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In 1764, French fur trader Pierre de Laclède de Liguest and Auguste Chouteau founded St. Louis. Their family’s success in the fur trade and business helped grow the small French settlement into a well-connected city. Jean Pierre Chouteau’s armoire, crafted in the 1790s, represents the Chouteau family’s role in the founding and transformation of St. …
French Colonial Armoire
1770s
Missouri’s thriving beer industry can trace its roots to Adam Lemp, a German immigrant who introduced the lager style to St. Louis in the late 1830s. After a stint in Cincinnati, Lemp moved to St. Louis, where he opened a grocery store to sell his homebrewed beer alongside other goods. Realizing a greater demand for …
Corking Machine
1830 - 1840
The George Caleb Bingham Home was built in 1837 in Arrow Rock, Missouri. Its architect and first owner, George Caleb Bingham (1811 – 1879), was a Whig politician and artist. Bingham painted portraits of prominent contemporary Missourians but achieved national fame as a genre painter for his paintings of American frontier life along the Missouri …
George Caleb Bingham Home
1837 - present
Delaware (Lenape) women created an entirely new style of beadwork in the decade following the Removal Act of 1830 that forced them west from the woodlands of southwest Missouri to the prairies of Kansas and Oklahoma. Known as the “Prairie Style,” it combined northern and southern Woodland designs and would influence the beadwork of many …
Delaware Bandolier Bag
1840 - 1860
This hand-pieced cotton quilt was made by Sophia Root Moore around 1850. Sophia Moore was the matriarch of a prominent Linn County farming family that produced over 40 quilts between 1855 and 1940. Some of these quilts are believed to have been started by Sophia Moore in the 1850’s and finished by the family’s descendants …
Cotton Quilt
1850
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
Missouri’s son, Mark Twain, wrote the American literary masterpiece, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, among other famous works. The 1876 American Publishing Co. edition of Tom Sawyer shown here is the first version of the story by Twain. Although Twain sent the original manuscript to Elisha Bliss at American Publishing Co. in November 1875, Bliss …
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Manuscript
1875
The Linnean House, named after Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, is a greenhouse located on the grounds of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Constructed in 1882, it is the oldest continuously-serving public greenhouse west of the Mississippi River. Designed by regarded architect George I. Barnett, the greenhouse was constructed with elaborate masonry, wood doors …
Linnean House, Missouri Botanical Gardens
1882
Marceline is a small town with a big reputation and history reflecting the rise of small towns in Missouri. As the Santa Fe Railroad expanded into the west in the late 19th century, railroad leadership designated locomotive stops along the line in Missouri for water, fuel, and crew changes. This created a number of new …
Marceline, Missouri
1887 - present
Composed by Scott Joplin, the “Maple Leaf Rag” changed the course of modern American music. Joplin was born and raised in Texarkana, Texas, and moved to Sedalia in the 1890s. He performed as a pianist at local Black establishments, including the Maple Leaf Club, while taking music classes at George R. Smith College. In 1899, …
Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin
1899
Published in 1899, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, an upper-class woman living in Louisiana in the 1890s. In the novel, Edna challenges the prevailing moral codes of the late-19th century south as she transforms from a conventional mother into an independent woman who finds purpose outside of the home. Chopin’s …
Kate Chopin’s Book and Letters
1899
In April 1904, St. Louis opened the Louisiana Purchase Exposition to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. Popularly known as the St. Louis World’s Fair, the exhibition showcased the city’s grand achievements and the wonders of technology, agriculture, art, history, and culture. Throughout the fairgrounds, gardens displayed beautiful landscaping, sculptures, and waterways that …
Shi Statue, Chinese Pavilion, World’s Fair
1904
The Mutual Musicians Foundation Building is located on Highland Avenue between 18th and 19th Street in Kansas City’s historic 18th and Vine district. Built in 1904, the building has served multiple different organizations, most notably the Musician’s Union Local 627. The building is associated with many famous musicians who have made an impact on jazz, …
Mutual Musicians Foundation
1904 - Present
This well-preserved embossed tray was unearthed during a backyard gardening project at a South Kansas City home. It is a limited-edition souvenir that accompanied an invitation to the Priests of Pallas ball in 1906. Elite Kansas City businessmen and community leaders first organized and sponsored the Priests of Pallas festivities in 1887 and held the …
Priests of Pallas
1906
Harold Bell Wright’s novel The Shepherd of the Hills introduced readers across the world to the Missouri Ozarks. The inspiration for Wright’s fictional story came from his time in the White River region near Branson. Throughout the 1890s, Wright made several trips to the area and developed a connection to the land and the locals. …
The Shepherd of the Hills
1907
Saint Louis University has a long storied place in Missouri history. The University’s College of Arts and Science traces its origins to the St. Louis Academy. Established in 1818, the academy was the first institution of higher education west of the Mississippi River. Saint Louis University received its formal charter for the state in 1832, …
Billiken
1908
The current state flag of Missouri was designed by Cape Girardeau resident Marie Elizabeth Watkins Oliver as part of a Daughters of the American Revolution project in 1908 and was adopted by the Missouri General Assembly in 1913. The flag is a tricolor consisting of three horizontal stripes of red, white, and blue. The coat-of-arms …
Missouri State Flag
1908
St. Patrick’s Day, a day most commonly associated with green, alcohol, and joyous celebration, also has a special connection with engineering students across the world. St. Patrick, born in the late 4th century AD, was known for spreading Christianity and building churches, particularly in Ireland. He is credited with introducing arches and the use of …
St. Patrick’s Day
1908
Carl Worner, a German immigrant, was a drifter and traveling artisan. At a time when unemployment was high, immigrants like Worner were able to support themselves by applying their whittling and artistic skills to carve dioramas or scenes of businesses displayed in a bottle. The scene in this “bottle whimsy” created by Worner in 1908 …
Saloon Diorama Bottle
1910
During the first half of the twentieth century, segregation and racist real estate practices in Kansas City forced Black families to settle into crowded residences around the 18th and Vine intersection. As the population swelled, African Americans cultivated an autonomous area that catered to the social and cultural needs of their community. By the 1920s, …
Gem Theater
1912 - Present
Taking root from field hollers, work songs, and spirituals, the blues emerged at the turn of the 20th century. Although it is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when the genre began, many have credited W. C. Handy as the “father of the blues.” In 1892, Handy traveled to St. Louis, a hub for Black …
“St. Louis Blues” – W.C. Handy
1914
On October 30, 1914, Kansas City’s Union Station opened to the public before a crowd of 100,000 people. Designed by the Chicago-based architect Jarvis Hunt, the Beaux-Arts style building is perhaps the city’s best representation of the City Beautiful Movement. Union Station is over 850,000 square feet and features ornate ceiling details, a grand hall, …
Union Station Kansas City
1914 - Present
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.
Cartoons like this published in the St. Louis Republic aimed to convince readers that the German-language press in the United States did not provide education but instead served as a tool for German propagandists. Although the publisher and editor of the newspaper appreciated the contributions of Germans like Carl Schurz and Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, …
“Step On It” Political Cartoon
1918
Springfield was home to the world’s largest Boy Scout band, led by R. Ritchie Robertson, a music teacher at the then-Springfield High School. Established in 1920, the band had 400 members at the height of its success. The band quickly grew in fame, and over the years, performed before several distinguished individuals, including John Phillips Sousa and …
Springfield Boy Scout Band
1920 - 1949
Located in Kansas City’s Westside, the Guadalupe Center is one of the most prominent Latinx organizations in the region. Founded in 1919 by the Agnes Ward Amberg Club, a group of affluent white Catholic women, the center sought to address the needs of the Mexican immigrant community and the discrimination they faced locally. Despite its …
The Guadalupe Center Scrapbooks
1920 - 1940
Newton (Newt) Allen wore this red and white wool uniform while playing ball for the Kansas City Monarchs in the 1930s. Allen’s uniform embodies the team’s significance to the Negro Leagues and African American baseball players in Missouri. Excluded from the Major Leagues, Black players faced few options to continue their baseball careers. In February …
Kansas City Monarchs Uniform
1922 - 1944
Walt Disney began his animation career in Kansas City. Raised in Marceline, Disney’s family moved to Kansas City then to Chicago during the 1910s. After serving in WWI, Disney returned to the city in 1919 and found work at the Kansas City Film Ad Company. During this time, he and his friends created silent clips …
Laugh-O-Gram Studio
1922
More than 156,000 Missourians served in the First World War; more than 11,000 of those became casualties, and five received the Medal of Honor. Some authorities rank Missouri as 8th of men in uniform. Prominent Missourians who fought in the war include Generals John J. Pershing and Enoch Crowder, future President Harry S. Truman, and …
National WWI Museum and Memorial
1923 - Present
Three themes drove Missouri tourism in the mid-twentieth century: roads, retailers, and recreation. Paved roads provided new freedom—no longer did tourists have to conform to rail schedules and routes—if they had the means to own a car and a job that afforded leisure time, they could go where and when they pleased. Retailers, together with …
Eubank Dolls
1930s-1950
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
In May 1935, the Missouri State Legislature approved a bill commissioning Neosho-born artist and nationally acclaimed artist of the ‘American Scene’ Thomas Hart Benton to paint a mural on the walls of the Capitol Building’s House Lounge. Its passage authorized the appropriation of $16,000 to pay Benton. This was a serious commitment of resources, exceeding …
A Social History of the State of Missouri
1936
Painter and muralist Thomas Hart Benton used these paint brushes at his Kansas City home and studio. Born on April 15, 1889, in Neosho, Missouri, Benton spent much of his early life in Southwest Missouri and Washington DC. After studying at the Art Institute of Chicago and in Paris, he eventually settled in New York …
Thomas Hart Benton Home & Studio
1939 - 1975
This collection of signed baseballs features the signatures of important Cardinals players and staff members throughout the team’s history. The Cardinals are one of Missouri’s two current major league baseball teams and is one of baseball’s most historic franchises. Originally called the St Louis Browns, the team name changed to the Cardinals in 1900. The …
St. Louis Cardinals Autographed Baseballs
1941 - Present
Springfield Newspapers Inc. photographer Betty Love poses for a portrait with her camera. Love first began working for Springfield newspapers as an illustrator and cartoonist, and later filled in as a photographer during WWII while many of the male photographers went overseas. Love taught herself how to use a camera, and process the images using …
Betty Love Portrait
1947
Perhaps best known for his hits “Peace in the Valley” and the “Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy,” Clyde Julian “Red” Foley had been a popular star on the Grand Ole Opry for eight years when he came to Springfield to host the Ozark Jubilee in 1955. Broadcast from the Jewell Theatre, the show reached a national audience …
Red Foley Barrel Seat
1955 - 1960
This grinder cart was owned and operated by Italian immigrant Anthony “Tony” Gagliarducci. Like many before him, he relied on his trade skills to make a living in a new country. Gagliarducci started his tool sharpening business in the 1920s, pushing a 250-pound cart through the streets of Southern St. Louis for over 60 years. …
Grinder Cart of Anthony Gagliarducci
1958
Considered the “Father of Rock N’ Roll,” Chuck Berry transformed music. Berry, a lifelong Missourian, was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry in St. Louis in 1926. He taught himself to play guitar and created his own unique sound blending blues and country styles. Berry’s professional music career gained traction in the 1950s when he played …
Photograph of Chuck Berry
1958
This promotional poster advertised the grand opening of Branson theme-park Silver Dollar City on May 1, 1960. The sign is designed like a wanted poster, featuring “wanted” in old-fashioned letters and the bust of an outlaw to evoke the 1880s theme of the park. A family favorite for over 60 years, Silver Dollar City continues …
Silver Dollar City “Wanted” Poster
1960
The St. Louis Gateway Arch, which towers 630 feet above the Mississippi River and the city that the river helped build, commemorates the 200th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis and the city’s role as the gateway to America’s westward expansion. The arch, designed by architect Eero Saarinen and architectural engineer Hannskart Bandel, sits …
Gateway Arch National Park
1963 - Present
The American Royal (officially the American Royal Livestock and Horse Show) has been a major event in Kansas City for over a century. In October 1899, the American Royal began as the National Hereford Show. As the first national exposition of purebred cattle, the show attracted 55,000 attendees from across the country to see and …
American Royal Queen’s Gown and Boots
1963
Each year, thousands of Roman Catholic Vietnamese Americans gather in Carthage, Missouri, to worship in a celebration known as Marian Days. The festival’s origin dates back to 1975 when members of the Mother Co-Redemptrix clergy fled Vietnam shortly before the fall of Saigon. They were first sent to a refugee camp in Arkansas, but soon …
Marian Days
1978 - present
David Wing Yin Leong is responsible for creating a favorite local dish affectionately referred to as “Springfield-style cashew chicken.” This dish features deep-fried chicken covered in a brown slurry of soy and oyster sauce, covered with green onions and halved cashews. Leong understood Americans’ fondness of fried foods and found a way to integrate the …
Springfield Style Cashew Chicken
1983
The Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals met in the 1985 World Series. The Royals lost the first two games at home before the series traveled to St. Louis. Game 3 went to the Royals, but they lost again in Game 4. A Royals victory in Game 5 brought the series back to …
1985 World Series Ticket
1985
On October 11, 1987, about 500,000 LGBTQ people and allies gathered in Washington, D.C. for the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. This national demonstration was prompted by President Ronald Reagan’s failure to respond to the AIDS Crisis and the 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold state …
Missouri Pride Banner
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
A second-round draft pick from high school, George Brett made hisMajor League debut with the Kansas City Royals in 1973. A thirdbaseman for most of his 21 seasons with the Royals, Brett became oneof the best hitters in the history of baseball. His most memorableseason was 1980 when he chased one of the sport’s greatestmilestones. …
George Brett 3,000th Hit Baseball & Bat
1992
In 1994, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art installed the world’s largest shuttlecocks in its Sculpture Park. Designed by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, a husband-and-wife artist team, the four shuttlecocks stand at 18-feet tall and are made out of aluminum, fiberglass, and reinforced plastic. The duo incorporated the museum grounds into the design by …
Shuttlecocks
1994
The St. Louis Rams defeated the Tennessee Titans 23 to 16 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The victory brought the city of St. Louis it’s only Super Bowl championship. The team would leave St. Louis, heading for Los Angeles in 2016.
Super Bowl XXXIV
2000
This t-shirt, game program, and ticket stub are from past editions of the Border Showdown, the sports rivalry between the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas. The conflict is usually referred to as the Border War by fans, and the t-shirt was created following the 2007 football game between the schools. It features …
MU – KU Border Showdown
2007
Missouri’s Latinx population has grown incrementally within the last few decades, subsequently transforming the state’s culture, society, and urban landscape. Kansas City’s Historic Northeast is one of these changing communities. The Northeast is the city’s second oldest residential neighborhood and has a rich history as a beacon for immigrant communities. Due to rapid rates of …
Northeast Kansas City Murals
2018
The 2019 Stanley Cup was a historic moment for Missouri’s hockey team, the St. Louis Blues.On May 21, the team advanced to the National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 49 years after winning the NHL’s Western Conference Final series in six games. Although the team had the most playoff …
Stanley Cup
2019
The Kansas City Chiefs were established in 1963 when Lamer Hunt, founder of the American Football League (AFL), moved his hometown Dallas Texans, to Kansas City, Missouri in 1963. Hunt had established the AFL to compete with the already established National Football League (NFL). In 1967 the Kansas City Chiefs faced off against the Green …
Vince Lombardi Trophy
2020