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Thomas Easterly, a well-known daguerreotypist, captured this photograph depicting the damage of the St. Louis Fire of May 17, 1849. This disaster incinerated fifteen blocks of the business district. Losses were estimated at six million dollars, which included: four hundred and thirty buildings, twenty-three steamboats and other boats, and a large amount of freight and …
Ruins of the Great St. Louis Fire
1849
Conestoga wagons, such as the one pictured here, were used to transport people and freight westward on the California, Oregon, Mormon, and Santa Fe trails in the decades before the construction of transcontinental railroad lines. This type of wagon was first built in the 18th century in Pennsylvania and became a popular choice for westward …
Conestoga Wagon
1850 - 1860
After the Civil War, Missouri passed a mandate that required each town to educate Black children and provide a separate school if the community reached a threshold of 20 African American students. The Neosho School was converted from a residence to a one-room schoolhouse for that reason. The building was used from 1872 until the …
Neosho Colored School
1872 - 1891
As a national railroad system emerged following the Civil War, St. Louis leaders realized that their city’s economic well-being was tied to railroad access. In response, the St. Louis Bridge and Iron Company hired self-educated engineer James Buchanan Eads in 1867 to build a bridge across the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Illinois. A …
Admission Ticket – Eads Bridge Celebration
1874
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
This 1908 postcard depicts an image of one of Kansas City’s most iconic boulevards. The Paseo, which runs approximately ten miles through the city, is characterized by its scenic views, Beaux-Arts architecture, gardens, fountains, and green spaces. The Colonnade is one of the original decorative structures along the boulevard. Located between 10th and 11th Streets, …
Colonnade at the Paseo
1890 - 1920
This 1906 tinted postcard shows a bustling intersection in downtown Joplin. The picture displays four electric trolleys following each other on Main Street past the Keystone Hotel. As part of the Southwest Missouri Railway, Joplin’s electric interurban trolley system connected the city’s neighborhoods and linked Joplin with other mining towns in Southwest Missouri, Northeast Oklahoma, …
Trolley at Keystone Hotel
1906
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
When Missouri was granted statehood in 1821, the state’s first legislators sought out a location for a permanent capitol. They settled on a site that would eventually be Jefferson City, chosen for its central location and proximity to the Missouri River. St. Charles served as the seat of government until the new capitol could be …
Missouri State Capitol Building
1917 - Present
On March 11, 1920, a large tornado traveled through southern Taney County, leaving death and devastation in its wake. Melva, a modest mining and railroad town along the Missouri Pacific line, was completely destroyed by the storm. The tornado took eleven lives and left only foundations intact. Damage to stores, homes, and other buildings amounted …
Lucy Woods Home
1920
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
The Bagnell Dam was built by the Union Electric Light and Power Company between 1929 and 1931. Construction began two months before the stock market crash of 1929 and became the only major construction project in the nation during the Great Depression. Job seekers from across the country flocked to the Ozarks for work. Records …
Bagnell Dam
1932 - Present
St. Louis based Dorsa Clothing Company produced this silk crepe dress and jacket in the early 1940s. Located at 1007 Washington Avenue, Dorsa was at the forefront of junior dress manufacturing. After the 1920s, a demand arose for dresses that fit more youthful figures. St. Louis makers, often credited with conceiving the first junior dresses, …
Dorsa Silk Crepe Dress
1940s
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
In 1894, George Robinson, William H. Danforth, and William Andrews founded the Robinson-Danforth Commission Company in St. Louis. The company first began manufacturing feed products for horses and mules and later expanded into food products for human consumption. As Danforth moved into breakfast cereal production, he sought the endorsement of the Ralston Health Club, a …
Purina Mills
1946
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
The Community Builders’ Council of the Urban Land Institute, published this handbook in 1948 to serve as a comprehensive guide for suburban real estate and retail development. Influenced by the Institute’s Chairman, J.C. Nichols, the book promoted the redlining tactics he and other real estate developers employed to racially segregate the Kansas City metropolitan area …
The Community Builders’ Handbook
1948
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
In 1951, a catastrophic flood changed the course of the Missouri River. The French Bottoms, an area of fertile farmland in St. Joseph, originally lay in the bow of the river and formed the border between Missouri and Kansas. This map shows how the flooding carved a new path for the river to flow, creating …
Flood Map
1951
In the mid-twentieth century, Kansas City officials shifted their focus and funding from public transportation to highway development amid the emergence of a national highway system. Although the city had created an extensive streetcar system before World War II, post-war suburbanization and economic changes prompted officials to consider new ways to increase the city’s economic …
Kansas City Highway Construction Phases Map
1951
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 1876, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company reorganized and renamed its southwest branch the St. Louis and San Francisco Railways, also known as the Frisco. As the Frisco grew, the company became one of Springfield’s largest employers. Railroad buildings became a prominent part of Springfield’s landscape. The Frisco’s repair shops featured a roundhouse capable of …
FRISCO Railroad Mortgage Income Bond
1955
White River floods occurred regularly throughout Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas affecting many outlining towns including the city of Branson. As the population of the region grew, a solution to flooding had to be considered. Congress initially authorized the construction of a dam with the Flood Control Act of 1941, but construction was delayed by …
Table Rock Dam Construction
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
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
In the early 1900s, real estate developer J. C. Nichols began the development of the Country Club District in Kansas City. The area, located south of Brush Creek, included upscale housing, manicured landscapes, and other planning features to complement the city’s parks and boulevards projects. In order to complete his vision of an exclusive district …
Map of Country Club Plaza
1967
This map sketch serves as a ghostly reminder of the promises and failures of Urban Renewal. Like many cities across the state, St. Joseph experienced a decline during the second half of the twentieth century. The Belt Highway expansion, the construction of East Mills Mall, and suburban growth to the east left a once-bustling downtown …
Urban Renewal Plan Map
1970 - 1978
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
In the evening of May 22, 2011, an EF-5 multiple vortex tornado struck Joplin, Missouri. The tornado reached wind speeds of 200 miles per hour, carving out a mile-wide path of destruction. The storm traveled eastward, affecting portions of Jasper and Newton counties as well. This extensive tornado was responsible for 158 fatalities, 1,150 injuries, …
Joplin Tornado
2011
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
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
Immigrants and refugees have historically created communities in Missouri’s large cities. In the late 20th and early 21st century, however, industries have drawn new populations to the state’s rural areas. Noel, a two-square-mile town with a population of about 2,000 people, has experienced rapid growth over the last two decades. Latinx immigrants as well as …
RAISE Community Garden
2020
After the stay at home order was lifted in Springfield, hair salons were able to reopen as long as thestylist and clients both wore masks. Two stylists at this Great Clips hair salon at 1864 S. Glenstone in thePlaza Shopping Center tested positive for COVID-19 and saw 139 clients while contagious. The storymade national news …
Great Clips
2020