Search for:
Collection
Articles
About
Contact Us
Homepage
|
Collection
Collection
Open Filters
Close Filters
Region
All
Central
Kansas City Metro
Northeast
Northwest
Southeast
Southwest
St. Louis Metro
Sort
Chronological (Ascending)
Chronological (Descending)
Alphabetical (A-Z)
Alphabetical (Z-A)
Themes
Agriculture
Arts & Culture
Business & Economy
Cities & Towns
Civil Rights
Education
Health, Science & Technology
Natural Enviroment
People
Politics & Government
Religion
War & Conflict
Grid View
Map View
This is the only surviving piece of abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy’s last printing press. Throughout the nineteenth century, Missouri found itself at the center of the pro-slavery and abolitionist debate as a slave state surrounded by free states. Elijah Lovejoy joined the discussion when he founded the St. Louis Observer, an abolitionist newspaper. Harassment at the …
Elijah Lovejoy’s Printing Press
1837
On November 4, 1854, two Greene County enslavers used this handbill to advertise for the return of two freedom seekers, who had set out together from their farms 12 miles west of Springfield, Missouri. Archa, 21, and John, 28, were most likely on their way west to the newly-opened Kansas Territory. The handbill is detailed, …
Runaway Broadside
1854
This portrait of Dred Scott was painted by German-born St. Louis artist Louis Schultze (c. 1820 – 6 February 1901). The painting was commissioned by the Missouri Historical Society in 1888 as part of a series of portraits of prominent St. Louis residents and was paid for by African American citizens of the city. Schultze …
Portrait of Dred Scott
1857
This Jefferson County cabin, which housed enslaved people, is typical of the double pen cabins with an enclosed dogtrot that were common in the Missouri countryside during the early days of settlement. At least two enslaved families likely inhabited the cabin. Many white settlers initially lived in modest log cabins such as this one but …
Enslaved People’s Cabin
1865
Founded in 1911 by suffrage clubs from Kansas City, Warrensburg, and Webster Groves, the Missouri Equal Suffrage Association (MESA) became a vehicle to demand women’s right to vote across the state. This handmade banner was likely carried in a St. Louis women’s suffrage parade on September 30, 1913. The demonstration began with a motorcade of …
Suffrage Banner
1913
Artist Rose O’Neill’s preliminary sketch (c.1915) of a New Woman and the liberated New Man was one of several suffragette posters she drew for the National Women’s Suffrage Movement. A photograph by F. DeMaria & Co. showed O’Neill and her sister Callista wearing the completed illustration as a placard during a suffragette march in New …
Rose O’Neill
1915, ca.
This 1929 “white only” sign from the St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company exhibits the defining presence of racial segregation in Missouri during the early twentieth century. Also known as the “Cotton Belt Railroad,” the rail connected St. Louis and Missouri to the South’s cotton industry. It later formed a critical part of other major rail …
“White Only” Sign
1929
After Missouri emancipated the state’s enslaved people on January 11, 1865, many of Greene County’s Black residents settled in Springfield. The largest neighborhood was near modern-day Drury University and the Ozarks Technical Community College. To serve the growing African American population, a Freedmen’s School opened in Springfield. The school was held in the “upper part …
Lincoln High School Drum
1931 - 1955
This city directory is a comprehensive catalog of Kansas City’s Black community from 1942 to 1943. The guide listed Black churches, schools, secret societies, state institutions, and organizations, as well as an index of Black-owned and managed businesses. Beyond Black public spaces, the directory also detailed the names, addresses, phone numbers, occupations, property and vehicle …
Kansas City Negro City Directory
1942 - 1943
In 1945, J.D. and Ethel Shelley purchased a home in St. Louis’ Fairgrounds neighborhood (now part of the Greater Ville). Like many Black families, the Shelleys left Mississippi to escape violent racism and settled in St. Louis. After years of living with relatives and renting, the Shelleys moved into the modest brick duplex at 4600 …
Shelley House
1945 - Present
As the rise of the middle class, the growth of the automobile industry, and the construction of interstate highways made the road trip the most popular form of travel among American families, the Green Book became an essential guide for Black motorists during the Jim Crow era. Victor H. Green, a Black U.S. postal worker …
The Negro Motorist Green-book
1946
This business card advertises the hotel owned by Alberta Northcutt Ellis, an African American entrepreneur from the Ozarks. Ellis owned several businesses in Springfield including the Crystal Lounge and The Farm–a working farm located ten miles west of the city that also served as a roadside park for Black tourists. After World War II, Ellis …
Alberta’s Hotel Business Card
1950s - 1964
Throughout the 1940s, St. Louis activists led sit-ins to protest the denial of service Black residents faced in restaurants, cafeterias, and lunch counters. The first demonstration occurred on May 15, 1944, when a group of Black and white women walked into a Stix, Baer, & Fuller department store and sat at the lunch counter. The …
Woolworth’s Luncheonette Sign
1954
In the early twentieth century, Missouri’s hospitals engaged in discriminatory practices. Frustrated by lack of care and educational opportunities, Black leaders sought to establish racially segregated facilities to meet their community’s needs. In 1937, Homer G. Phillips Hospital opened its doors to African American students and patients in St. Louis. Located at 2601 Whittier Street, …
Homer G. Phillips Nursing Cap & Dress
1956
In 1954, the St. Louis Public Schools Instruction Department drafted a report outlining the city’s integration plan following the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. Although the report acknowledged that total desegregation was possible for the 1954-1955 school year, its authors proposed a more gradual integration schedule for the city’s 90,000 students. Using …
Report: “Desegregation of the Public Schools”
1956
Fairyland Park was a popular Kansas City amusement park owned and operated by the Brancato family from 1923 to 1977. At its height in the mid-twentieth century, the park featured three roller coasters, an eight-story ferris wheel, a massive swimming pool, among other attractions. Like many public spaces in Missouri, the park employed segregationist policies, …
Fairyland Park NAACP Flyer
1961
Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., hundreds of communities across the country witnessed protests. This photograph depicts Bruce R. Watkins leading a group of students to City Hall during the Kansas City uprising in April 1968. The image captures the emotion of Mr. Watkins and the crowd on I-70 on a mission …
Bruce R. Watkins Protest March Photograph
1968
Located in St. Louis, Harris-Stowe State University is one of the two historically Black colleges in Missouri. The university began as two normal schools: Harris Teachers College and Sumner Normal School. Founded in 1857, Harris Teachers College became the first public teachers’ college west of the Mississippi, primarily training white teachers to work in white …
Harris-Stowe University Cheer Uniform
1977-1979
In 1987, The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) was formed in New York City in response to government inaction during the AIDS Crisis. Numerous ACT-UP chapters were established across the nation, including one in Kansas City, founded in September 1988 by Jon Barnett and David Weeda. ACT-UP/KC organized locally to aid and fight for …
Act Up Kansas City Buttons
1987
First published in November 1989, Coming Out: A Lesbian Newsletter was created by and for lesbians in Columbia. According to its first issue, the newsletter’s mission was to fight against the community’s alienation and “create a greater sense of connectedness” among lesbians in the area. For nearly a decade, Coming Out published local news stories, …
Coming Out: A Lesbian Newsletter
1989
This protest sign was carried by Larry Miller, a Ferguson resident and community activist. Miller was heavily involved in the demonstrations following the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. This sign features “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” and “#JusticeforMikeBrown” in black, capital lettering. The sign’s quote, a …
Ferguson Protest Sign
2014
The Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s brought national visibility to the fight for Mexican American civil rights, and Missouri was no exception. Despite making up a small population in the state, Mexican Americans and Latinxs engaged in local and national efforts to end discrimination and bring about social change. Entire families participated in …
Interview With Carlos Salazar
2017