In 1817, Susan, a slave, sued for her freedom in St. Charles District, Missouri Territory, on the same basis that Dred Scott would use 30 years later. Susan stated that she had lived in free territory before coming to St. Charles. After a jury found against her, her attorneys appealed to the Superior Court, where the verdict was reversed and the case sent back to St. Charles. The case would not be disposed until October 13, 1821, which makes it the first freedom suit decided after Missouri statehood. This time, the Circuit Court sided with Susan. Her freedom was affirmed and the defendant Henry Hight ordered to pay the cost of her appeal.

View Susan's entire St. Charles Circuit Court case files online: http://repository.wustl.edu/concern/texts/pc289k102. View Susan's entire Superior Court case file online: https://www.sos.mo.gov//CMSImages/Archives/Bicentennial/Archives/SupremeCourt/B092F11.pdf.

In 1817, Susan, a slave, sued for her freedom in St. Charles District, Missouri Territory, on the same basis that Dred Scott would use 30 years later. Susan stated that she had lived in free territory before coming to St. Charles. After a jury found against her, her attorneys appealed to the Superior Court, where the verdict was reversed and the case sent back to St. Charles. The case would not be disposed until October 13, 1821, which makes it the first freedom suit decided after Missouri statehood. This time, the Circuit Court sided with Susan. Her freedom was affirmed and the defendant Henry Hight ordered to pay the cost of her appeal.

View Susan's entire St. Charles Circuit Court case files online: http://repository.wustl.edu/concern/texts/pc289k102. View Susan's entire Superior Court case file online: https://www.sos.mo.gov//CMSImages/Archives/Bicentennial/Archives/SupremeCourt/B092F11.pdf.

In 1846, slave Dred Scott and his wife Harriet Scott sued their slave owner for their freedom. The freedom suits went through many iterations in the courts, including the St. Louis Circuit Court, the Missouri Supreme Court, and ultimately the United States Supreme Court. The case is considered a landmark in U.S. history and decided the issue of personhood regarding slaves. In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Scotts. These are the original 1846 petitions filed by Dred and Harriet Scott in the St. Louis Circuit Court.

Courtesy of Washington University Special Collections. To read more about this complicated case, visit Washington University's Revised Dred Scott Case Collection.

In 1846, slave Dred Scott and his wife Harriet Scott sued their slave owner for their freedom. The freedom suits went through many iterations in the courts, including the St. Louis Circuit Court, the Missouri Supreme Court, and ultimately the United States Supreme Court. The case is considered a landmark in U.S. history and decided the issue of personhood regarding slaves. In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Scotts. These are the original 1846 petitions filed by Dred and Harriet Scott in the St. Louis Circuit Court.

Courtesy of Washington University Special Collections. To read more about this complicated case, visit Washington University's Revised Dred Scott Case Collection.

Missouri was a slave state. However, free blacks could reside in the state provided they had paperwork attesting to and certifying their freedom. The month before civil hostilities began, Henry Good, a free-born resident of Knox County, provided a $500 bond and applied for a license to reside within the state.

Courtesy of Knox County Clerk.

Missouri was a slave state. However, free blacks could reside in the state provided they had paperwork attesting to and certifying their freedom. The month before civil hostilities began, Henry Good, a free-born resident of Knox County, provided a $500 bond and applied for a license to reside within the state.

Courtesy of Knox County Clerk.

Missouri was a slave state. However, free blacks could reside in the state provided they had paperwork attesting to and certifying their freedom. The month before civil hostilities began, Henry Good, a free-born resident of Knox County, provided a $500 bond and applied for a license to reside within the state.

Courtesy of Knox County Clerk.

Missouri was a slave state. However, free blacks could reside in the state provided they had paperwork attesting to and certifying their freedom. The month before civil hostilities began, Henry Good, a free-born resident of Knox County, provided a $500 bond and applied for a license to reside within the state.

Courtesy of Knox County Clerk.

After the Civil War, African-Americans in St. Louis could only ride streetcars on outside platforms. Neptune M. Williams and his wife Caroline sued the Bellefontaine Railway Company in 1867 after Caroline was thrown off a car by the conductor and injured. She had been attempting to sit inside a car while she was pregnant and carrying her two-year-old child. The Williamses sought $5,000 in damages. Although the jury found in their favor, they were awarded just one cent in restitution.

Courtesy of St. Louis City Circuit Court. Read the full case file online.

The Attuck Guard company of Missouri National Guard was organized in 1874 as a segregated African-American unit. A series of state laws in the 1870s and 1880s, combined with the 1903 Federal Militia Act, turned Missouri militia units into an efficient and organized force of citizen soldiers. The National Guard was officially desegregated along with other branches of the military by President Truman's Executive Order 9981 in 1948, although actual integration would not occur until the late 1950s.

Source: RG133.02 Missouri National Guard.

Although the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed housing discrimination, racial property restrictions were common before then. This petition for restrictive property covenants in the Gudgell Park Addition, Independence, includes that no premises shall be "sold, conveyed, leased, nor rented to any person who is not of the white or Caucasian race."

Courtesy of Independence City Clerk.

Although the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed housing discrimination, racial property restrictions were common before then. This petition for restrictive property covenants in the Gudgell Park Addition, Independence, includes that no premises shall be "sold, conveyed, leased, nor rented to any person who is not of the white or Caucasian race."

Courtesy of Independence City Clerk.

On April 9, 1968, Kansas City public schools did not close for the funeral of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This, combined with outrage over King's assassination, led to peaceful, permitted demonstrations that concluded at City Hall. Violence erupted when police shot tear gas into the crowd. Five people were killed in the ensuing riot.

Courtesy of University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1968 Riot Collection #113. View this photograph collection online.

The first treaty with the Osage peoples of Missouri was finalized in 1808 in St. Louis. It established Fort Osage in future Jackson County as a federal trade factory where furs and pelts could be exchanged and payments specified for land. It also established Osage hunting rights within ceded lands and provided for dispute resolution. Pictured here is a lunette mural by Walter Ufer on display in the State Capitol Building showing Pierre Chouteau negotiating with Osages.

Source: RG395.2 Missouri State Capitol Commission Photograph Collection #RG395_Series3_172, courtesy of Missouri State Capitol Commission and MSA. Photo by Scott Thomas. Read more about Fort Osage in its National Register of Historic Places application.

This map is an approximation of Native residency and usage in Missouri. The orange area north of the Missouri River, the green area south of the River, and the strip along the western border south of the River represent Osage peoples. The pink area along the Mississippi River was Sac, and the blue area of the Platte Purchase was home to various tribes, some of whom had been relocated from east of the Mississippi.

Courtesy of Smithsonian Libraries, Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, 1896-97, Part 2 Plate CXLIV.

This was an Act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for their removal west of the river Mississippi. And so by its approval on 28 May 1830, Congress required all native peoples east of the Mississippi to be forcibly dispossessed of their lands. Although numerous treaties had previously been made for native lands, this blanket act obviated the need for any future agreements.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Acts of the Twenty-First Congress of the United States, pp. 411-412.

This was an Act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for their removal west of the river Mississippi. And so by its approval on 28 May 1830, Congress required all native peoples east of the Mississippi to be forcibly dispossessed of their lands. Although numerous treaties had previously been made for native lands, this blanket act obviated the need for any future agreements.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Acts of the Twenty-First Congress of the United States, pp. 411-412.

The Trail of Tears wound its way through Missouri. Thousands of displaced Cherokees walked from Georgia or other points east to Indian Territory in Oklahoma via the Trail. Many died along the way. Although the removal was a federal initiative, Missouri had to become involved when travelers crossed its land. Occasionally, violence erupted such as the murder of Cherokee men Major Ridge, his son John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot by other Cherokee. Major Ridge was the main signatory of the Treaty of New Echota and many other Cherokee resented him because of that. This letter is from Brigadier General Matthew Arbuckle asking Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs to activate the militia.

Source: RG3.06 Governor Lilburn Boggs Collection, item dated 10/05/1839. View the Boggs Collection online.

The Trail of Tears wound its way through Missouri. Thousands of displaced Cherokees walked from Georgia or other points east to Indian Territory in Oklahoma via the Trail. Many died along the way. Although the removal was a federal initiative, Missouri had to become involved when travelers crossed its land. Occasionally, violence erupted such as the murder of Cherokee men Major Ridge, his son John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot by other Cherokee. Major Ridge was the main signatory of the Treaty of New Echota and many other Cherokee resented him because of that. This letter is from Brigadier General Matthew Arbuckle asking Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs to activate the militia.

Source: RG3.06 Governor Lilburn Boggs Collection, item dated 10/05/1839. View the Boggs Collection online.

Trade with Native Americans was tightly regulated by the federal and state governments. A Holt County grand jury indicted Nancy Burrows in 1843 for trading liquor worth twenty-five cents with Indians in exchange for two deer skins, two raccoon skins, one otter skin, three bear skins and two pairs of moccasins, all without a permit.

Courtesy of Holt County Circuit Court.

Trade with Native Americans was tightly regulated by the federal and state governments. A Holt County grand jury indicted Nancy Burrows in 1843 for trading liquor worth twenty-five cents with Indians in exchange for two deer skins, two raccoon skins, one otter skin, three bear skins and two pairs of moccasins, all without a permit.

Courtesy of Holt County Circuit Court.

Trade with Native Americans was tightly regulated by the federal and state governments. A Holt County grand jury indicted Nancy Burrows in 1843 for trading liquor worth twenty-five cents with Indians in exchange for two deer skins, two raccoon skins, one otter skin, three bear skins and two pairs of moccasins, all without a permit.

Courtesy of Holt County Circuit Court.

John W. Kelly ran afoul of the law in 1841 when he gave a written permit to five Native Americans to hunt in Holt County for two days. Kelly was not an Indian agent, nor did he have the authority to give the permit. Shown is the indictment against him.

Courtesy of Holt County Circuit Court.

John W. Kelly ran afoul of the law in 1841 when he gave a written permit to five Native Americans to hunt in Holt County for two days. Kelly was not an Indian agent, nor did he have the authority to give the permit. Shown is the indictment against him.

Courtesy of Holt County Circuit Court.

John W. Kelly ran afoul of the law in 1841 when he gave a written permit to five Native Americans to hunt in Holt County for two days. Kelly was not an Indian agent, nor did he have the authority to give the permit. Shown is the indictment against him.

Courtesy of Holt County Circuit Court.

There are no reservations in Missouri. However, today there are members of several tribes who live in or travel to Missouri, especially for special events such as this For the People Pow Wow held in Jefferson City in May 2016. Big Soldier Creek, a drum group from Mayetta, Kansas, performs in the foreground.

Courtesy of Greg Olson.

In 1764 Liguest, accompanied by his stepson Auguste Chouteau, chose the spot for a trading post on the Mississippi River and named it St. Louis. Shown: his signature from a deed of gift dated May 4, 1768.

Courtesy of Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.

In 1820, Benton was first person from Missouri elected to the U.S. Senate, the beginning of five successive terms and one later term in the U.S. House. A Jacksonian Democrat, Benton remained a lifelong advocate of western expansion. He led a controversial life, stemming from his slave ownership and subsequent reversal in favor of abolition to his duel with Charles Lucas whom he shot and killed on Bloody Island.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, photo by Mathew Brady dated 1844-1858, control #2004663877.

The name Eads immediately conjures images of Eads Bridge, but Eads accomplished much more than that. He designed a diving bell used for salvaging sunken ships, a twin-hulled salvage boat he called a submarine, and some of the first ironclad boats used in the Civil War. Shown here is the U.S.S. St. Louis, his first ironclad.

Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration RG165 Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs, 1860-1952, 19th Century Prints Brady and Quartermaster Photographic Prints and Other Civil War Views #165-C-630 533123. View this photograph collection online.

John William Boone was born in 1864 in a Saline County military camp. Illness destroyed his eyesight at the age of six months. While in his teens, he began performing publicly, mastering composing, writing, and arranging. In 1912, he signed an exclusive, five-year contract to play eleven songs to be recorded on player piano rolls.

Courtesy of The State Historical Society of Missouri Blind Boone Heritage Foundation Collection, #CA6088.

A man of great intellectual curiosity, George Washington Carver grew up in Diamond, Missouri. He was born a slave in 1864 and raised by his former slave owners Moses and Susan Carver. Carver pursued higher education in Iowa despite many earlier setbacks in Missouri and Kansas. He was a gifted plant scientist who taught at Tuskegee University in Alabama for his whole career. Carver made many advances in plant science and agriculture. He is pictured here in his chemistry lab at Tuskegee, c1902.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection, control #2014646471.

Josephine Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis on June 3, 1906. She grew up in the city with difficulty, but it was here that as a teenager she learned to dance. Still in her teens, Baker moved to New York and then to France in the late 1920s. She quickly gained fame in France as an alluring cabaret performer. She ultimately came to claim French citizenship and lived there for the rest of her life. During the Civil Rights Movement, Baker visited the U.S. on several occasions speaking at the March on Washington, D.C. with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Baker was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians in 1995.

Source: RG395.2 Missouri State Capitol Commission Photograph Collection #RG395_Series3_178, courtesy of Missouri State Capitol Commission and MSA. Photo by Scott Thomas.

Before the 1954 United States Supreme Court ruling Brown vs. Board of Education that desegregated public schools, the University of Missouri did not accept any African-American students. In 1939, Lucile Bluford, a journalist for the Kansas City Call, applied to the University of Missouri School of Journalism as a graduate student. She was accepted into the program, but University officials turned her away when she tried to register for classes. Bluford, with the help of the NAACP, sued the University of Missouri for admittance, as there was no journalism program at an African-American university in Missouri. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in Bluford's favor in 1941. Rather than admit Bluford, the University of Missouri closed their entire graduate journalism program. In 1989, the University of Missouri awarded Bluford an honorary doctorate.

Source: RG600 Supreme Court of Missouri State ex rel Bluford vs. Canada.

Women's suffrage activist Virginia Minor brought suit against St. Louis County Registrar Reese Happersett in 1873. Happersett had refused to let her register to vote because she was a woman. Minor said that the 14th Amendment grants all peoples the right to vote. The case was argued in St. Louis, at the Missouri Supreme Court, and the United States Supreme Court. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court decided against Minor and did not allow women the right to vote. Sadly, Minor would spend the rest of her life advocating for this basic right and die before it was finally granted nationwide in 1920. Pictured here is the first page of her Missouri Supreme Court case file.

Source: RG600 Missouri Supreme Court Virginia L. Minor et al. vs. Reese Happersett.

In 1919, Ellen "Nell" Donnelly established the Donnelly Garment Company along with her husband Paul. Nell Donnelly focused on creating affordable dresses for women of a variety of sizes. The company flourished during the Great Depression, and by 1953 the Donnelly Garment Company was the largest dress manufacturer in the world.

Courtesy of The State Historical Society of Missouri.

Born in 1908 in St. Louis, Martha Gellhorn was one of the foremost war correspondents of the 20th century. She was the only woman to land in Normandy on June 6, 1944; she had stowed away in a hospital ship bathroom and disguised herself as a stretcher bearer.

Courtesy of St. Louis City Recorder of Deeds and Vital Records Registrar.

In 1852, Thomas Weaver of Nodaway County bound his nine-year-old son, William Harvey Weaver, to Cornelius N. Scott. Scott agreed to treat William humanely, feed and clothe him as his own, educate him, and to give him a horse, saddle and bridle and a good set of clothes when he reached twenty-one at the end of his servitude. This kind of arrangement was typically made when a parent could not support a child.

Source: Nodaway County Clerk

Prior to federal assistance for the indigent, the responsibility fell to families, churches and counties. The poor were cared for by counties in two ways: outdoor relief that placed them in private homes and paid for their care, or indoor relief that cared for them in county facilities. These were called "poor farms" because they were working farms that were at least partially self-sufficient. Pictured here is the plan of the first floor of the Grundy County Poor Farm.

Source: RG739 Grundy County, G-1-6, p.2.

Dueling was long perceived as a gentleman's way of settling serious disputes. The two belligerents would pace off, then turn and shoot. Bloody Island in the Mississippi River across from St. Louis got its name because it was a legal no-man's land where people went on occasion to duel. Similar islands were used in other major rivers. In this 1831 letter, E.P. Nash challenges Gilpin S. Tuttle to a duel through language cloaking the confrontation as a hunting trip.

Source: RG709 Boone County Circuit Court, case file no. 22060.

Dueling was long perceived as a gentleman's way of settling serious disputes. The two belligerents would pace off, then turn and shoot. Bloody Island in the Mississippi River across from St. Louis got its name because it was a legal no-man's land where people went on occasion to duel. Similar islands were used in other major rivers. In this 1831 letter, E.P. Nash challenges Gilpin S. Tuttle to a duel through language cloaking the confrontation as a hunting trip.

Source: RG709 Boone County Circuit Court, case file no. 22060.

Dueling was long perceived as a gentleman's way of settling serious disputes. The two belligerents would pace off, then turn and shoot. Bloody Island in the Mississippi River across from St. Louis got its name because it was a legal no-man's land where people went on occasion to duel. Similar islands were used in other major rivers. In this 1831 letter, E.P. Nash challenges Gilpin S. Tuttle to a duel through language cloaking the confrontation as a hunting trip.

Source: RG709 Boone County Circuit Court, case file no. 22060.

German immigration to Missouri in the 1830s was triggered by the writings of Gottfried Duden, a German who wrote glowingly of Missouri. Immigration continued well into the twentieth century. This map shows the pattern of German and other settlements in Missouri.

Source: "Settlement Patterns in Missouri" by Russel L. Gerlach.

Workers with the B&O Railroad in West Virginia went on strike in July of 1877 demanding better wages. Soon, their fervor spread to other states, including Missouri where St. Louis transportation workers joined the strike. State militia and federal troops were called out to quell the protests, and in Missouri at least eighteen people were killed. The general strike was put down with military force after 45 days. This 1877 strike was a beginning to the labor movement in the United States that ultimately resulted in the formation of unions. The map shown here illustrates the railroad lines and streets in St. Louis in 1888.

Courtesy of St. Louis Public Library, Rand, McNally & Co.'s New Map of St. Louis, 1888.

Missouri formed its Bureau of Labor Statistics on May 19, 1879, the seventh state in the country to do so. The purpose of the Bureau was to collect statistics regarding labor in Missouri: wages, hours worked, accidents on the job, ages and gender of laborers, etc. At the end of each year, the Bureau submitted a report to the Governor. Pictured here is the cover page to the first annual report.

Source: RG108 Department of Labor and Industrial Relations collection. View the Red Books online.

The NAACP renewed their efforts to make lynching a federal crime after the brutal mob murder of African American man Cleo Wright in Sikeston, MO in 1942. Wright had been arrested as a suspect in the attempted murder of Grace Sturgeon, a white woman. Pictured here are three St. Louisians with the NAACP protesting the murder and advocating for black citizens' rights. L to R: Leonard Harris, Nathaniel A. Sweet, Harry R. Bracy.

Courtesy of Library of Congress Visual Materials from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Records, copyright unknown.

Missouri's first state fair was held in Sedalia, Pettis County in 1901. The Fair's mission is to "promote excellence in Missouri agriculture, cultivate and support future leaders in agriculture, and provide opportunities for the agricultural community to deepen consumers’ understanding and appreciation of agriculture’s role in their daily lives and the economy of our state." Pictured here is a 1910s produce exhibit from Pettis County.

Source: RG102 Department of Agriculture State Fair Photograph Collection, #14-01447.

The 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis commemorated the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Kansas City's landscape architect George Kessler designed the enormous site that would be filled with buildings, exhibits, people, and animals from all around the world. Open for seven months, it is estimated to have drawn nineteen million attendees, including President Theodore Roosevelt. Pictured here is the Missouri Corn Palace on display in the Palace of Agriculture. For a sense of scale, the towers on the corners are 38 feet tall.

Source: RG998 MS193, scan from "The Forest City," p. 249

Hometown bands, such as this one in El Dorado Springs in 1910, provided entertainment at community events. Gazebos or bandstands on town squares often accommodated their concerts.

Courtesy of the El Dorado Springs Community Photo Collection, Missouri State University, Special Collections and Archives; El Dorado Springs Chamber of Commerce; Preserve Our Past Society; and the City of El Dorado Springs.

May Day (the first day of May) festivals often involve children winding ribbons around a Maypole. When completed, the poles are braided all the way down with colorful strips. Pictured here is a Mayday Festival at Southwest Missouri State Teachers College (now Missouri State University) in the 1920s.

Courtesy of Missouri State University Special Collections and Archives, Domino Danzero Photo Collection, #04_25_001. View this photograph collection online.

From apples and pumpkins to mules to jazz to motorcycles, Missouri towns love their festivals. The Red Barn Arts & Crafts Festival began in 1974 in Kirksville to celebrate Missouri's arts and crafts tradition.

Source: RG104 Department of Economic Development, Division of Tourism Photograph Collection

The ERA was first introduced in Congress in 1921, the year after women were granted the right to vote. This proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution was intended to give women equal rights to men. The amendment failed in the 1920s, but was reintroduced and approved by Congress in 1972. Next, the ERA required approval of two-thirds of the states. It never achieved that goal. In Missouri, State Senator and later Lt. Governor Harriett Woods was a strong advocate for the ERA.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Publications Portrait Collection, B. 81 F. 7451_04.

The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (JNEM) was formed in 1933 with the intent of improving the St. Louis waterfront, preserving historic sites, and potentially building a new monument. The now-familiar steel arch was completed in 1968. It, and the surrounding area that includes the Old Courthouse, have been designated a National Historic Landmark. The arch commemorates the Louisiana Purchase and is a symbolic "Gateway to the West." It is pictured here under construction on July 8, 1965. On February 22, 2018, the JNEM was re-named Gateway Arch National Park.

Source: RG107 Missouri Department of Transportation Photograph Collection, #2606-4.

The Black Lives Matter movement began on social media in 2013 but gained national attention in 2014 after the deaths of two unarmed African-American men during fatal encounters with white police officers. One of these victims was eighteen-year-old Michael Brown of Ferguson. Demonstrations and riots that received national press coverage followed his death. Ultimately, a grand jury did not indict the officer who shot and killed Brown. The Department of Justice concluded that the officer had not violated federal hate crime laws, but that both the Ferguson Police Department and Municipal Court had long engaged in actions that unfairly and detrimentally affected African-Americans.

Courtesy of U.S. Department of Justice. Read the full report online.

St. Louis is home to the largest Bosnian population outside of Europe. An estimated 70,000 Bosnians live in the city, many of whom are refugees from the Yugoslav Wars. This Bosnian language guide to Missouri government was published by the Secretary of State's Office between 2001 and 2005.

Source: RG000.005 Secretary of State State Documents, Administration, B. 6 F. 8.

St. Louis is home to the largest Bosnian population outside of Europe. An estimated 70,000 Bosnians live in the city, many of whom are refugees from the Yugoslav Wars. This Bosnian language guide to Missouri government was published by the Secretary of State's Office between 2001 and 2005.

Source: RG000.005 Secretary of State State Documents, Administration, B. 6 F. 8.

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 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.

Considered one of the cradles of American jazz, at one time Kansas City's 12th Street had more than fifty jazz clubs. Six blocks away, 18th & Vine was the center of the city’s African-American community. Famed jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker began his musical career in Kansas City as did many others.

Courtesy of University of Missouri-Kansas City Libraries, Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Special Collections. View this sheet music online.

Home to both ragtime and blues, St. Louis inspired traditional songs "Frankie and Johnny" and "Stagger Lee." Ragtime great Scott Joplin played in St. Louis in the early twentieth century. "Father of the Blues" W.C. Handy composed "Saint Louis Blues," which is widely considered the most famous blues song ever. Rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry also called St. Louis home.

Public domain.

Artist George Caleb Bingham painted with a realistic, luminous style. He spent his life in Missouri, and most of his works feature sites and events from his home state. Bingham was active as a painter from the 1830s through the 1870s. His particular forté was scenes of river life, such as this image titled, "The Jolly Flatboatmen."

Courtesy of National Gallery of Art.

Every year the Roots N Blues festival in Columbia celebrates Missouri's long tradition of blues music and fine barbecue. Musicians and fans from across the country converge on this Central Missouri town for a weekend of music and food.

Courtesy of ROOTS N BLUES N BBQ Festival

Decades after the death of Missouri author Mark Twain, artist Thomas Hart Benton was asked to illustrate some of Twain's most famous works. This is from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Benton is well-known for his murals in public buildings around the state, such as the Capitol in Jefferson City and the Truman Library in Independence.

Courtesy of The State Historical Society of Missouri.

Rose O'Neill, one of the best-known illustrators of her time, won a drawing contest at age fourteen and soon began selling illustrations to national magazines. She became the first female staff artist at Puck Magazine at a time when women's art was generally considered inferior. In 1909, she created her most famous character, the Kewpie.

Courtesy of the Rose O'Neill Foundation.

The world's most respected documentary film festival takes place every winter in Columbia. Called True/False, independent documentarians from across the world showcase their films to thousands of festival attendees over four days and multiple venues.

Courtesy of Ragtag Film Society.

The world's most respected documentary film festival takes place every winter in Columbia. Called True/False, independent documentarians from across the world showcase their films to thousands of festival attendees over four days and multiple venues.

Courtesy of Ragtag Film Society.

Missouri has been the setting for many films and television episodes over the years: Killer Diller, Winter's Bone, Gone Girl, Paper Moon, The Abyss films, and episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies, Lassie, and more. With both cities and natural areas to serve as backdrops, the state can prove quite attractive to filmmakers. Pictured here is Donna Douglas as Elly May Clampett in a The Beverly Hillbillies episode filmed at Silver Dollar City that aired on October 8, 1969.

Source: RG104 Department of Economic Development Commerce and Industrial Development Photograph Collection, #RG104_078_007A.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name of Mark Twain, was a Missouri-born writer known for his humor and ability to capture everyday life in America. His most famous works are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both considered classic American novels.

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.

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils came to nationwide attention for their hits "If You Wanna Get to Heaven" (1973) and "Jackie Blue" (1974). However, the band's lesser-known songs such as "Chicken Train" (1973) feature traditional Ozarks folk instruments, such as the mountain mouth-bow.

Photo by Bob Treat. Original post can be viewed at www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/16226393687

Science fiction fans are well aware of Robert Heinlein's work as a premier author in the genre. His book Stranger in a Strange Land and teen series Starship Troopers are perhaps the most well-known today. Heinlein was born and raised in Missouri. Fresh out of high school, he joined the Missouri National Guard, as this enlistment contract shows. He would later go to the U.S. Naval Academy. His writing career spanned decades. Heinlein is frequently counted as one of the top science fiction writers in American history.

Source: RG133 National Guard Enlistment Contracts, Box 122 F. 1.

Under the penname Kenneth Robeson, Missourian Lester Dent gained fame as the author of over 180 pulp fiction Doc Savage publications. His character Clark "Doc" Savage was the first modern superhero; Stan Lee even credited him as an inspiration for his creations. Dent hailed from the small town of La Plata, MO. His modest home is now on the National Register of Historic Places. His study is pictured here.

Source: RG110 Department of Natural Resources National Register of Historic Places. Photo by Mary B. Aue. View the full NRHP application online.

Maya Angelou, shown here by her birth name of Marguerite Johnson, was a poet, actress, writer, and civil rights activist. She recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the presidential inauguration in 1993, the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since 1961. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Kansas Citian journalist and author Gillian Flynn came to national attention in 2012 with the release of her book Gone Girl. Set in a small town in Missouri, the book is about the search for a woman who goes missing on her wedding anniversary. The book was adapted into a successful movie in 2014. Flynn was nominated for several awards, including a Golden Globe.

Courtesy of Heidi Jo Brady.

The Little House on the Prairie is an iconic series of children's books modeled after the life of author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Wilder recounts aspects of her childhood growing up in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, and South Dakota during the 19th Century in these semi-autobiographical novels. She garnered worldwide fame for this book series, which she wrote from her Mansfield, MO home. But before her Little House success, Wilder penned columns for rural Missouri publications, such as this 1911 article in the State Board of Agriculture's Monthly Bulletin.

Source: RG102 Department of Agriculture State Board of Agriculture Monthly Bulletin Vol. IX No. 2 pp. 31-35.

The Little House on the Prairie is an iconic series of children's books modeled after the life of author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Wilder recounts aspects of her childhood growing up in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, and South Dakota during the 19th Century in these semi-autobiographical novels. She garnered worldwide fame for this book series, which she wrote from her Mansfield, MO home. But before her Little House success, Wilder penned columns for rural Missouri publications, such as this 1911 article in the State Board of Agriculture's Monthly Bulletin.

Source: RG102 Department of Agriculture State Board of Agriculture Monthly Bulletin Vol. IX No. 2 pp. 31-35.

The Little House on the Prairie is an iconic series of children's books modeled after the life of author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Wilder recounts aspects of her childhood growing up in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, and South Dakota during the 19th Century in these semi-autobiographical novels. She garnered worldwide fame for this book series, which she wrote from her Mansfield, MO home. But before her Little House success, Wilder penned columns for rural Missouri publications, such as this 1911 article in the State Board of Agriculture's Monthly Bulletin.

Source: RG102 Department of Agriculture State Board of Agriculture Monthly Bulletin Vol. IX No. 2 pp. 31-35.

The Little House on the Prairie is an iconic series of children's books modeled after the life of author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Wilder recounts aspects of her childhood growing up in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, and South Dakota during the 19th Century in these semi-autobiographical novels. She garnered worldwide fame for this book series, which she wrote from her Mansfield, MO home. But before her Little House success, Wilder penned columns for rural Missouri publications, such as this 1911 article in the State Board of Agriculture's Monthly Bulletin.

Source: RG102 Department of Agriculture State Board of Agriculture Monthly Bulletin Vol. IX No. 2 pp. 31-35.

Future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Dizzy Dean began his pro career in 1930. He became a regular starter for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1932. Colorful language and humorous antics led teammate Pepper Martin, pictured on the left, to describe Dean on the mound as a "three-ring circus." Dean later became a sportscaster known for his entertaining mispronunciations and colloquialisms.

Courtesy of Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.

Organized in 1920 and disbanded in 1965, the Kansas City Monarchs was the longest-running Negro League team in the U.S. Jackie Robinson (left) went from the Monarchs to become the first African-American Major League Baseball player. He and Satchel Paige (right), another Monarchs player, are both members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Courtesy of Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Kansas City.

The Sportsmans Park site has been a baseball field since Reconstruction. In the 1800s, the site was the home to the St. Louis Brown Stockings. From 1920-1953 the St. Louis Browns and Cardinals both played there. Pictured here in 1907, it was later renamed Busch Stadium. The last game was played there in 1966 when St. Louis baseball moved to the new Busch Stadium.

Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum, Chicago Daily News, Inc.

The Truman Sports Complex contains Arrowhead Stadium (football), opened in 1972, and Kauffman Stadium, (baseball) opened in 1973. Arrowhead is the home of the Kansas City Chiefs (proud to have the loudest fans in the nation) and Kauffman houses the Kansas City Royals.

Courtesy of Kansas City Public Library Missouri Valley Special Collections, General Collection, #10006829.

In 1985, Missouri's two professional baseball teams were pitted against each other: Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals. The Royals won four games to three. Pictured here are fans from each team.

Source: RG104 Department of Economic Development Division of Tourism, Series B #126-25252 and #126-25255.

The St. Louis Blues hockey team has been a staple of St. Louis life since its creation in 1967. The Blues were the oldest NHL team never to have won the Stanley Cup. This changed in 2019, when the St. Louis Blues beat the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Series.

Source: RG104 Department of Economic Development Division of Tourism, Series B #110-21917.

St. Louis hosted the first-ever Olympic Games held in the United States and the third in the world. The events coincided with the World's Fair Louisiana Purchase Exposition. These Olympics were full of controversy. Only 12 countries participated. The marathon was a debacle. An "Anthropology Days" event was added to the schedule where indigenous peoples exhibiting at the World's Fair were commandeered to perform Olympic sports for the crowd's amusement. Women were only allowed to compete in the archery event. The 1904 Olympics did have at least one lasting effect: it was the first Olympic Games to have gold, silver and bronze medals for first, second and third places, a tradition that is still followed today.

Courtesy of Missouri Historical Society Louisiana Purchase Exposition Collection, #N15465. View this collection online.

Fulton resident Helen Stephens achieved renown as the fastest woman in the world for her performance during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Stephens broke the world record in the 100-meter dash earning her a gold medal. She also earned gold in the 100-meter relay. These, of course, were the controversial Olympics in Nazi Germany. Stephens met Hitler personally, but she refused to salute him and did not submit to any of his pandering. This document records Stephens's return trip to the United States after the Olympics.

Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Missouri's rivers have been enjoyed by recreational anglers and vacationers since at least the 1870s. The Current and Jacks Fork Rivers are now protected as the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, the first National Park to protect an entire riverway. Pictured here are vacationers camping on the shore of Current River in the early 20th century.

Source: RG998 MS330 Charles Elliott Gill Photograph Collection #749. View this photograph collection online.

Every year over two million people purchase hunting, fishing, and trapping permits from the Missouri Department of Conservation. The sale of hunting permits is one of the two main sources of revenue for Conservation. In FY2013, non-residents spent over $9.8 million just on permits. Pictured here is a non-resident hunting permit application for the Fall 1995 firearm deer season.

Source: RG000.103 Department of Conservation State Documents B. 143 F. 5.

Mark Twain laid claim to Hannibal, MO as his choice hometown. The town capitalizes on the author's literary adventures and draws in tourists from around the world. As in this photograph, boys can participate in the annual fence whitewashing contest, à la Tom Sawyer. Visitors can ride riverboats, tour Mark Twain Cave, visit Mark Twain's home, visit Jim's Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center, and much more.

Source: RG998 MS192 Gerald Massie Photograph Collection, #MS192_046_009. Photo by Gerald Massie. View this photograph collection online.

Founded in 1882, Branson is one of Missouri's top vacation destinations. The city in southwest Missouri is known nationwide for its live music shows. The Branson Ferris Wheel stands 150 feet tall, its 40 gondolas hold 240 riders, and it lights up the night with a music and light spectacular titled "Electrify."

Courtesy of Branson Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Missouri is home to several amusement parks, namely Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun in Kansas City, Silver Dollar City in Branson, and Six Flags in St. Louis. Adventure rides attract the young and brave. Pictured here are the Victrix Ship, Viking Voyager log ride, Finnish Fling, etc. during Worlds of Fun's opening season, Summer 1973.

Source: RG998 MS346 Whitey Owens Photograph Collection, Box 136. Photo by Whitey Owens.

In 1934, Dr. P. C. Turner and J. M. Sojourner bought 346 acres of land in Morgan County. The men were looking to create a rural retreat away from the segregated parks of Kansas City and the Lake of the Ozarks. The Lake Placid Resort, Incorporated was organized in 1940 to sell lots around the man-made lake.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State.

Missouri has amazing museums that attract visitors year round. Prime examples are the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial and American Jazz Museum in Kansas City; City Museum, the St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri History Museum and Museum of Westward Expansion in St. Louis; the Missouri State Museum in Jefferson City; the Museum of Art and Archaeology in Columbia, and many, many more. There are also specialized museums like the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph; Leila's Hair Museum in Independence; the Space Museum in Bonne Terre; the Vacuum Cleaner Museum in St. James; and the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville. Pictured here is the world-renowned Nelson-Atkins Art Museum before the now-iconic shuttlecocks were installed on the lawn.

Source: RG998 MS192 Gerald Massie Photograph Collection, #MS192_051_026. View this photograph collection online.

The St. Louis Zoo has its origins in the 1904 World's Fair. The Smithsonian Institute's walk-through bird cage was bought by citizens of St. Louis after the Fair closed down. That civic involvement by Missouri citizens continued. In 1916, school children raised money to purchase the Zoo's first elephant, Miss Jim. The first elephant born at the Zoo was a male Asian elephant named Raja. The Zoo celebrated his birthday in 2017 with proclamations by the St. Louis City Mayor and the St. Louis County Executive.

Courtesy of the St. Louis City Mayor and St. Louis County Executive.

The St. Louis Zoo has its origins in the 1904 World's Fair. The Smithsonian Institute's walk-through bird cage was bought by citizens of St. Louis after the Fair closed down. That civic involvement by Missouri citizens continued. In 1916, school children raised money to purchase the Zoo's first elephant, Miss Jim. The first elephant born at the Zoo was a male Asian elephant named Raja. The Zoo celebrated his birthday in 2017 with proclamations by the St. Louis City Mayor and the St. Louis County Executive.

Courtesy of the St. Louis City Mayor and St. Louis County Executive.

Missouri's natural wonders are nearly endless, but one major attraction in Southeast MO are natural springs. Most of these beautiful geologic features are in Shannon and Carter Counties. Big Spring, pictured here in 1994, is considered (arguably) the largest natural spring in the world. It discharges 286 million gallons of water every day into the Current River system.

Source: RG104 Department of Economic Development Division of Tourism Photograph Collection, Series A #024_150. View this photograph collection online.

Many Depression-era federal relief programs were administered through local agencies. This application for loan of a milk cow indicated true destitution: six children, poor pasture, no grain or hay, but $2.50 obtainable in relief funds.

Courtesy of Cedar County Clerk and MSA.

The Agricultural Adjustment Agency provided materials for impoverished persons to make mattresses for themselves. This applicant had an income in 1940 of $150 and had not purchased a ready-made mattress within the last ten years.

Courtesy of Cedar County Clerk and MSA.

The Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, was a public works relief program for unmarried men. They were put to work building roads, planting trees, upgrading public parks, and building fire towers such as this one in southern Stone County c1937.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey, #HABS MO-1913 mo1226.

The Carter County Courthouse was constructed by the Works Project Administration in 1936. Its construction is distinctive for not being flat fieldstone like many other WPA buildings in Missouri. Smaller stones were decoratively placed under the gable and around window openings.

Source: RG600.2 Office of State Courts Administrators Photograph Collection, B. 3 F. 108-4.

Major earthquakes struck the area of New Madrid, Missouri a decade before statehood. Many settlers in the region were affected with loss of property and livelihood. Traveling through New Madrid in February of 1819, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft wrote, "The effects of these dreadful earthquakes are still visible…but the most striking alterations were made…in New Madrid County, the capital of which was, in part, precipitated into the Mississippi." Claims were made to the federal government for relief, such as this one by Francis Lesseur stating he sustained material injury.

Source: RG951 U.S. Recorder of Land Titles, New Madrid Certificates, #0009.

The summer of 1875 was horrific. Clouds of insects devoured everything: every growing plant and even garments on clotheslines. Wells were covered to prevent the insects from drowning and contaminating water supplies, but crops were beyond saving. Despairing people wrote to Governor Hardin begging for relief as their children starved.

Source: RG3.22 Charles Henry Hardin, 1875-1877 Collection, B. 7 F. 3. View the collection online.

The summer of 1875 was horrific. Clouds of insects devoured everything: every growing plant and even garments on clotheslines. Wells were covered to prevent the insects from drowning and contaminating water supplies, but crops were beyond saving. Despairing people wrote to Governor Hardin begging for relief as their children starved.

Source: RG3.22 Charles Henry Hardin, 1875-1877 Collection, B. 7 F. 3. View the collection online.

On the night of February 5, 1911, the dome of the Missouri State Capitol Building was struck by lightning. A fire broke out and soon engulfed the entire structure. Many of Missouri's early records were lost in this fire, making research of pre-1911 government documents difficult for today's historians.

Source: RG998 MS027 Thomas Garfield Cooper Collection, #02.

Heavy rains upstream in the Missouri River and Kansas River basins caused both bodies of water to swell and overflow their banks in the summer of 1951. The Missouri River in Kansas City crested at 46.2 feet, which was a record at the time. (It would be broken in 1993.) The Armourdale region of Kansas City suffered devastating loss. Pictured here is young Linda King who, two months after the waters receded, recovered her doll from the mud of her destroyed home.

RG998 MS336 Louise and Omar Putman Photograph Collection, #04_0078. View this photograph collection online.

The record-breaking flood of 1993 inundated the Missouri and Mississippi River basins. Over 17 million acres throughout nine states flooded, causing levee failures, billions of dollars in damage, and taking fifty lives. This aerial view of Jefferson City shows the flooding around the State Capitol Building. The flood level for the Missouri River in Jefferson City is 23 feet. On July 30, 1993, the River crested at 38.6 feet.

Source: RG107 Department of Transportation Photograph Collection.

Missouri is part of the so-called Tornado Alley that runs through the central United States. Every spring, summer and fall, several storms are strong enough to spawn tornadoes. Some of them are minor. Sadly, others are major disasters for Missourians and their property. One of the deadliest storms ever to roll through Missouri hit the town of Joplin on May 22, 2011 and killed 161 people. One year afterward, Dolores and Darrel Bilke painted a spirit tree as a memorial to the dead and their families.

Courtesy of Federal Emergency Management Agency. Photo by Christopher Mardorf. See this image and other disaster-related photos and documents in Missouri Digital Heritage's Disaster Collection online here.

Every once in a while, a band of frozen precipitation cripples portions of Missouri. These ice storms knock out power and make travel from place to place difficult if not impossible. Pictured here is Kahoka, MO. This is possibly the ice storm of January 1911, which dropped 2 inches of frozen precipitation on Northeast Missouri.

Source: public domain.

For a long time, the northern border of Missouri was undefined and caught up in the courts. Some sixty Ioway Indians led by Moa-na-hon-ga (aka Great Walker or Big Neck) remained in Southeast Iowa after the rest of the tribe was relocated west. In 1829, Big Neck noticed some white settlers on land that he thought was Ioway. The settlers claimed it was part of Missouri. Because of the waffling northern border, it was unclear at that point who was right. Ultimately, the white settlers asked for help and the State Militia interceded. A battle ensued in which three Ioway and four Militiamen were killed. Big Neck was accused of murder, arrested, and brought to St. Louis for trial. The jury believed he acted in self-defense. He was acquitted in 1830 of all charges and allowed to return home.

Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum, drawing by Charles Bird King. View the artist's collection online.

After several years of heated and deadly violence between Mormons and other residents, in October 1838 Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued his infamous Mormon Extermination Order: "The Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace." Governor Christopher S. Bond officially rescinded the order in June 1976.

Source: RG5.1 Mormon War Papers. View the Mormon War exhibit online.

After several years of heated and deadly violence between Mormons and other residents, in October 1838 Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued his infamous Mormon Extermination Order: "The Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace." Governor Christopher S. Bond officially rescinded the order in June 1976.

Source: RG5.1 Mormon War Papers. View the Mormon War exhibit online.

After several years of heated and deadly violence between Mormons and other residents, in October 1838 Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued his infamous Mormon Extermination Order: "The Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace." Governor Christopher S. Bond officially rescinded the order in June 1976.

Source: RG5.1 Mormon War Papers. View the Mormon War exhibit online.

After several years of heated and deadly violence between Mormons and other residents, in October 1838 Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued his infamous Mormon Extermination Order: "The Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace." Governor Christopher S. Bond officially rescinded the order in June 1976.

Source: RG5.1 Mormon War Papers. View the Mormon War exhibit online.

Missouri's vaguely defined northern border was not firmed until 1851. Prior to that, both Iowans and Missourians had difficulty determining in which state they stood. When a Missouri man was fined $1.50 by an Iowa court for cutting down three bee trees in the no-man's land that both claimed, governors of Missouri and Iowa Territory called out their militias. This was Missouri's most peaceful "war" in which the only casualties were two deer. The soldiers shared whiskey and gambled with each other for about a month before the militias were sent home. This map is dated c1839 and shows the various northern boundaries of Missouri.

Courtesy of University of Missouri-St. Louis Mercantile Library. Find Honey War soldiers in MSA's online soldiers' database.

George A. Ridgeway was in Base Hospital #44 on November 11, 1918. His diary entry from that day records the excitement and relief felt by American and French soldiers at the "fini la guerre."

Source: RG998 MS494 George A. Ridgeway Collection.

The U.S. Treasury Department issued stamp books called United States Government Thrift Cards to civilians beginning in January 1918. Book owners were asked to purchase 16 25-cent Thrift Stamps and affix them to the inside of the book. When all 16 are collected, the owner could then take the book to his or her post office, bank, or other authorized agent and receive a War Savings Certificate Stamp worth $5.00 in return. The War Savings Certificate Stamp would then be paid out on January 1, 1923. This results in a net profit of one dollar for the civilian, but in the meantime, the U.S. Government could use the money from the initial stamp sales toward the war effort. This card belonged to Mary McGhee of Elsberry, MO.

Source: RG998 MS170 Federal Ration, Thrift, Tax etc. Stamp and Coupon Collection.

The U.S. Treasury Department issued stamp books called United States Government Thrift Cards to civilians beginning in January 1918. Book owners were asked to purchase 16 25-cent Thrift Stamps and affix them to the inside of the book. When all 16 are collected, the owner could then take the book to his or her post office, bank, or other authorized agent and receive a War Savings Certificate Stamp worth $5.00 in return. The War Savings Certificate Stamp would then be paid out on January 1, 1923. This results in a net profit of one dollar for the civilian, but in the meantime, the U.S. Government could use the money from the initial stamp sales toward the war effort. This card belonged to Mary McGhee of Elsberry, MO.

Source: RG998 MS170 Federal Ration, Thrift, Tax etc. Stamp and Coupon Collection.

During Japanese internment during WWII, efforts were made to relocate college students to universities away from the West Coast. Chancellor Throop of Washington University, St. Louis, wrote, "these students, if American citizens, have exactly the same rights as other students who desire to register in the University." This page shows a list of Japanese-American students enrolled or applying to enroll at the University.

Courtesy of Washington University Libraries, Department of Special Collections, Chancellor George R. Throop Records.

Food and other commodities were scarce during World War I. The Lever Act supported the war effort by increasing the production of food and fuel and decreasing its domestic consumption. The Manuel Brothers, a retail grocery business in Shelby County, was investigated for selling sugar in 100-pound lots that would indicate profligate use. They were cleared of the accusation.

Source: RG998 MS262 Camp Crowder Photograph Collection, #107_004_004. View this photograph collection online.

Camp Crowder, Newton County, opened in 1941. It provided signal corps, medical corps and ground force troop training, along with an Officer Candidate Preparatory School. The camp also housed a large number of World War II prisoners of war. Pictured are German POWs butchering meat for the camp in November 1944.

Source: RG998 MS262 Camp Crowder Photograph Collection, #107_004_004. View this photograph collection online.

Built in 1941 to treat wounded WWII soldiers, Springfield's O'Reilly Hospital was on the cutting edge of medical advances, such as plastic surgery for burns. It included several medical specialty schools and made prostheses on site. Before it closed in 1946, O'Reilly had treated 42,000 injured solders, some of them Italian and German prisoners of war.

Courtesy of Evangel University Archives.

President Bill Clinton proclaimed July 27, 2000 to be National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day. Accordingly, Governor Mel Carnahan signed Executive Order 00-17 that directed U.S. and state flags be flown at half-mast on that day. During the war years of 1950-1953, 944 Missourians lost their lives.

Source: RG5.04 Executive Orders. View executive orders from 1980-present online through the Missouri State Library.

Thousands of Missourians fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. This image shows the granite Korean War memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol Building. The stone is one part of the larger Veterans' Memorial north of the Capitol.

Source: RG395.2 Missouri State Capitol Commission Photograph Collection #RG395_Series3_054, courtesy of Missouri State Capitol Commission and MSA. Photo by Scott Thomas.

A Missouri soldier wrote this letter to his Joplin, MO family the month following the first peace talks in 1968. This was also the year the U.S. had the highest number of troops in Vietnam. President Richard Nixon began troop withdrawals in 1969, but not until the Paris Peace Agreement of January 1973 were all American solders withdrawn. Final fatal casualties from Missouri: 1,418.

Courtesy of Leslie Dingman James.

A Missouri soldier wrote this letter to his Joplin, MO family the month following the first peace talks in 1968. This was also the year the U.S. had the highest number of troops in Vietnam. President Richard Nixon began troop withdrawals in 1969, but not until the Paris Peace Agreement of January 1973 were all American solders withdrawn. Final fatal casualties from Missouri: 1,418.

Courtesy of Leslie Dingman James.

The role of the Missouri National Guard expanded drastically after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In addition to their stateside missions, members of the Missouri National Guard have served overseas in multiple countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq.

Source: RG000.133 Department of Public Safety State Document Collection.

Designed to penetrate anti-aircraft defenses and fly undetected, the B-2 bomber can carry both conventional and nuclear bombs. Its 'flying wing' design carries only two crew members. It was used in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. The Stealth fleet is based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Johnson County. Here, a B-2 Spirit from the 509th Bomb Wing lifts off from a Whiteman runway on July 25, 2013.

Courtesy of U.S. Air Force, photo by Staff Sgt. Nick Wilson.

In 1861, Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, a pro-southern secessionist, vacated Jefferson City with several legislators ahead of a Union advance under General Nathaniel Lyon. Jackson's unrecognized government later convened in Neosho, where they passed an Ordinance of Secession in October 1861. Pictured here is the front page of the Senate Journal of the Rebel Legislature.

Courtesy of Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. View the journal online.

Those men who were rich enough to pay their way out of serving in the Civil War could do just that, and do it legally. The catch was that the person paying had to find someone to serve in his place: a substitute. This record book records the names of the person paying, the substitute's name, and more.

Source: RG133 Adjutant General B. 172.

Smith Crim of Barry County was tried by a military court for the murder of Union Lt. Miller. Crim recounted how he and Hugh McBride shot Miller, took his clothes, horse and money, ate dinner then went home. Crim was found guilty and sentenced to be shot. President Lincoln ultimately upheld the sentence.

Source: Union Provost Marshal reel #F1244. (Original at NARA) Search the Provost Marshal Database online.

Smith Crim of Barry County was tried by a military court for the murder of Union Lt. Miller. Crim recounted how he and Hugh McBride shot Miller, took his clothes, horse and money, ate dinner then went home. Crim was found guilty and sentenced to be shot. President Lincoln ultimately upheld the sentence.

Source: Union Provost Marshal reel #F1244. (Original at NARA) Search the Provost Marshal Database online.

Smith Crim of Barry County was tried by a military court for the murder of Union Lt. Miller. Crim recounted how he and Hugh McBride shot Miller, took his clothes, horse and money, ate dinner then went home. Crim was found guilty and sentenced to be shot. President Lincoln ultimately upheld the sentence.

Source: Union Provost Marshal reel #F1244. (Original at NARA) Search the Provost Marshal Database online.

Smith Crim of Barry County was tried by a military court for the murder of Union Lt. Miller. Crim recounted how he and Hugh McBride shot Miller, took his clothes, horse and money, ate dinner then went home. Crim was found guilty and sentenced to be shot. President Lincoln ultimately upheld the sentence.

Source: Union Provost Marshal reel #F1244. (Original at NARA) Search the Provost Marshal Database online.

Smith Crim of Barry County was tried by a military court for the murder of Union Lt. Miller. Crim recounted how he and Hugh McBride shot Miller, took his clothes, horse and money, ate dinner then went home. Crim was found guilty and sentenced to be shot. President Lincoln ultimately upheld the sentence.

Source: Union Provost Marshal reel #F1244. (Original at NARA) Search the Provost Marshal Database online.

Smith Crim of Barry County was tried by a military court for the murder of Union Lt. Miller. Crim recounted how he and Hugh McBride shot Miller, took his clothes, horse and money, ate dinner then went home. Crim was found guilty and sentenced to be shot. President Lincoln ultimately upheld the sentence.

Source: Union Provost Marshal reel #F1244. (Original at NARA) Search the Provost Marshal Database online.

Smith Crim of Barry County was tried by a military court for the murder of Union Lt. Miller. Crim recounted how he and Hugh McBride shot Miller, took his clothes, horse and money, ate dinner then went home. Crim was found guilty and sentenced to be shot. President Lincoln ultimately upheld the sentence.

Source: Union Provost Marshal reel #F1244. (Original at NARA) Search the Provost Marshal Database online.

Smith Crim of Barry County was tried by a military court for the murder of Union Lt. Miller. Crim recounted how he and Hugh McBride shot Miller, took his clothes, horse and money, ate dinner then went home. Crim was found guilty and sentenced to be shot. President Lincoln ultimately upheld the sentence.

Source: Union Provost Marshal reel #F1244. (Original at NARA) Search the Provost Marshal Database online.

With this August 30, 1861 proclamation, Major-General John C. Frémont put the administration of justice throughout the state under the jurisdiction of the federal military authorities to be administered by provost marshals. Because of wartime conditions, local courts operated sporadically, and Missouri effectively became a military state.

Courtesy of Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Collection #B198, identifier #D05391.

Missouri was a particularly bloody theatre of the American Civil War. Both sides committed war crimes against civilians, prisoners of war, and unarmed combatants. This map of the town of Palmyra in 1860 shows the location of the fairgrounds where ten alleged Confederate sympathizers were executed by Union authorities on October 18, 1862, an atrocity that is known as the "Palmyra Massacre." The civilians were shot in retaliation for the assumed death of Union sympathizer Andrew Alsman.
On September 27, 1864 a band of guerillas led by William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson captured twenty three Union soldiers in Centralia. Anderson asked for a volunteer; Sergeant Thomas Goodman stepped forward under the assumption that he would be shot. Instead Anderson's band of guerrillas massacred the remaining Union soldiers. Sergeant Goodwin went on to write about the Centralia Massacre in his book A Thrilling Record, Founded on Facts and Observations Obtained During Then Days' Experience with Colonel William T. Anderson.

Courtesy of the City Clerk of Palmyra, and The State Historical Society of Missouri.

Unable to gain the upper hand against guerrillas on the Missouri-Kansas border, General Thomas Ewing issued General Order No. 11 in August 1863. Rural residents of Jackson, Cass, Bates and northern Vernon County who could not prove their loyalty were ordered to vacate the district within fifteen days. All grain and hay was to be taken to refuge cities or destroyed. The area became known as the Burnt District after fires destroyed many of the abandoned properties.

Courtesy of Cincinnati Art Museum, painting by George Caleb Bingham.

The 1862 Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves forbade the Union Army to return escaped slaves to their masters. Such slaves who made their way into Union camps ended up either working for the Army or receiving so-called "certificates of contraband" and being set free. Freed slaves had a difficult time making a living, as this 1864 letter from the Kansas City Missionary of Freedmen explains. The author is requesting aid.

Source: Union Provost Marshal reel #F1241. (Original at NARA) Search the Provost Marshal Database online.

The 1862 Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves forbade the Union Army to return escaped slaves to their masters. Such slaves who made their way into Union camps ended up either working for the Army or receiving so-called "certificates of contraband" and being set free. Freed slaves had a difficult time making a living, as this 1864 letter from the Kansas City Missionary of Freedmen explains. The author is requesting aid.

Source: Union Provost Marshal reel #F1241. (Original at NARA) Search the Provost Marshal Database online.

Beginning in 1863, African-American men could join segregated units called the United States Colored Troops, or USCT, and fight for the Union. Over 8,300 African-Americans from Missouri served during the Civil War. This descriptive list is for George W. Reynolds of Clay County.

Source: RG133.31 USCT Regimental Returns B. 1 F. 82. Browse Missouri's USCT descriptive lists online.

Beginning in 1863, African-American men could join segregated units called the United States Colored Troops, or USCT, and fight for the Union. Over 8,300 African-Americans from Missouri served during the Civil War. This descriptive list is for George W. Reynolds of Clay County.

Source: RG133.31 USCT Regimental Returns B. 1 F. 82. Browse Missouri's USCT descriptive lists online.

Officers (commissioned and non-commissioned) in Missouri and Federal units were required to take oaths of loyalty to the United States during the Civil War. Often civilians accused of aiding the Confederacy were also required to take oaths as well as post a pricey bond assuring they would not break the oath's terms. This oath is for a non-commissioned officer - a surgeon - of the 5th Missouri State Militia Cavalry, Joel H. Warren.

Source: RG133.17 MSM Regimental Returns B. 10 F. 61. Search civilian oaths in the Union Provost Marshal database online.

The ordinance to abolish slavery was passed in Missouri in January 1865, eleven months before the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. The ordinance was passed by the Constitutional Convention and abolished slavery in the State of Missouri. Shown is the original ordinance, which was rescued from the 1911 Missouri Capitol fire.

Source: RG133.17 MSM Regimental Returns B. 10 F. 61. Search civilian oaths in the Union Provost Marshal database online.

Missouri approved a new Constitution in 1865, nicknamed the Drake Constitution for its primary author Charles Drake. Part of the new Constitution was a section called the Ironclad Oath. Any professional (teacher, physician, attorney, military, elected official, etc.) wishing to work in Missouri had to take the Oath swearing that he or she did not aid the Confederacy in any way during the Civil War. Anyone who did not sign the Oath was not permitted to work in their profession.

Source: RG133.15 Adjutant General Records B. 4 F. 36. View the Drake Constitution online.

Missouri approved a new Constitution in 1865, nicknamed the Drake Constitution for its primary author Charles Drake. Part of the new Constitution was a section called the Ironclad Oath. Any professional (teacher, physician, attorney, military, elected official, etc.) wishing to work in Missouri had to take the Oath swearing that he or she did not aid the Confederacy in any way during the Civil War. Anyone who did not sign the Oath was not permitted to work in their profession.

Source: RG133.15 Adjutant General Records B. 4 F. 36. View the Drake Constitution online.

The heartache of the Civil War endured long after the fighting ended. In 1899, Mrs. Leuisa Willison wrote the Adjutant General asking about her husband, saying she "will be very thankful to hear of his fate." Unfortunately, her husband, recorded as Nelson Wilson, had died on April 4, 1864.

Source: RG133.31 USCT Regimental Returns B. 1 F. 77.

People with communicable diseases such as smallpox were sometimes treated in quarantine. The places of quarantine were variously called pest houses, camps, ranches, or sanatoriums. This 1882 inspection report on the Independence smallpox ranch finds it satisfactory.

Courtesy of Independence City Clerk.

People with communicable diseases such as smallpox were sometimes treated in quarantine. The places of quarantine were variously called pest houses, camps, ranches, or sanatoriums. This 1882 inspection report on the Independence smallpox ranch finds it satisfactory.

Courtesy of Independence City Clerk.

The 1880s were high point for the use of mineral springs as founts of healing. Resort towns both large and small grew up around these springs. Excelsior Springs in Jackson County is one such site. Pictured here are Dr. A.S. McCleary and his patients. The second image shows visitors to El Dorado Springs in Cedar County. Park Hotel is in the background.

Sources: RG998 MS476 Callaway County History Collection, M-3-4 and Missouri State University Special Collections, El Dorado Springs Community Photo Collection #MOU_SC-M-012_29l. View the El Dorado collection online.

The 1880s were high point for the use of mineral springs as founts of healing. Resort towns both large and small grew up around these springs. Excelsior Springs in Jackson County is one such site. Pictured here are Dr. A.S. McCleary and his patients. The second image shows visitors to El Dorado Springs in Cedar County. Park Hotel is in the background.

Sources: RG998 MS476 Callaway County History Collection, M-3-4 and Missouri State University Special Collections, El Dorado Springs Community Photo Collection #MOU_SC-M-012_29l. View the El Dorado collection online.

Not every institution is scientifically-oriented. The Dr. Nichols Sanatorium in Savannah, MO, purported to treat cancer. It opened in 1914 and continued operation for several decades. Investigations in 1933 and 1943 both determined that many patients were falsely diagnosed and that the Nichols "escharotic method" of treatment did nothing but scar the patients' skin.

Courtesy of Linda Myers.

An 1846 outbreak of cholera in the Ganges River delta of India turned into a worldwide pandemic, fueled by international trade and immigration. The water-borne bacterial disease reached St. Louis in 1849, where it killed over 4,500 people in that year. The 1850 Census Mortality Schedule shows the impact of the pandemic in antebellum Missouri.

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

Ste. Genevieve was the first permanent European settlement in Missouri. Settled around 1750 by French colonists, several of its early buildings constructed with vertical posts still exist today, as does this first brick house west of the Mississippi River, built around 1785.

Courtesy of University of Missouri-St. Louis Mercantile Library, St. Louis Globe-Democrat Photograph Collection. View this photograph collection online.

Established in 1764 as a trading post, by 1820 St. Louis was still a fortified frontier city. This map outlines fortifications built over a period of time beginning in 1780 during Spanish control. These included bastions built at angles to walls to allow defensive fire in multiple directions.

Courtesy of St. Louis Public Library, Papers of Dr. Lewis C. Beck.

The Wendell O. Pruitt Homes and William Igoe Apartments, better known as Pruitt-Igoe, was an urban housing project in downtown St. Louis. Residents claimed poor maintenance by housing authorities was responsible for the buildings' decline, while housing authorities blamed lack of funding. The 33-building complex was demolished in 1976.

Courtesy of The State Historical Society of Missouri George McCue Photograph Collection, S0718_7062.

Joseph Robidoux filed the plat for St. Joseph in 1843, near where he had been trading for nearly two decades. Robidoux Row was the last remaining apartment building constructed by Robidoux, dating to the 1850s. These were temporary housing for new residents while their homes were being built or as stopovers for travelers on their way west.

Courtesy of St. Joseph Historical Society and Robidoux Row Museum.

Kansas City's history, like that of St. Louis, is tied to the fur trade. Early in Missouri's history, a member of the St. Louis Chouteau family settled at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers. Eventually the settlement outstripped nearby Westport as the entry point to the west. It was reincorporated in 1853 as the City of Kansas. This map of the city is dated c1881.

Courtesy of University of Missouri-St. Louis Mercantile Library, History of Kansas City, Together with a Sketch of the Commercial Resources of the Country with Which It Is Surrounded by W.H. Miller, p. vii. View this book online.

The first white settlers arrived around 1830 at what is now Springfield. Dr. John Polk Campbell donated land in 1833 for a town, and Springfield incorporated in 1838. This invoice is dated over a year before the incorporation. It details medical services rendered to James A. McCarrol by Doctors Cornelius D. Terrell and Polk [Campbell].

Courtesy of Greene County Archives and Records Center.

With two major waterways (the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers), Missourians were able to travel and conduct business easier than ever before with the advent of steamboats. This mode of transport was not perfect, though, and several accidents were documented in local- and state-level lawsuits. These images are the first three pages of a Missouri Supreme Court case file wherein the plaintiff is suing an insurance company for nonpayment after his steamboat "Winona" sank in the Missouri River on October 27, 1854.

Source: RG600 Missouri Supreme Court B. 399 F. 7. View the whole case file online.

With two major waterways (the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers), Missourians were able to travel and conduct business easier than ever before with the advent of steamboats. This mode of transport was not perfect, though, and several accidents were documented in local- and state-level lawsuits. These images are the first three pages of a Missouri Supreme Court case file wherein the plaintiff is suing an insurance company for nonpayment after his steamboat "Winona" sank in the Missouri River on October 27, 1854.

Source: RG600 Missouri Supreme Court B. 399 F. 7. View the whole case file online.

With two major waterways (the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers), Missourians were able to travel and conduct business easier than ever before with the advent of steamboats. This mode of transport was not perfect, though, and several accidents were documented in local- and state-level lawsuits. These images are the first three pages of a Missouri Supreme Court case file wherein the plaintiff is suing an insurance company for nonpayment after his steamboat "Winona" sank in the Missouri River on October 27, 1854.

Source: RG600 Missouri Supreme Court B. 399 F. 7. View the whole case file online.

Largely a thing of the past, covered bridges once dotted Missouri roadways. The iconic Burfordville covered bridge has been in continuous service since 1867. This bridge is situated next to the Bollinger Mill and Dam.

Source: RG998 MS192 Gerald Massie Photograph Collection, #054_080. View this photograph collection online.

The first Pony Express ride, begun April 3, 1860, took 10 days. Traveling 2,000 miles from St. Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA, riders crossed desert, mountains, and Native American territory faster than any competitor. It provided a crucial link at a time when no rail or telegraph lines went that far west. This statue commemorates the Pony Express's starting point in St. Joseph, MO.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Publications Non-Portrait Collection, #78_20_092. View this photograph collection online.

The trail from Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico had a few starting points early on, but soon it became clear that Independence, Missouri in Jackson County was the main hub for departure. This image shows a Conestoga wagon being led by a team of four horses. The team was photographed in 1950 to represent early Santa Fe Trail travelers.

Source: RG998 MS192 Gerald Massie Photograph Collection, #046_064. View this photograph collection online.

The Butterfield Overland Mail line carried mail and passengers between 1858-1861 from Memphis and St. Louis to San Francisco. In March 1861, William W. McKay paid $6.50 fare to travel from Smith City to Bolivar. Near Warsaw, the coach overturned, leading him to sue for $2,500 in damages. Two years later, the case received a change of venue to Greene County. Two years after that, in July 1865, the case was dismissed. This is the original 1861 petition.

Courtesy of Polk County Circuit Court. Read the full Polk County case file on Missouri Digital Heritage.

The Butterfield Overland Mail line carried mail and passengers between 1858-1861 from Memphis and St. Louis to San Francisco. In March 1861, William W. McKay paid $6.50 fare to travel from Smith City to Bolivar. Near Warsaw, the coach overturned, leading him to sue for $2,500 in damages. Two years later, the case received a change of venue to Greene County. Two years after that, in July 1865, the case was dismissed. This is the original 1861 petition.

Courtesy of Polk County Circuit Court. Read the full Polk County case file on Missouri Digital Heritage.

The Butterfield Overland Mail line carried mail and passengers between 1858-1861 from Memphis and St. Louis to San Francisco. In March 1861, William W. McKay paid $6.50 fare to travel from Smith City to Bolivar. Near Warsaw, the coach overturned, leading him to sue for $2,500 in damages. Two years later, the case received a change of venue to Greene County. Two years after that, in July 1865, the case was dismissed. This is the original 1861 petition.

Courtesy of Polk County Circuit Court. Read the full Polk County case file on Missouri Digital Heritage.

The Butterfield Overland Mail line carried mail and passengers between 1858-1861 from Memphis and St. Louis to San Francisco. In March 1861, William W. McKay paid $6.50 fare to travel from Smith City to Bolivar. Near Warsaw, the coach overturned, leading him to sue for $2,500 in damages. Two years later, the case received a change of venue to Greene County. Two years after that, in July 1865, the case was dismissed. This is the original 1861 petition.

Courtesy of Polk County Circuit Court. Read the full Polk County case file on Missouri Digital Heritage.

Ferries provided valuable access when low-water fords or bridges did not. One of the earliest types was a cable ferry that crossed rivers by an overhead cable strung between both riverbanks. This picture shows the hand-operated winch used to move the ferry.

Source: RG998 MS330 Charles Elliott Gill Photograph Collection, #830. View this photograph collection online.

Horse-powered ferries had more power than cable ferries. The Tilda Clara ferry operated on the Missouri River at New Haven, Franklin County, powered by four horses divided into two teams. Each pair operated a wooden treadmill connected to a paddle wheel, powering the large ferry across the river.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Publications Vanishing Missouri Collection, #5-949.

In 1859, the Hannibal and St. Joseph rail line, the first to traverse the state, was completed. Post-war reconstruction drove the rapid growth of railroads and soon there were dozens of railroad companies in operation in Missouri. This map is dated 1888 and shows the railroad lines at the time.

Source: MSA Map Collection.

The first horse-drawn streetcars appeared after the Civil War. Later they gave way to electric cars that ran on tracks, connected to overhead electric lines. Shown: the Kansas City, Clay County and Saint Joseph Railway Excelsior Springs car.

Courtesy of Kansas City Public Library Missouri Valley Special Collections, General Collection #10007363.

The earliest Missouri road-building efforts amounted to nothing more than clearing trees and brush from travel routes. State statutes from the 1830s specified the width of roads and that no stump left in the road should be higher than eight inches. Pictured here is page 1 of 11 of the 1843 state road map from Hermann in Gasconade County to Lick Settlement in Shannon County. Most maps like these consisted of text and drawings.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Early State Road Maps Collection B. 25.

The Federal Aid Road Act was introduced by Missouri Representative Dorsey W. Shackleford and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. The federal government gave states matching funds to build modern roads. Missouri's drivers soon found out that even good roads couldn't stop accidents from happening.

Courtesy of Missouri State University Domino Danzero Photograph Collection.

The first airports in Missouri started showing up as soon as there were airplanes. Travel by air is now an accepted standard. Pictured here is Lambert Airfield in the 1950s, back when travelers dressed up to fly.

Source: RG104 Department of Economic Development Commerce and Industrial Development Division #CID_017_052. Photo by Gerald Massie.

Famous U.S. Route 66 highway runs from Illinois to California and makes its way through several sites in Missouri. The route was advertised in many tourist brochures and vacationers from across the country would "get their kicks" at stops along the way. This film is of the Missouri Department of Transportation building sections of Route 66 in Arlington Hill and Strafford, MO.

Source: RG107 Department of Tranportation Film Collection

Fur trade proved to be one of the most profitable undertakings for the territorial entrepreneur. The abundance of animal pelts encouraged a number of colorful characters to move up and down the Mississippi Valley region, playing a key role in the settlement and development of the Upper Louisiana area. St. Louis dominated the Upper Louisiana fur trade; several successful companies, including the famous Missouri Fur Company of Manuel Lisa and partners, were in business there. This series of images is a sample case file, Henly Donnolson vs. St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, dated 1810.

Courtesy of St. Louis Circuit Court and MSA. Browse early St. Louis fur trade-related cases online.

Fur trade proved to be one of the most profitable undertakings for the territorial entrepreneur. The abundance of animal pelts encouraged a number of colorful characters to move up and down the Mississippi Valley region, playing a key role in the settlement and development of the Upper Louisiana area. St. Louis dominated the Upper Louisiana fur trade; several successful companies, including the famous Missouri Fur Company of Manuel Lisa and partners, were in business there. This series of images is a sample case file, Henly Donnolson vs. St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, dated 1810.

Courtesy of St. Louis Circuit Court and MSA. Browse early St. Louis fur trade-related cases online.

Fur trade proved to be one of the most profitable undertakings for the territorial entrepreneur. The abundance of animal pelts encouraged a number of colorful characters to move up and down the Mississippi Valley region, playing a key role in the settlement and development of the Upper Louisiana area. St. Louis dominated the Upper Louisiana fur trade; several successful companies, including the famous Missouri Fur Company of Manuel Lisa and partners, were in business there. This series of images is a sample case file, Henly Donnolson vs. St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, dated 1810.

Courtesy of St. Louis Circuit Court and MSA. Browse early St. Louis fur trade-related cases online.

Fur trade proved to be one of the most profitable undertakings for the territorial entrepreneur. The abundance of animal pelts encouraged a number of colorful characters to move up and down the Mississippi Valley region, playing a key role in the settlement and development of the Upper Louisiana area. St. Louis dominated the Upper Louisiana fur trade; several successful companies, including the famous Missouri Fur Company of Manuel Lisa and partners, were in business there. This series of images is a sample case file, Henly Donnolson vs. St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, dated 1810.

Courtesy of St. Louis Circuit Court and MSA. Browse early St. Louis fur trade-related cases online.

Fur trade proved to be one of the most profitable undertakings for the territorial entrepreneur. The abundance of animal pelts encouraged a number of colorful characters to move up and down the Mississippi Valley region, playing a key role in the settlement and development of the Upper Louisiana area. St. Louis dominated the Upper Louisiana fur trade; several successful companies, including the famous Missouri Fur Company of Manuel Lisa and partners, were in business there. This series of images is a sample case file, Henly Donnolson vs. St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, dated 1810.

Courtesy of St. Louis Circuit Court and MSA. Browse early St. Louis fur trade-related cases online.

Henry Tibbe, a Dutch immigrant who settled in Washington, Missouri, began making corncob pipes in 1869. In 1878 he patented his "Missouri Meerschaum." The company continues to produce corncob pipes in Washington, which has become known as the "The Corncob Pipe Capital of the World." Included among their customers was General Douglas MacArthur.

Courtesy of The State Historical Society of Missouri, #C3711 Tibbe-Cuthbertson Family Papers.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, St. Louis was one of the nation's largest manufacturing cities because of its pool of immigrant labor. Shoe manufacturers such as Tennent-Stribling, Claflin Allen, Brown Desnoyer, Peter's, and Friedman-Shelby rose to prominence in St. Louis. By one account, St. Louis went from having no shoe factories in 1869 to wholesale sales exceeding $1 million in 1874. St. Louis companies supplied most Missouri merchants, but sometimes had to take legal action to recover their debt. These images are a sample from a case file of Brown Shoe Co. vs. James B. Sally, 1898.

Courtesy of Phelps County Circuit Court, MSA microfilm. Read more about the history of St. Louis shoe companies.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, St. Louis was one of the nation's largest manufacturing cities because of its pool of immigrant labor. Shoe manufacturers such as Tennent-Stribling, Claflin Allen, Brown Desnoyer, Peter's, and Friedman-Shelby rose to prominence in St. Louis. By one account, St. Louis went from having no shoe factories in 1869 to wholesale sales exceeding $1 million in 1874. St. Louis companies supplied most Missouri merchants, but sometimes had to take legal action to recover their debt. These images are a sample from a case file of Brown Shoe Co. vs. James B. Sally, 1898.

Read more about the history of St. Louis shoe companies.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, St. Louis was one of the nation's largest manufacturing cities because of its pool of immigrant labor. Shoe manufacturers such as Tennent-Stribling, Claflin Allen, Brown Desnoyer, Peter's, and Friedman-Shelby rose to prominence in St. Louis. By one account, St. Louis went from having no shoe factories in 1869 to wholesale sales exceeding $1 million in 1874. St. Louis companies supplied most Missouri merchants, but sometimes had to take legal action to recover their debt. These images are a sample from a case file of Brown Shoe Co. vs. James B. Sally, 1898.

Read more about the history of St. Louis shoe companies.

German immigrants brought the art of brewing to St. Louis. Everhard Anheuser entered the brewing business in the 1850s and was later joined by his son-in-law Adolphus Busch. One of Anheuser-Busch's products is Michelob Beer. Here, the company applies for a trademark in 1917.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Commissions Trademarks B. 36 F. 3073.

German immigrants brought the art of brewing to St. Louis. Everhard Anheuser entered the brewing business in the 1850s and was later joined by his son-in-law Adolphus Busch. One of Anheuser-Busch's products is Michelob Beer. Here, the company applies for a trademark in 1917.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Commissions Trademarks B. 36 F. 3073.

German immigrants brought the art of brewing to St. Louis. Everhard Anheuser entered the brewing business in the 1850s and was later joined by his son-in-law Adolphus Busch. One of Anheuser-Busch's products is Michelob Beer. Here, the company applies for a trademark in 1917.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Commissions Trademarks B. 36 F. 3073.

Cherry Mash Candy, a concoction of cherries, peanuts, and chocolate, has been manufactured continuously in St. Joseph since 1918. The company itself has origins in St. Joseph as early as 1876. It evolved over time to become Chase Candy Company and in fact still operates under that name. This 1911 document re-incorporates the business under the name G. W. Chase & Son Mercantile Company.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Commissions. Search businesses' articles of incorporation online.

Cherry Mash Candy, a concoction of cherries, peanuts, and chocolate, has been manufactured continuously in St. Joseph since 1918. The company itself has origins in St. Joseph as early as 1876. It evolved over time to become Chase Candy Company and in fact still operates under that name. This 1911 document re-incorporates the business under the name G. W. Chase & Son Mercantile Company.

Source: RG005 Secretary of State Commissions. Search businesses' articles of incorporation online.

Livingston County, Missouri counts itself as the home of sliced bread. In 1932, jeweler Otto Rohwedder patented a machine that not only sliced loaves of bread, but also wrapped them. The Chillicothe Baking Company sold the resulting product under the name Kleen Maid Sliced Bread.

Courtesy of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. View Rohwedder's whole patent application online.

Carthage Marble is not actually marble, but a finely-grained limestone quarried near Carthage, Missouri. It has been used for both building interiors and exteriors throughout the U.S., including the Broadway State Office Building (pictured) and State Capitol Building in Jefferson City.

Source: RG998 MS360 Dr. Arnold G. Parks Postcard Collection #116. View this postcard collection online.

Grandin, Missouri was built as a company town and lumber production began there in 1888. Operating in Butler, Carter, Reynolds, Ripley and Wayne Counties, Grandin's Missouri Lumber and Mining Company became one of the largest lumber producers in the U.S. By 1910, however, the forests around Grandin were depleted and its mills were moved elsewhere.

Source: RG998 MS265 Katy Duckett Photograph Collection B. 69 F. 7D.

Rawlings began in St. Louis in 1887 by selling a wide variety of sporting goods. It designed the first modern baseball glove in 1919. Today the company is headquartered in Town and Country, St. Louis County. Pictured here is George Sisler's 1920 leather Rawlings mitt.

Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, #002.00.00.

Rawlings began in St. Louis in 1887 by selling a wide variety of sporting goods. It designed the first modern baseball glove in 1919. Today the company is headquartered in Town and Country, St. Louis County. Pictured here is George Sisler's 1920 leather Rawlings mitt.

Courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, #002.00.00.