Indian Removal Act, federal authorities forcibly removed approximately 60,000 Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to the Indian Territory in what is today Oklahoma and western Arkansas. Among those compelled to relocate were the Cherokee, many of whom began the long, perilous trek in the winter of 1837. After departing from northern Georgia and southeastern Tennessee with inadequate food and clothing, they traveled northwest overland through Kentucky and Illinois before crossing the Mississippi River into Missouri. The Missouri State Archives’ early State Road Surveys contain contemporaneous maps of the routes the Cherokee traveled through the state, also identifying the homes of Missourians that supplied them, aiding their survival during the epic tragedy. Join us on Facebook Live for a program from Bill Ambrose, member and board secretary of the Trail of Tears Association’s Missouri Chapter, in which he will detail his research using these previously overlooked records.

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From Virginia Minor’s landmark 1875 case before the United States Supreme Court, to marches and protests epitomized by the Golden Lane demonstration in St. Louis before the 1916 Democratic National Convention, to acts of civil disobedience leading to jail time, Missouri women played a pivotal role in the fight for women’s suffrage. Fittingly, after the adoption of the 19th Amendment on Aug. 26, 1920, it was also in Missouri that the League of Women Voters was born. Join us for a special program on Facebook Live from Lincoln University’s Dr. Debra Greene commemorating the 100th anniversary of the amendment’s ratification, in which she will highlight many of these important milestones in Missouri’s—and the nation’s—history.

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R.L.Y. (Lud) Peyton's journey from obscurity to the national stage and then to oblivion, is as unlikely as it is incredible. Born into the Cavalier Virginia gentry, Lud's family migrated to Oxford, Ohio, while he was still young. He there attended Miami University before earning a law degree from the University of Virginia. Peyton moved west in search of professional opportunity, for 10 years practicing frontier law in Harrisonville, Missouri. Then, inflamed by the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise, he exploded onto the political stage in 1854. Representing western Missouri in the state senate, Peyton helped trigger the secession crisis and later served as a Senator in the Confederate States Congress until 1863, when he died of malaria in Alabama. Lud Peyton's journey is uniquely American, his life magnifying both Missouri's and the country's turbulent antebellum history. Join us on Facebook Live as author Tom Rafiner details the life of this fascinating and little known politician.

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David Sapp, founder of the Boone's Lick Road Association presents the latest research on the Boone’s Lick Road, an often-overlooked part of Missouri's contribution to U.S. expansion.

The United States has looked West towards the Pacific Ocean since the Revolutionary War. After all, many thought, why stop at the Alleghenies, or even the great Mississippi? At the time of the first U.S. census in 1790, there were just 3.9 million Americans in the country, but that population had more than tripled to 12.9 million by 1830. Tides of early 19th century immigration drove the search for good land, and that land laid to the West.

In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase more than doubled the size of the country, extending the western border beyond the Mississippi River and opening approximately 828,000 square miles to U.S. settlement. The following year, Nathan Boone—son of famous pioneer and explorer Daniel Boone—and Matthias Van Bibber discovered a salt lick 150 miles into the new American wilderness, in modern day Howard County, Missouri, bestowing it with the Boone family name. Their chance find led to the blazing of a new road that served as a key link to the trans-Mississippi west.

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In her book Osage Women and Empire: Gender and Power, Dr. Tai Edwards explores how men and women built the Osage Empire together, dispelling the traditional belief that it was through male prowess at hunting and war alone. Confronted with encroaching European settlers, Osage men and women increasingly focused on hunting and trade to protect their culture, and their traditional social structures—including complementary gender roles. Among the Osage, these functioned to maintain societal order and served as a means to experience, adapt to and resist the monumental change brought on by colonization. Join us as Edwards offers a fresh and nuanced picture of the critical role played by both men and women at the height of Osage dominance in the western Mississippi Valley and the later decline of power on their Kansas reservation.

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In his book, The Rural Cemetery Movement: Places of Paradox in Nineteenth Century America, Dr. Jeffrey Smith explores the growth of garden cemeteries in the United States during the three decades before the Civil War. As church and municipal burial grounds in urban centers became overcrowded, new cemeteries were established in lower population density areas. These new “rural” cemeteries fulfilled the sacred function of burial, while providing green spaces and respites from urban life, establishing institutions where people could craft their roles in collective memory and serving as prototypes for both urban planning and city parks. They were also paradoxical in nature: “rural” yet urban, natural yet designed, artistic yet industrial, commemorating the dead yet used by the living. Unlike their predecessors, founders of these burial grounds intended them to be used in many ways that reflected their views and values about nature, life and death and relationships. Join us as Smith details his research on the history of cemeteries in the 19th century and how they can help us better understand the values, attitudes and culture of urban America from mid-century through the Progressive Era.

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Who in Missouri hasn’t heard the call of the open road and felt the desire to get out of the city and see the beauty of the Show-Me State? In his latest book, Historic Missouri Roadsides, Second Edition, author and executive director of the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation, Bill Hart, offers all the history, recommendations and itineraries you need for a picturesque trip down a two-lane road or highway. Whether you’re a first-time visitor or an area local, Hart’s descriptions, photographs and illustrations will make you want to check out tours like Route 79 along the Mississippi River, El Camino Real leading down to the Missouri Bootheel or Route 24 spanning the width of the state from Kansas City to West Quincy. Along the way, he identifies locally owned businesses, restaurants and lodging with character and a hometown feel. Join us as Bill Hart takes the wheel to showcase the very best that small town Missouri has to offer.

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In her book, Slavery on the Periphery: The Kansas-Missouri Border in the Antebellum and Civil War Eras, Dr. Kristen Epps traces the rise and fall of chattel slavery on the Kansas-Missouri border, exploring how its presence shaped life on this critical geographical, political and social fault line. Epps explores how this dynamic, small-scale system—characterized by slaves' diverse occupations, close contact between slaves and slaveholders, a robust hiring market and the prevalence of marriage between slaves of different owners or “abroad marriages”—emerged from an established Upper South slaveholding culture. Drawing on extensive archival research, Epps makes clear that slavery's expansion into Kansas was more than a theoretical, ideological debate. She demonstrates that although the enslaved people of the Kansas-Missouri borderland may have been living on the periphery of the nation, they were in no way peripheral to discussions over slavery's expansion. Join us as Epps describes how slavery’s presence on this geographic boundary set the stage for the Civil War and emancipation on the Kansas-Missouri border, as it did elsewhere in the United States.

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The Gateway Arch is one of America’s most distinctive and beloved national monuments, receiving more than two million visitors each year to revere its symbolic meaning and physical beauty. In his book, The Making of an Icon: The Dreamers, the Schemers, and the Hard Hats Who Built the Gateway Arch, Jim Merkel captures the legend, lore and spirit behind its conception and construction. Using interviews with the visionaries, finaglers, protesters and the intrepid workers who built the arch while one misstep away from peril, Merkel brings to light the stories that shaped the planning and the construction of one of the world’s most iconic structures. Merkel will share new information about the Arch grounds and museum and give insight to the relentless pursuit, innovation and toil that raised the Arch to the sky.

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As Americans moved west into new lands opened to settlement following the Louisiana Purchase, establishing communication channels with the rest of the country became increasingly important. Postal service was crucial to linking new settlers on the frontier to their family, friends and business interests back east, as well as emerging markets along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In his book, Postal Service in Territorial Missouri, 1804–1821, author Robert G. Schultz examines the growth and development of such service operating across the intervening miles of wilderness in the area that was to become the state of Missouri. In addition to the innumerable service problems these services faced, he offers an in depth look at their postal routes, post offices and postmasters. Join us as Schultz, for the first time, shares his research on this fascinating and little-examined subject.

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Before Lanford Wilson was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, he wrote dozens of short stories and poems, many of which are set in the 1950s small-town Missouri where he grew up. When Wilson died in 2011 at age 73, he left his entire manuscript collection to the University of Missouri. His early work, written between 1955 and 1964, when he was between the ages of 18 and 27, provides a rare look at a young writer developing his style. Dr. David Crespy, professor of playwriting, acting, dramatic literature and theatre history with the University of Missouri, edited the compilation of these discoveries in Lanford Wilson: Early Stories, Sketches, and Poems. The compositions explore many of the themes Wilson later took up in the theatre, including sexual identity and the rupture of society and families. Join us as Dr. Crespy shares these poignant, never-before-published works providing insight into the origins of some of America's best-loved plays.

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In her groundbreaking work, In the Shadow of Dred Scott: St. Louis Freedom Suits and the Legal Culture of Slavery in Antebellum America, Dr. Kelly M. Kennington draws on the casefiles of more than 300 enslaved individuals who, like Dred Scott and his family, sued for freedom in St. Louis. As a gateway to the American west, a major port on both the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and a focal point in the bitter national debate over slavery’s expansion, the city was an ideal place for enslaved individuals to challenge the legal systems and, by extension, the social systems that held them in forced servitude. Kennington offers an in-depth look at how daily interactions, webs of relationships and arguments presented in court shaped and reshaped legal debates and attitudes over slavery and freedom in St. Louis. Join us as Kennington discusses these historic suits, placing them in a broader national context and shedding light on the ways in which they influenced the national conversation on slavery.

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In 1849, St. Louis was little more than a frontier town straining under the pressure of rapid population growth and poor infrastructure, often trapped within the confines of ignorance and prejudice. A cholera epidemic and the Great Fire that year were both a consequence of those problems and—despite the devastation they brought—a chance for the city to evolve. In his book, Fire, Pestilence, and Death: St. Louis 1849, author Christopher Alan Gordon offers a detailed study of these calamities. Drawing upon the archives of the Missouri Historical Society, including newspaper accounts, city and county records, letters, diaries and contemporary publications, Gordon reveals the story of 1849 St. Louis as it was experienced by people who lived through that incredible year. Join us as Gordon not only provides an in-depth look at the city during one of the most turbulent years in its history, but also a glimpse into the struggles of a growing nation and the determination of its people.

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Following the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, government authorities forcibly relocated Native American peoples from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States far to the west. Between 1836 and 1839, this included the Cherokee who were compelled to leave their homes and follow the Trail of Tears to the Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma. Harsh trail conditions, weather and disease resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 along the way. Professor Joseph Erb, member of the Cherokee Nation, will retrace the steps his ancestors were forced to march nearly 200 years ago, sharing stories of their trek across Missouri.

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In The History of Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, author Paul W. Bass documents decade-by-decade the 76-year history of the renowned U.S. Army installation. Built as one of the first training camps in American response to World War II, the fort continues to play an important role in the training of U.S. military personnel. Bass provides a detailed account of its construction; biographical information on the fort’s namesake, General Leonard Wood; and its contribution to the American war efforts from World War II to the ongoing War on Terror. Join us as Bass recounts the compelling history of Fort Leonard Wood and its influence on the surrounding region.

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In her latest book, Savor Missouri: River Hill Country Food and Wine, author Nina Mukerjee Furstenau explores the state’s back roads in search of homegrown regional foods, wines and more. Following the Mississippi, Missouri and Meramec rivers, she visits roadside restaurants, wineries, orchards, bakeries, farms and other agricultural attractions, discovering a tasteful array of Missouri flavors, beverages and cuisine. Not just a guidebook, it is also packed with more than 50 recipes she gathered from farmers, winemakers and restaurant chefs around the state. Join us as Furstenau describes her travels and discover—or rediscover—the culinary delights of Missouri’s river hill country.

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Upon entering World War I in 1917, the United States government and its civilian agencies produced roughly 3,000 different wartime posters. These artistic renderings depicted the ideals of patriotism, beauty, adventure and protection, and strongly contributed to the successful mobilization of citizens during the Great War. In Join, Save, Buy: U.S. World War I Posters on the Home Front, Amanda Langendoerfer, Associate Dean of Libraries for Special Collections and Museums at Truman State University’s Pickler Memorial Library, along with Assistant Professor of History Dr. Jason McDonald and University Art Gallery Director Dr. Heidi Cook will examine a selection of never-before-exhibited World War I posters from Truman State’s E.M. Violette Museum Collection. Their program will provide an opportunity to view samples from one of the U.S. government’s major historical marketing endeavors and to recognize the impact of the war on American citizens, both home and abroad.

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Spanning the Midwest, the Rock Island Line served farms and small-town America for more than 140 years. One of the earliest railroads to build westward from Chicago, it was the first to span the Mississippi River, advancing the frontier, bringing settlers into the West and hauling crops to market. Rock Island’s celebrated Rocket passenger trains also set a standard for speed and service. For most of its existence, the “Rock” battled competitors much larger and richer than itself and when it finally succumbed, the result was one of the largest business bankruptcies ever. Today, as its engines and stock travel the busy main lines operated by other carriers, the Rock Island Line lives on in the hearts of those whom it employed and served. Join us Mr. Marvel recounts the history and importance of this celebrated railroad.

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In The Foundation of the CIA: Harry Truman, The Missouri Gang, and the Origins of the Cold War, author Richard E. Schroeder focuses on American intelligence efforts during the first half of the 20th century. Late to the art of intelligence, the United States created a new model during World War II combining information collection and analytic functions into a single organization—the Office of Strategic Services or OSS. At the end of the war, despite entrenched institutional resistance, President Harry Truman and a small group of advisors developed a new, centralized agency—the CIA—directly subordinate and responsible to the president. Instrumental to its creation was a group known colloquially as the “Missouri Gang,” which included not only Truman, but fellow Missourians Clark Clifford, Sidney Souers and Roscoe Hillenkoetter, all of whom were deeply committed to establishing the United States as a global superpower during the first years of the Cold War. Join us as Schroeder presents new material and fresh perspective on American National Intelligence practices during this turbulent time.

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When 86-year-old Hadley Thompson insisted rural historian Victoria Hubbell look into why two Miller County citizens were murdered back in 1924, she was skeptical at first. Not only had the murders taken place nearly a century before, but the culprit was never in question. What difference could a motive make now? That opinion changed over time, however, with Thompson’s insistence that an active Ku Klux Klan group in the Missouri Ozarks fueled a feud between his family and their neighbors, the Crismons. “The Klan [in the area] weren’t never about race. It were always about power and greed.” The unlikely duo of Thompson and Hubbell tramped through fields, combed old newspapers and traveled down dusty gravel roads to uncover what made friends and neighbors turn against each other during the turmoil filled years following World War I. Using extensive interviews and primary source materials, Hubbell pieces together a picture of this shadowy part of Missouri’s past in her book, Blood River Rising: The Thompson-Crismon Feud of the 1920s. Join us as Dr. Victoria Hubbell presents this fascinating case study examining power and influence in the Ozarks during the 1920s.

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In Gateway to Equality, author Keona K. Ervin investigates the struggle for economic justice of working-class black women in St. Louis, from the rise of New Deal liberalism in the 1930s to the social upheavals of the 1960s. During this period, many black citizens found themselves struggling financially and fighting for access to profitable jobs and suitable working conditions. To combat ingrained racism, crippling levels of poverty and sub-standard living conditions, many black women worked together to form a community-based culture of resistance?fighting for employment, a living wage, dignity, representation and political leadership. Ervin will present an account of the ways in which these women creatively fused racial and economic justice, shedding light on an unexplored aspect of community activism and the complexities of the overlapping civil rights and labor movements in the first half of the 20th century.

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In 1935, the University of Missouri School of Law denied African-American Lloyd Gaines’ application for admission based on race. With the assistance of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Gaines brought suit against the school in Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938). The case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court where the decision in Gaines favor was the first from that body to question the separate but equal principle upheld by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). The court found that students of all races were eligible for admission if only one state school offered the desired education. The case drew national headlines, and public enmity towards the decision resulted in the NAACP moving Gaines to Chicago after he received several death threats. He later mysteriously vanished before enrolling. In their new book, Lloyd Gaines and the Fight to End Segregation, authors James W. Endersby and William T. Horner focus on the vital role played by the NAACP and its lawyers in advancing a concerted strategy to produce political change. Their work sheds light on this important step toward the broad acceptance of segregation as inherently unequal.

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Immigrants from Bavarian Munchberg began settling the south side of Jefferson City in the 1840s, giving the area its original name, “Munichburg.” By 1890, it was a vigorous, self-contained ethnic community within Jefferson City, with inhabitants originating from across modern day Germany. After the turn of the 20th century, however, German influence waned, and the neighborhood eventually became known as the “Southside.” Former resident Walter Schroeder recently released Southside Sketches, a collection of 50 short essays on the neighborhood’s past. Based largely on oral histories and personal memories, topics include businesses, the environment, notable individuals, religion and holidays. Join us as Schroeder provides context to the standard history of the neighborhood by revealing forgotten events and unusual experiences of living in Jefferson City’s German-settled Southside.

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In 1798—more than five years before he led the epic western journey that would make him and Meriwether Lewis national heroes—William Clark set off by flatboat from his Louisville, Kentucky home with a cargo of tobacco and furs to sell downriver in Spanish New Orleans. He also carried with him a leather-trimmed journal used to record notes about his exploits. In The Unknown Travels and Dubious Pursuits of William Clark, a new book by author Jo Ann Trogdon, she reveals William Clark’s highly questionable activities during the years before his famous journey west of the Mississippi. Delving into the details of Clark’s diary and ledger entries from this period, Trogdon investigates evidence linking Clark to a series of plots, often called the Spanish Conspiracy, in which corrupt officials sought to line their pockets with Spanish money and separate Kentucky from the United States.

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Retired Southern Illinois University Professor of Architecture Robert Swenson presents his research on 19th century steamboats built at Metropolis, Illinois, on the lower Ohio River. These vessels played an important, yet largely unknown role in America’s history and westward expansion. The William J. Lewis, built in Metropolis in 1867, made two trips along the treacherous 2,000-mile stretch of Missouri River between St. Louis and Fort Benton, Montana, carrying military items and household goods. Attesting this amazing feat are the hundreds of steamboat wrecks from the same period that line the river. Swenson will discuss the beginning of steamboat design and build technology, as well as trade on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers. He also examines James Eads’ Civil War connection to the Ohio River towns of Metropolis and Mound City and the role of Metropolis in building steamboats for the St. Louis to Fort Benton Missouri River trade and the St. Louis to New Orleans Mississippi River trade.

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For several years, artist and Lincoln University art professor Essex Garner has created images that reflect on the plight of United States Colored Troops (USCT) and Buffalo Soldiers. Using thousands of personal photographs in the possession of descendants and others, he created his Portraits of American History series, exhibited in the summer of 2015 at Lincoln University in Jefferson City. The images in this series celebrate the academic and personal struggles of the men who served in the 62nd and 65th USCT during the Civil War and went on to found Lincoln University. Join us as Essex Garner shares images from both this and his new series, Buffalo Soldiers of the American West, as well as the research and stories on which they are based.

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The early trade economy of St. Louis was largely dependent upon furs provided by the Osage Nation. Cultural conflicts, however, periodically threatened that relationship: the early French colonials were resigned to the reality of Osage power, while the Spanish, who assumed control of Louisiana in 1762, were far less conciliatory. St. Louis merchants frequently found themselves at odds with the Spanish government’s policy towards the Osage. Michael Dickey, administrator of the Arrow Rock State Historic Site and author of Arrow Rock: Crossroads of the Missouri Frontier and People of the River’s Mouth: In Search of the Missouria Indians, explores the sometimes uneasy détente that existed between the Spanish government in St. Louis and the most powerful native nation south of the Missouri River.

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In the 1880s, Missouri’s Ozark hills were home to the Bald Knobbers, one of the most violent and notorious vigilance committees in nineteenth century America. At least 13 people—including vigilantes and their victims—died as a direct result of the Bald Knobbers’ various extra-legal activities. In his new book, Faces Like Devils: The Bald Knobber Vigilantes in the Ozarks, Dr. Matthew J. Hernando closely examines the history of this notorious organization, sifting through the folklore and myth to produce an authentic history of the rise and fall of Missouri’s most legendary post-Civil War vigilantes. He separates fact from fiction through the careful use of newspapers, contemporary accounts, census records and both state and federal court documents. Join Dr. Hernando as he discusses his book, shedding light on this chaotic episode from Missouri history.

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We tend to view the American Civil War as a conflict between two distinct cultures divided by the Ohio River; the South devoted to the protection of slavery as an institution, and the North equally devoted to its abolishment. With its unique geography and political climate, Missouri was affected not only by this division, but also by a division between the well-populated East and the less-populated western frontier region. In the decades following the war, Missourians, formerly considered “Westerners,” took different paths through the politics of regional identity by re-narrating the war and themselves, evolving as Northerners, Southerners and, more complicatedly, Midwesterners. University of Cincinnati History Professor Christopher Phillips discusses how these factors helped shape the identity of modern Missourians. 

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In the 1920s and ‘30s, "Boss Tom” Pendergast's political machine controlled Kansas City, giving the Paris of the Plains an infamous reputation for supporting illegal liquor, gambling and vice. Former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes will share stories of women who worked to stop the corruption, eventually ending years of machine rule in the city. Women were an essential part of the campaign to recall the Pendergast-backed mayor and city council, even after the boss went to prison in 1939. Using the campaign slogan “ballots and brooms versus bosses and bullets,” women’s groups wore a pin shaped like a broom to show their support for non-Pendergast candidates. Under the leadership of Ms. Claude Gorton, these groups became increasingly organized prior to the 1940 election, when their get-out-to-vote effort resulted in a defeat of the machine. Join us as former Mayor Kay Barnes discusses these “civic housekeepers” and their quest to sweep corruption from the city.

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Over the past four decades, State Historical Society of Missouri Executive Director Gary Kremer has written extensively about the African American experience in Missouri. Fourteen of his articles on the subject are now available in one place with the publication of Race and Meaning: The African American Experience in Missouri. Kremer combines the articles into one detailed, chronological account that addresses issues such as the transition from slavery to freedom for African Americans in Missouri, all-black rural communities and the lives of African Americans seeking new opportunities in Missouri’s cities. His talk will focus primarily on stories set in central Missouri, including that of Lake Placid, a recreational area for African Americans in Morgan County; the Missouri Industrial Home for Negro Girls in Tipton; and a number of people and events connected to Lincoln University in both the 19th and 20th centuries. Join us as Kremer shares just a portion of his prolific research spanning much of African American history in Missouri.

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19th century Missouri lawyer, military leader and prominent political figure Alexander W. Doniphan is primarily remembered as the man who refused to execute Mormonism founder Joseph Smith and his followers during the 1838 Mormon War. He was also hailed as a hero of the Mexican War, after leading his troops on one of the longest and most successful marches in military history and contributing to the United States' eventual victory in that conflict. Following the war, Doniphan returned home to Missouri and practiced law, becoming a prosperous businessman and helping to establish William Jewell College in Liberty. He repeatedly turned down opportunities to run for Congress and the governorship and refused to take sides in the Civil War. University of Missouri Professor of Geography Larry Brown presents Doniphan's legacy as a determined moderate, faithful to the unity of the country and the fairness of the law.

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One evening in 1955, Harry Truman came home to find Bess burning her letters to him. "What are you doing? Think of history," he said. "Oh, I have," she replied and tossed in another stack. Bess Truman thought her business was hers and nobody else's, so she destroyed her half of the more than 2,600 letters she and Harry exchanged during their courtship and marriage. While making an inventory of the Truman home in the 1980s, archivists discovered 184 letters Bess had missed. Her grandson, Clifton Truman Daniel, shares a few of these, along with portions of Harry's responses, family photographs and stories. These letters provide new insight into the life and personalities of Bess and Harry Truman during the formative years of his political life. Despite Bess's shy and self-effacing manner, her lively correspondence offers a glimpse of a caring and witty woman who shared her concerns about family, politics and day-to-day activities with her husband.

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The Battle of Fort Davidson, also known as the Battle of Pilot Knob, was the opening engagement of General Sterling Price's Missouri Raid during the Civil War. On the morning of September 27, 1864, a force led by Price attacked the installation, just outside Pilot Knob in Iron County. Although outnumbered by more than ten-to-one, the Union defenders held off repeated Confederate assaults and slipped away during the night. Walter E. Busch, Fort Davidson State Historic Site manager and a prolific author on Price and the Battle of Pilot Knob, discusses this and other intriguing events associated with the general's historic raid through Missouri.

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From 1900 through the 1980s, Kansas City was home to one of the most effective crime organizations in the United States. Black Hand Strawman, Terence O'Malley's book and documentary film of the same name, explores this history, from the early years of "Black Hand" extortion within the Sicilian American community to the FBI's "Strawman" investigation of Las Vegas profit skimming. Through a combination of contemporary interviews, historical newsreels, crime scene photos, police files and surveillance recordings, Black Hand Strawman follows the rise and decline of the Kansas City mob and its alliance with the Pendergast political machine. O'Malley intersperses clips from the film throughout his presentation, bringing to life one of the most compelling true crime stories in American history.

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Gert Goebel arrived in Franklin County, Mo., in 1834, an 18-year-old caught up in the early stages of an immigration wave that eventually brought more than 100,000 Germans to the state. Four decades later, Goebel drew from his experiences as a pioneer farmer, enthusiastic and wide-ranging hunter, county surveyor and state legislator to write a vivid and insightful memoir describing German settlement, politics and Civil War events within Missouri. He demonstrated a keen eye and sense of humor in observing the wisdom and faults of German settlers and "Old Americans" alike, while shrewdly assessing relations between these two communities. First published in German in 1877, Goebel's narrative has long been known to scholars as a significant record of 19th century Missouri history. Editor of the Missouri Historical Review John Brenner shares highlights from this culturally important and fascinating volume.

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The native people for which the Osage River is named were pushed west, displaced by eastern tribes and a growing American populace. The native prairies of the river's watershed were shattered by the construction of two massive dams, turning the main stem of the river into huge reservoirs. Authors Leland and Crystal Payton find the tales of these transformations compelling, turbulent and, in some cases, criminal. In journals of soldiers, explorers and missionaries, as well as in old newspaper accounts and court documents, they discovered a cast of passionate and sometimes doomed personalities. Damming the Osage presents objections to building multipurpose dams and describes fascinating instances involving bank fraud, slush funds and governmental misdeeds. The Paytons tell a dramatic saga of human ambition pitted against natural limitations and forces beyond man's control.

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Cinders and Silence provides the first chronicle of Missouri's "Burnt District." Between 1854 and 1870, three western Missouri border counties plunged from prosperity to devastation. In the early years of the Civil War, when the border conflict between Missouri and the Kansas Territory intensified, Union soldiers from Kansas leveled homes, barns and fields in western Missouri. In August 1863, William Quantrill's retaliatory raid on Lawrence, Kan., triggered the issuance of General Order No. 11, forcing the evacuation of all residents, regardless of their allegiance, from rural areas in Jackson, Cass and Bates counties. Within six weeks, the district suffered depopulation and total destruction. Over 2,200 square miles were devastated with more than 20,000 civilians displaced. Silence shrouded the tragedy before author Tom Rafiner spent 11 years recovering and documenting the history of the region. His presentation explores the dramatic happenings that led to the area's mid-19th century destruction.

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In post-Reconstruction America, John William "Blind" Boone, an illiterate, itinerate musician, overcame obstacles created by disability, exploitative managers and racial prejudice to become one of the country's most beloved concert performers. Melissa Fuell-Cuther's out-of-print biography, Blind Boone: His Life and Achievements, relates the highlights of Boone's harrowing journey and also testifies to the struggles of African-Americans during the Jim Crow era. With the initial publication of the Boone biography in 1915, Fuell-Cuther broke ground as the first African-American author to write about the life of a black musician. The story of Blind Boone is revitalized in this annotated edition of the biography, accompanied by essays describing the Missouri environment in which the artist lived, his place within the landscape of American music and his achievements after publication of the second edition. Editors Mary Collins Barile and Christine Montgomery discuss the life, work and legacy of this fascinating man.

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Historian and author Mark S. Schreiber began his 42-year career in criminal justice in 1968 as an employee with the Missouri State Penitentiary, the longest continuously operational prison west of the Mississippi River. Although professional opportunities took him away from the facility, he eventually returned to serve as the last deputy warden before it closed in 2004. During his tenure, Schreiber collected many stories and artifacts from the prison once called "the bloodiest 47 acres in America" by Time magazine. His book, Shanks to Shakers, documents rare, historical and collectible artifacts associated with life behind these walls, including old photographs, postcards, books, prison-made weapons, paintings, woodcarvings and even salt and pepper shakers once sold in the prison gift shop! Schreiber shares highlights from his book and stories from his years working at the infamous Missouri State Penitentiary.

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Archaeologist Ann Raab's research in the Bates County area offers great potential for understanding not only the destructiveness of the Civil War era, but also how the survivors of General Order No.11 were able to recover. General Order No.11, issued by Brigadier-General Thomas Ewing of the Union Army, mandated the depopulation and suspension of civil rights for residents in four Missouri counties located along the Kansas border. Private property in the region was destroyed without hearing or compensation. Raab's discussion of her archaeological excavation in Bates County provides a better understanding of this devastating historical event and the events which led to it.

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Before Prohibition, Missouri was the second largest wine-producing state in the nation, and, for a short time during the Civil War, it was number one. Today, the state's lush green land overlooking the Missouri River is recognized as America's first wine district. Parts of this district have produced wine since the 1830s, when German immigrants from the Rhine River Valley settled in Missouri. Towns in Missouri's wine country, which include Augusta, Defiance, Washington, Dutzow, and Hermann, are known for their rich history and German culture. The area is also known as home to the famous Missouri Weinstrasse, a two-lane "wine road" that winds through the woods and valleys of southeast St. Charles County, and the Hermann Wine Trail, which stretches 20 miles along the river between Hermann and New Haven. In Missouri Wine Country, authors Don and Dianna Graveman utilize over 200 vintage images to take readers on a scenic trip through Missouri's wine country, past and present.

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After the battle between the Blue and the Gray had ended, people in the Ozarks were still witnessing a war. Divided loyalties gave rise to rampant lawlessness, plaguing the region with robberies, shootouts, and showdowns. Author Larry Wood shares the shocking incidents that took place in the Ozarks during the late 1860s through the 1950s, including the notorious Springfield showdown between Davis Tutt and Wild Bill Hickok and the Roscoe shootout that resulted in the murder of a Younger brother. Wood even reveals some not-as-well-known, but equally scandalous crimes, such as the bank holdup by female bandit Cora Hubbard and the Bloody Benders' massacre.

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Drivers speeding across Missouri on I-70 might not know what they are missing, but authors Ted Cable and LuAnn Cadden do. According to them, untold attractions right along the highway between St. Louis and Kansas City await travelers in Missouri. Driving Across Missouri is packed with fun-filled information, stories, and trivia that help travelers look beyond the passing blur to appreciate Missouri's unique landscapes and landmarks. The book's authors unfold the natural beauty of the state's flora, fauna, and rivers; introduce the history of Native Americans, French explorers, and German settlers; reopen routes traveled by Daniel Boone and Lewis and Clark; and bring the Civil War era to life. Throughout their book, Cable and Cadden help to slow things down in the fast lane so that travelers can enjoy Missouri's land and history, while simultaneously making a long trip pass more quickly with stories that interpret the spirit of the great "Show Me" state.

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Only one U.S. Army regiment, the 7th Infantry, has served in every war from 1812 through the present day. No American unit has earned more battle streamers and few can boast more Medal of Honor winners. In American Courage, American Carnage, military historian John C. McManus tells the dramatic story of the 7th Infantry's combat experiences from the Battle of New Orleans through the end of World War II. McManus provides an inside look at the drama and tragedy of war, from America's early 19th century struggles as a fledgling republic to its emergence as a superpower in the 20th century. Based on nearly a decade of archival research, battlefield visits, interviews, and intensive study, this book is a moving, authoritative tale of Americans in combat. The story is told through the eyes of the soldiers, allowing readers to witness ordinary Americans in extraordinary circumstances.

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Known as a lawyer, journalist, entrepreneur, historian and philanthropist, Louis Houck is also considered the "Father of Southeast Missouri." Houck brought the railroad to the region and opened the area to industrialization and modernization. In this new biography, Joel Rhodes tells how this self-taught railroader constructed a network of 500 miles of track through the wetlands known as "Swampeast" Missouri from 1880 to the 1920s. These "Houck Roads" provided a boost for population, agriculture, lumbering and commerce that transformed Cape Girardeau and the surrounding area. In telling the story of Houck's railroading enterprise, Rhodes chronicles Houck's battle with the Jay Gould railroad empire and offers key insight into the development of America's railway system, from the cutthroat practices of ruthless entrepreneurs to the often-comic ineptness of start-up rail lines.

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For 19th century travelers, the Santa Fe Trail was an indispensable route stretching from Missouri to New Mexico and beyond. The section from St. Louis to Westport, known as "The Missouri Trail," offered migrating Americans their first experience with the West. Anyone who wanted to reach Santa Fe first had to travel the width of Missouri. In The Santa Fe Trail in Missouri, Mary Collins Barile offers an introduction to Missouri's section of the trail, providing an account of its historical and cultural significance. Barile shares how the route evolved from Indian paths, trappers' traces and wagon roads and how the experience of traveling the Santa Fe Trail varied even within Missouri. The book highlights the origin and development of the trail, offers a brief description of what travelers could expect to find in frontier Missouri and describes some of the major people associated with the trail.

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Open City: True Story of the KC Crime Family details an historical account of the birth and growth of organized crime in Kansas City during the first 50 years of the twentieth century. William Ouseley, a retired supervisor of the Organized Crime Squad, Kansas City Field Division, waged a 21 year battle against the modern day Kansas City "crime family." Over a period of years, he researched the facts, stories and legends that led to Kansas City's reputation as a wide open, anything goes city, dominated by a powerful political machine and the organized crime syndicate. Ouseley' s FBI experience makes possible an in-depth analysis of the historical materials that make up this true story. Ouseley shares the story of a captive city, unbridled politicians, powerful and colorful mob bosses, gangland murders, racket activities and courageous police officers and reformers.

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In the spring of 1861, tens of thousands of young men formed military companies and offered to fight for their country. By the end of the Civil War, nearly half of the adult male population of the North and a staggering 90 percent of eligible white males in the South had joined the military. With their husbands, sons and fathers away, many women took on additional duties and faced alone the ordeal of having their homes occupied by enemy troops. During occupation, the home front and the battlefield merged to create an unanticipated second front where civilians, mainly women, resisted what they perceived as unjust domination. In Occupied Women, 12 distinguished historians consider how women's reactions to occupation affected both the strategies of military leaders and ultimately even the outcome of the Civil War. Contributor and editor LeeAnn Whites, examines the common experiences of occupied women and addresses the unique situations faced by women during the Civil War, both Union and Confederate.

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On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981, bringing an end to racial segregation within the ranks of the United States military forces. His decision surprised both liberals and conservatives. By the end of the Korean War in 1953, the U.S. military was almost completely desegregated. As a result of this and other acts, Truman's contribution to civil rights is generally viewed as significant. However, there are some historians who disagree. Editor Raymond Geselbracht shares this dialog and examines the meaning of some of President Truman's most important decisions and the foundation they laid for later civil rights achievements.

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Missouri's history reveals many brave and adventurous military leaders. In Five Stars, James F. Muench profiles five of the best-known figures: Alexander William Doniphan, Sterling Price, Ulysses S. Grant, John J. Pershing, and Omar Bradley. These men represent a number of historical eras-from the Mexican-American War through World War II-and a variety of social and cultural backgrounds. Muench explores the lives and times of these celebrated generals and their roles in American history, particularly their battlefield exploits. While noting their diversity, Muench is also careful to emphasize the connections and commonalities among these leaders.

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For almost two hundred years, Missouri's cookbooks have helped readers serve up tasty dishes, but these publications also provide history lessons, document changing food tastes, and demonstrate the cultural diversity of the state. In Pot Roast, Politics, and Ants in the Pantry, Carol and John Fisher draw from more than 150 publications to reveal Missouri's cookbook heritage and deliver a generous sampling of recipes. The authors review manuscript cookbooks from 1821 St. Louis, then progress through the years and around the state before arriving at today's online recipes. Along the way, they dish out servings of kitchen medicine, household hints, and cookbook literature, providing a smorgasbord of reading pleasure for cookbook collectors, chefs, and historians.

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Meriwether Lewis, leader of the Corps of Discovery, lived only a few years after his famous expedition, and October 11, 2009 marked the bicentennial of his sudden, mysterious death. Thomas Danisi utilizes original Lewis and Clark documents and previously unexamined sources to reveal new information about the character and life of Meriwether Lewis. Instead of focusing on the legendary journey, he concentrates on Lewis's life before the trip and the post-expedition challenges he faced as governor of the Louisiana Territory. After addressing both the conspiracy theories regarding murder as the cause of his death and the longstanding belief that he committed suicide, Danisi proposes a new theory about Lewis's untimely death.

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The Missouri State Museum is the steward of over 442 unique flags. The flags represent Missourians' participation in politics and military service from the Seminole War through Desert Storm. Katherine Keil, Curator of Collections for the Missouri State Museum, presents a program highlighting the dangers posed to Missouri's historic artifact collections and the problems with preserving tangible history. In hopes of saving vital links to the past, preservationists struggle every day against fading public interest, objects' inherent faults, and environmental factors that cause historic artifacts to decay.

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Acknowledged as a significant figure in the history of women on the early western frontier, Mary Easton Sibley may be little known to modern readers. Yet, as wife to the Indian factor at Fort Osage, she became one of the most innovative and influential pioneer teachers. Ultimately, she founded Lindenwood University, a school that continues to thrive today. Although Sibley's life has been told in older accounts, Kristie Wolferman's book is the first to fully draw on Mary and George Sibley's journals and letters, which shed light on Sibley's views regarding women's social and political roles, slavery, temperance, religion, and other topics. Wolferman depicts not merely a frontier heroine and educational pioneer but an assertive woman who did not hesitate to express unconventional views. This biography not only brings to life one of Missouri's most remarkable women educators, but also demonstrates how her story reflects educational, religious, and social developments in both the state and the nation.

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In Painting Missouri, award-winning artist Billyo O'Donnell captures the state of Missouri by creating an outdoor painting on location-en plein air-for each of Missouri's 114 counties, plus the city of St. Louis. Accompanying the paintings are essays by Karen Glines, who provides essential historical information about the counties, from interesting facts about their names to the stories behind their courthouses. Drawing on her extensive research in local historical societies, Glines shares the early histories of the state's diverse regions, including local anecdotes, Civil War stories, and insights into the roles of Native Americans in regional history. Through a unique combination of words and art, the paintings and essays combine to create a rich portrait of the Show-Me state.

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Though not as well known in the annals of Missouri history as their long-time enemies the Osage, the Ioway Indians have resided within the state's borders since at least the mid-eighteenth century and, by the opening decade of the nineteenth century, claimed all of the state north of the Missouri River. However, Ioway control over the land was short-lived, and, by 1837, the tribe was confined to a two hundred square-mile reservation in northeast Kansas. The westward expansion of the United States and the economic and social changes that came with it altered the lives of the Ioway forever. Greg Olson, Curator of Exhibits and Special Projects at the Missouri State Archives, presents an engaging look at the people, culture, and history of one of Missouri's most historically significant Indian tribes.

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German immigrants organized the German Central Evangelical Church of Jefferson City in 1858. By 1918, the church was thoroughly Americanized. The history of the church serves as an example of similar transformations undergone by other immigrant churches. Americanization can be traced through four aspects: strong support of free public education; patriotism during war time and development of democracy in church governance; increasing participation in civic life; and acceptance of English as the language of congregational life. To celebrate the German Central Evangelical Church's sesquicentennial in 2008, the congregation, now the Central United Church of Christ, published a history of its role as a mainstream American church. Walter Schroeder shares the story of the German Central Evangelical Church and discusses how its history reflects the progressive Americanization of German immigrants.

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Missouri's fertile valleys and wooded hills attracted thousands of German immigrants. They settled in St. Louis, smaller towns and villages, and on farms along the Missouri River. Eventually spreading throughout the state, the German immigrants transformed Missouri's economics, politics, religion, and culture. One of the most important contributions these immigrants made was through their actions leading up to and during the Civil War. Although Missouri's Germans were a group diverse in religion, dialect, and political ideals, most wanted to prove themselves loyal to their new nation. Consequently, when forces advocating secession from the Union threatened the state, many rallied to the Union cause. Dr. Ken Luebbering explores the important role Missouri's German immigrants played in the years prior to and including the Civil War. Luebbering is a writer whose published work has focused primarily on Missouri's immigrant history. He is co-author with Robyn Burnett of three books on Missouri history and culture: German Settlement in Missouri: New Land, Old Ways, Immigrant Women in the Settlement of Missouri, and Gospels in Glass: Stained Glass Windows in Missouri Churches.

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Mysterious cold spots, disembodied voices, and smoky apparitions are just a few of the ghostly goings-on encountered by journalist Jason Offutt during his trek across Missouri. Offutt conducted hundreds of interviews and visited a variety of places, including Civil War battlefields, university halls, and infamous mansions, in search of restless spirits. A serious but witty look at Missouri's place in the ghostly realm, Haunted Missouri brings together history, folklore, and just enough mystery to intrigue skeptics and delight believers. Offutt provides a detailed guide to Missouri's paranormal hot spots, with new research and accounts that rank Missouri as one of the spookiest states in America. In addition to teaching journalism courses at Northwest Missouri State University, Jason Offutt is a syndicated columnist whose work has appeared in the Kansas City Star, Missouri Life, and The Examiner

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The state of Missouri boasts more than six thousand caves in an unbelievable variety of sizes, lengths and shapes. In Missouri Caves in History and Legend, H. Dwight Weaver takes readers deep underground to shed light on how caves contributed to the settlement, social, economic and cultural development of Missouri. Weaver describes how these underground places were used for burial sites, moonshine stills, hideouts for Civil War soldiers and outlaws and even as venues for underground dance parties in the late nineteenth century. He explores the early uses of caves for the mining of saltpeter, onyx and guano; as sources of water; for cold storage and as livestock shelters. Today, explorers prowl this underground world in search of knowledge and to protect endangered species.

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Morley Swingle shares true stories from his legal career, providing a "behind-the-scenes" look at the justice system. Swingle combines actual crimes, legal analysis and humor to recreate his most entertaining stories of villains, heroes and ordinary people, from the crime scene to the courtroom. Relating cases included in his book, Scoundrels to the Hoosegow, Swingle describes the life of a prosecuting attorney and the "Perry Mason" moments that happen when unforeseen events cause a trial to shift direction dramatically. With wry humor, Swingle reveals the outcome of each scoundrel's antics, and how each earned a trip to the Hoosegow. Swingle also provides insight into the writing and historical backgrounds of his other two novels, The Gold of Cape Girardeau and Bootheel Man.

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Jay Antle, assistant professor in the Department of History at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, speaks about the use of posters to rally public support during World War II. In the name of patriotism, colorful posters were produced by the U.S. government encouraging all Americans to do their part in winning the war. Promoting ideas of conservation, women workers, and war bonds, these posters were commonplace on the home front. Each one was carefully designed to convey social, economic, and political ideas through imagery. By featuring the middle class home, traditional families, and free enterprise, these posters attempted to convey a sense of urgency aimed at maintaining the idealized American way of life, and brought the war to the home front and made the war personal, serving as a visual call to arms for all Americans.

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During the 1850s, as arguments over states' rights and slavery escalated, Missouri became one of the most highly volatile regions in the nation. Friends, families and neighbors often found themselves on opposite sides because of the strong ties Missouri had with both the North and the South. The Civil War's First Blood explains the political atmosphere in Missouri prior to the Civil War and the divided loyalties of its citizens. Authors John Bradbury and James Denny discuss the complicated role Missouri played during the first year of the Civil War, key political and military figures involved, military operations carried on throughout the state and the effects of the war on Missourians during the early part of the conflict. Bradbury and Denny tell the story of the tragic and violent part Missouri played in the beginning of the struggle that tore the nation apart.

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Over one and a half centuries ago, at a time when mental health was barely understood, Fulton State Hospital was established as Missouri's first state mental asylum. As the first such institution west of the Mississippi, the hospital's history traces not only the history of the state, but also the evolution of mental health care in the nation. Co-authors Richard Lael, Barbara Brazos, and Margot Ford McMillen address the institution's problems of overcrowding, financial mismanagement, racism, and wrongful confinement, along with its successes in new treatments involving psychotherapy and drugs. Their book offers an insightful exploration of the difficulties the state institution faced as it transformed to meet the demands of Missouri's mentally ill.

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Sabra Tull Meyer is one of Missouri's premier sculptors, having created life-like bronze sculptures for over 30 years. Her work can be seen throughout the state, most notably in the rotunda of the State Capitol, where several of her busts grace the Hall of Famous Missourians, including those of Edwin Hubble and Dale Carnegie. Perhaps the greatest achievement of her career will be the Corps of Discovery monument scheduled to be unveiled this year at the Jefferson Landing State Historic Site. This bronze sculpture of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, York, George Drouillard, and the Newfoundland dog Seaman stands eight feet tall and weighs 5,000 pounds. Meyer discusses her journey through both art and history to create these pieces, including the careful research necessary to replicate period dress and equipment, her use of re-enactors as models and the method for turning 2.5 tons of molten bronze into a piece of the past.

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Traci Wilson-Kleekamp, Family History Research Consultant, explores the resources available online and in local, state and national historical repositories that help family historians discover more about their African-American heritage. This five-part series provides helpful tips on accessing the best websites, which records are most beneficial, and how to get the most out of original records. Together, "What's Out There?;" "What's Your Story?: Finding It on the Web;" "How Do I Find Out More?;" "What Happened During the Wars?;" and "How Do I Put All the Information Together?" teach researchers to use all the pieces they find to gain a better understanding of those who came before them.

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Jennifer McKnight explores the Missouri State Archives Trademark Collection, which includes thousands of images from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century. The program includes logos from across the state that both remind us of yesteryear and teach us about our culture and history. McKnight is assistant professor in the Art and Art History Department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and education chair for the St. Louis chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. She has completed work for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Saint Louis City Museum, among others, and has had her designs, illustrations, and writing published in numerous magazines.

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Arrow Rock, the state's oldest historic site, was established in 1829 at the intersection of the Missouri River and the Santa Fe Trail. As a primary center of trade between St. Louis and Kansas City, it became a "crossroads of the Missouri frontier," and home to three Missouri governors and the preeminent American painter George Caleb Bingham. Although the town's prominence declined after the Civil War, it was revived as a model of historic preservation in the twentieth century and remains a cultural tourist hot spot today. Michael Dickey discusses his award-winning book on Arrow Rock, from its rise to prominence on the frontier to its current role as a National Historic Landmark. Dickey, the historic site administrator at Arrow Rock since 1995, used a variety of sources - documents, oral histories, maps, and archaeological evidence - to complete this book, the first comprehensive history of the area ever to be published.

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Dennis Weiser discusses his new book, a pictorial review of Missouri's 114 county courthouses. Over three hundred images richly illustrate portraits of existing exteriors, architectural features and unique interior elements of design, as well as pictures of courthouses long ago removed from the landscape. From the earliest log structures to the 19 courthouses constructed in Missouri under the Public Works Administration (1934 - 1941), to the current trend of building annexes that save the courthouse proper for administrative or judicial functions, our courthouses are true public service buildings. Each must meet very real public demands for accessibility and increased response, while managing to meet citizens' more romantic notions of "what a courthouse should look like."

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Williams is the author of a one-person play telling the story of George Washington Carver. Born into slavery near Diamond, Missouri, George Washington Carver endured a difficult and dangerous childhood and acquired an excellent education that complimented his innate understanding of botanical science. Invited to join Booker T. Washington's Institute, Carver became known as the "Wizard of Tuskegee" and virtually revolutionized the southern agrarian economy by freeing it from continued dependence on cotton. Carver's more than 300 uses for the peanut, and hundreds more for soybeans, were simply part of his desire to "fill the poor man's empty dinner pail." He largely refused to patent or profit from his many inventions and products.

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