MoHistory

The Board of Trustees of the Missouri Historical Society has made a momentous decision that both meets the moment we are in today and perfectly matches MHS’s original mission outlined by our founders in 1866. On September 16, 2026, the Board of Trustees, following votes by its executive committee and by our subdistrict commissioners, unanimously …

Continue reading "Introducing the St. Louis History Museum"

Picture south St. Louis city, and there’s a good chance a giant windmill comes to mind: the famous landmark at Gravois and Morganford that gives the Bevo Mill neighborhood its name. Anheuser-Busch built the Bevo Mill in 1916 as a gathering spot right in the middle of a community where German immigrants—many first or second …

Continue reading "A Fountain and a Flower: Memory and Home in St. Louis’s Little Bosnia"

On October 3, 1926, the St. Louis Cardinals won their first World Series game. Behind some brilliant pitching by Grover Cleveland Alexander and late-game home runs by right fielder Billy Southworth and shortstop Tommy Thevenow, the Cardinals walked off the field at Yankee Stadium with a 6–2 victory in Game 2. A week later, on …

Continue reading "Making “St. Louis at Bat: 100 Moments in Baseball History”"

St. Louis is home to incredible opportunities for learning about history in the places where it happened. Sites like Jefferson Barracks, Ulysses S. Grant’s estate at White Haven, and the Scott Joplin House—to name just a few—offer visitors a chance to explore historic structures and landscapes, physically connecting with the stories they tell. But not …

Continue reading "A Battle in Our Own Backyard"

Note: This is a topic that covers over 12,000 years of history, many cultures, and the actions of countless individuals. Given the complexity of the topic, we cannot cover all its intricacies in this blog. This is meant to give readers a general understanding of some significant moments in Missouri’s Indigenous history. If you would …

Continue reading "Indigenous Missouri: An Overview of Our State’s Indigenous History"

St. Louis can boast of many famous citizens who have made meaningful contributions to society. Yogi Berra and Jackie Joyner-Kersee were leaders in athletics. Chuck Berry and Tina Turner recorded famous songs. Jenna Fischer and Jon Hamm are successful actors. But perhaps Ernest A. Hamwi is a name we should include on this list as …

Continue reading "Ernest Hamwi and the Ice Cream Cone"

Happy 160th birthday to the Missouri Historical Society! The Missouri Historical Society, one of the oldest and biggest historical societies in the country, turns 160 years old next week. It has been the honor of my life to be part of this organization for 20 of its 160 years. MHS is one of St. Louis’s …

Continue reading "16 Defining Moments in Missouri Historical Society History"

“Prose is the devil and all—and so is poetry when one has no longer the steam of youth.” —Sara Trevor Teasdale (1884–1933) Born in St. Louis in 1884, Sara Trevor Teasdale was the inaugural winner of what is now the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her 1917 collection Love Songs. This volume paid a romantic …

Continue reading "Sonnets in St. Louis: The Life and Letters of Sara Teasdale"

The photograph selected to preview Soldiers Memorial Military Museum’s new traveling exhibition, Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces, is layered with stories. It was made by the celebrated Kiowa photographer Horace Poolaw (1906–1984), whose work depicting Native American life has been featured in books, exhibitions, and film. Gracefully captured beneath …

Continue reading "Heritage and Sacrifice: The Poolaw Legacy of Service"

Just south of the MacArthur Bridge sits the Union Pacific Lesperance Yard, a St. Louis mainstay with a unique history. During the Great Depression, between the tracks of what was then called the Terminal Railroad Company and the banks of the Mississippi River, stood one of the nation’s largest Hoovervilles. Hoovervilles were shantytowns constructed by …

Continue reading "St. Louis’s Hooverville"

Before the Louisiana Purchase, what country was St. Louis in? The answer depends on who you ask—and when. Great Britain, France, and Spain spent most of the 1600s and 1700s waging war, forming alliances, and signing treaties with one another. The resource-rich North American colonies were important bargaining chips in their negotiations. It was (and …

Continue reading "I Am the Place That Was Ruled by Three Empires"

When the American Council of the Blind (ACB) selected St. Louis as the site of its July 2026 national convention, members of the AGAPE Council of the Blind St. Louis encouraged convention organizers to include a visit to the Missouri History Museum in the convention schedule. “They recommended the Museum because of our strong partnership …

Continue reading "Accessing St. Louis History"

In No Lone Zone, Adam Reynolds explores two museums that once housed functional Minuteman II and Titan II nuclear missiles. The history he captures demonstrates the thinking, challenges, and dangers that shape today’s nuclear weapons. Peace Through Deterence From the 1960s to the 1980s, Minuteman II and Titan II missiles represented the land-based arm of …

Continue reading "Inside the No Lone Zone"

On January 15, 1921, 23 teachers at Sumner High School gathered on campus and resolved to form what would become one of St. Louis’s most impactful yet underrecognized Black professional organizations: the Mound City Teachers Association (MCTA). At a time when Jim Crow segregation marginalized every aspect of Black life in the city, including education, …

Continue reading "The Mound City Teachers Association: Black Educators Organizing for Justice in Jim Crow St. Louis"

From once-in-a-lifetime events to everyday experiences, Forest Park has been chronicled in a hazy mythology that wraps the entire city of St. Louis. The park’s lore especially echoes throughout St. Louis’s history of entertainment and amusement, and few places are as legendary as Forest Park Highlands. Located on the park’s south border, Forest Park Highlands …

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In 1976, Jerry C. Elliott-High Eagle, a Cherokee/Osage physicist, NASA employee, and Medal of Freedom recipient, drafted legislation creating National Native American Awareness Week, the first federally recognized observance of Indigenous cultural heritage. This was followed in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush’s declaration of November as National Native American Heritage Month. For 35 …

Continue reading "National Native American Heritage Month and the Work of Repatriation"

Pharmacist and drug store owner Pelham Joseph Robinson Sr. established himself as one of the most influential Black businessmen in St. Louis. His chain of Owl Drug Stores, centered in the historic African American community of Mill Creek, was so widespread that Owl Drug was known as “the Black Walgreens.” Robinson was born in 1907 …

Continue reading "Meet Pelham Robinson, Owner of St. Louis’s “Black Walgreens”"

What drives a person to reach out to strangers across an ocean? What acts of kindness can be considered a form of unconditional love? Is it when you give and expect nothing in return? Is it when you give to others, knowing you’ll never get to meet them in person—even if their country was the …

Continue reading "“The Time We Have in Which to Build a Better World”: The Legacy of Louis E. Alewel"

Soldiers Memorial’s newest exhibit, Two Minutes to Midnight and the Architecture of Armageddon, explores the height of the Cold War. Photographers Adam Reynolds and Jeanine Michna-Bales capture the uncertainty of the nuclear age, how it transformed American life, and the chilling relevance it has today. Photographic Messages Michna-Bales and Reynolds use two photographic essays to …

Continue reading "Introducing Two Minutes to Midnight"

This is the second in a two-part series. Read the first part here. William Russell, a Virginia native, arrived in St. Louis in February 1804. Russell failed as a farmer and merchant, but his third job as deputy surveyor for the new Louisiana Purchase Territory would make him a wealthy man as settlers sought to …

Continue reading "From Orchard to Park: Changing Land in Soulard"