SOCIETY

Part of the Congressional ordinance allowing Missouri to become a state was that sales of land in Section 16 in every township be set aside for school use. Additionally, Missouri's first constitution stipulated that a school should be established in each township as soon as possible. The 1850 and 1860 federal censuses tracked the number of public and private schools in each county in a special schedule called Social Statistics. This is a page from the 1860 Social Statistics Schedule for St. Louis showing school data.

Source: Joint digitization project with MSA and the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis. Read more about special census schedules online.

An intellectual and well-educated woman, Susan Elizabeth Blow is credited with bringing kindergartens from Europe to the American educational system. She believed that kindergartens should be colorful and cheerful and that children should learn through play. By 1879, St. Louis schools had fifty-three kindergartens, all designed by Blow. Her portrait hangs in the Governor's Office of the Missouri State Capitol Building.

Source: RG395.2 Missouri State Capitol Commission Photograph Collection #RG395_Series2_02_022, courtesy of Missouri State Capitol Commission and MSA. Photo by Lloyd Grotjan, painting by Gari Melchers.

Dr. Andrew Taylor Still was a medical pioneer, believing that there were better ways to treat patients than with conventional medicine: a more holistic way. In 1892, he established the science of osteopathic medicine and the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville. He is pictured here next to an anatomical skeleton with the first graduating class of the School. The institute is still in operation today under the name A.T. Still University.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Publications Vanishing Missouri Collection, #1991-1992_Box01-0183.

Washington University in St. Louis is known primarily for its medical school. Barnes-Jewish Hospital is the University's teaching hospital. Shown here is the first surgical procedure at Barnes, an appendectomy performed in 1914.

Courtesy of Washington University School of Medicine Becker Medical Library. View this photograph collection online.

Normal schools are institutions dedicated to the mission of educating individuals to become teachers. The first normal schools in Missouri were established in Kirksville and Warrensburg. Pictured here is a Sanborn fire insurance map of Kirksville showing the Normal School grounds in 1914. Today the institution is known as Truman State University and is the only highly-selective liberal arts public university in the state.

Courtesy of University of Missouri-Columbia Special Collections. View the Sanborn fire insurance map collection online.

St. Louis University is one of "firsts:" the first institution of higher learning, first medical school, first law school and first business school west of the Mississippi River; first nursing school to offer a Ph.D. program; first university in a former slave state with a policy of integration; first heart transplant in the Midwest, and first to grant a Ph.D. in aviation.

Courtesy of Saint Louis University Libraries Archives & Digital Services Rita G. Adams Photographs, #0977.

The beginnings of Lincoln University lie with the Civil War's 62nd Regiment Infantry, United States Colored Troops, made up mostly of Missourians. Following the War, they and the 65th USCT contributed $6,400 to establish a school of higher education for African-Americans. The school opened in Jefferson City in 1866 as the Lincoln Institute, becoming Lincoln University in 1921.

Courtesy of Lincoln University Inman E. Page Library, LU Postcards Collection. View this collection online.

In 1968, the Missouri School District Reorganization Committee published its report on the state of public schools in Missouri. Better known as the Spainhower Study, this report provided recommendations for improving public education in Missouri.

Source: Miscellaneous Commissions State Documents Collection.

In 1968, the Missouri School District Reorganization Committee published its report on the state of public schools in Missouri. Better known as the Spainhower Study, this report provided recommendations for improving public education in Missouri.

Source: Miscellaneous Commissions State Documents Collection.

When it opened in Jefferson City in 1836, the Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP) was the first penitentiary west of the Mississippi River. Conditions varied over time, but by and large - especially in its early years - they were far from ideal. In 1967, Time Magazine nicknamed the facility "the bloodiest 47 acres in America." The MSP became one of the largest prisons in the U.S., with a peak population of 4,900 inmates. It finally ceased operation in 2004. Pictured here is the first page of the first inmate register. Half of the page is missing, but we know from other sources that the first inmate was a man named Wilson Eidson.

Source: RG213 Missouri State Penitentiary Inmate Registers Vol. A p. 1. Search for early MSP inmates online.

State Lunatic Asylum No. 1 opened at Fulton in 1851, the first public asylum west of the Mississippi. Early "treatments" included insulin-induced comas, ice water baths, and electroconvulsive therapy. Later state facilities were Asylum No. 2 in St. Joseph (1876), Asylum No. 3 in Nevada (1887), Missouri Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptic at Marshall (1902), and Asylum No. 4 at Farmington (1903). This bill for establishing the first state asylum was rescued from the Missouri Capitol fire in 1911.

Source: Senate Bill 89, Records of the Senate, 14th General Assembly, First Session, 1846-47, RG550, Missouri State Archives.

The 1848 Missouri state census identified 259 white persons as "deaf and dumb" and 149 who were blind. Educational opportunities for these Missourians began in 1851 with the opening of The Missouri Institution for the Education of the Blind (now the Missouri School for the Blind) and the Missouri School for the Deaf.

Source: RG550 General Assembly, House and Senate Journals, 1848 Senate Journal 1st Session p. 2. View the House and Senate Journals online.

The Industrial Home for Girls and the Reform School for Boys began in 1888-89 as part of a progressive movement to keep juvenile offenders out of adult penal institutions. Although part of the prison system, the setting was designed to be home-like rather than institutional. Girls were educated, trained in domestic sciences, and worked on the school farm. Of the three Missouri juvenile facilities, Chillicothe consistently got the best reviews.

Source: RG998 MS398 Missouri Postcard Collection, image 165_122.

Since delinquent African-American girls were not sent to the Chillicothe home for white girls, a reform school was established for them in 1916 in Tipton. Punishments were much harsher than in Chillicothe, including beatings and solitary confinement. Teaching policy dictated the "residents" be trained as domestics and focused on cultivating a love of country life, despite the fact that most of them came urban settings. The school was chronically underfunded.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Publications Non-Portrait Collection, image 76_16_0500. View this photograph collection online.

The state boys' reform school in Boonville accepted both white and African-American boys. The boys were supposed to receive moral training and learn a trade; however, nearly every review done of the facility was critical. A 1911 study found no educational programs, overcrowding, buildings in poor shape, and children outsourced for their labor. In 1938, it was called one of the worst in the nation. Pictured here are some of the boys in uniform, 1903.

Source: RG225 Boonville Training School for Boys, 1903 Biennial Report.

Named for their meeting places on top of bald knobs (bare hilltops), the baldknobbers were a vigilante group active in the Ozarks. This letter from Mrs. Jas. S. B. Berry to the Missouri Adjutant General describes the murder of Sam Snapp by baldknobber Washington Middleton.

Source: RG133 Adjutant General, Baldknobber Letters, B. 88 F. 7.

Formed in 1901 to unite two different socialist factions, the party chose St. Louis as its national headquarters, although it was moved to Nebraska in 1903. Kate Richards O'Hare, who lived as a child in Kansas City, joined the party in 1901. A nationally prominent activist for women's rights, she was sent to the Missouri State Penitentiary to serve a five-year sentence for violating the Espionage Act of 1917.

Source: RG213 Missouri State Penitentiary, Inmate Registers, Vol. HH p. 157. View the MSP registers online.

The National Woman Suffrage Association was founded in St. Louis in 1867. Nearly five decades later, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, and finally women were granted the right to vote in America. Eleven days later, Marie Byrum voted in a Hannibal city council election and became the first woman to vote in an election after passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Source: RG998 MS005 Marie Byrum Collection.

Tom Pendergast, head of a corrupt Kansas City political faction, built a powerful political machine during the 1920s. He is credited with getting Guy Park elected Governor in 1932 and Harry S. Truman elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934. Investigation of voter fraud in the 1936 elections brought this federal indictment--and later convictions--of Pendergast's election workers. Pendergast himself was not charged, but in 1939 pleaded guilty to income tax evasion and served fifteen months in prison.

Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

On March 5, 1946, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill spoke at Westminster College in Fulton, MO. He condemned Russian domination of eastern European countries and likened their isolation from the rest of Europe to an "iron curtain," a term that became part of the Cold War lexicon.

Source: RG998 MS192 Gerald Massie Photograph Collection, #047_111. View this photograph collection online.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In 1945, Harry S. Truman became the first President of the United States from Missouri. He was elected to the post in 1948 for a further four years. His terms in office were not without controversy. He dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan in 1945. Prior to his Presidency, Truman was accused of getting elected U.S. Senator through unscrupulous means thanks to Kansas City "mob" boss Tom Pendergast. In 1952, Truman penned this response to the Pendergast question.

Courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, President's Secretary's Files.

In an electoral first for Missouri and the United States Senate, Governor Mel Carnahan was elected United States Senator despite having passed away in a plane crash three weeks before the election. His successor, Governor Roger Wilson, appointed Jean Carnahan to fill her husband's Senate seat.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Commissions Certificates of Election 2000 B. 20 F. 8.