MoHistory

From a multiday Día de los Muertos festival to the family favorite Winter Getaway series, the next two months are packed with opportunities to celebrate, learn, and engage at the Missouri History Museum, Soldiers Memorial Military Museum, and the Library & Research Center. Here are 11 reasons to visit the Missouri Historical Society before ringing …

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Halloween is here, and we’ve got a spine-tingling blog post that’ll be sure to give you chills! If you’ve spent any amount of time exploring the Missouri Historical Society (MHS) Collections via our Online Collections Search, you’ve likely noticed our extensive dolls collection. There’s a valid reason for this: The history of dolls can be traced …

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Listen to an episode about the Pine Street Specter on our Here’s History podcast with KDHX. Everyone loves a ghost story, which may explain why thousands braved chilly conditions one week in January 1887 to glimpse a mysterious specter reportedly haunting an upper-class St. Louis neighborhood. Sunday, January 16, 1887 The St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported that …

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The All-Volunteer Military Force program replaced compulsory US military service in 1973. I served in the army both during and after the draft years and have watched the transition with enthusiasm as well as concern. A Brief History The US initiated the draft, or compulsory military service, via the Selective Training and Service Act of …

Continue reading "US All-Volunteer Military Marks 50 Years—but Is It Sustainable?"

EDITOR’S NOTE: In order to bring a plurality of voices to our storytelling, the Missouri Historical Society frequently asks guest writers to contribute to History Happens Here. The views and opinions expressed by guest contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missouri Historical Society, its affiliates, or …

Continue reading "Lucas and Garrison: General Andrew Jackson Smith"

As part of the Missouri Historical Society’s ongoing Collections Access project, the collections management department recently cataloged and photographed over 250 chairs in collections storage. Many of these chairs have incredibly interesting stories that help tell the history of St. Louis in new and exciting ways. We explored some of them in part 1. Now sit …

Continue reading "Highlights from the Chair Collection, Part 2"

If people in St. Louis today remember newspaper editor John A. Cockerill, it’s probably because of his involvement in the infamous shooting at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in October 1882. Cockerill, however, was instrumental in developing the newspaper that is still published today. Cockerill’s career as a journalist started when he was young. In 1859, …

Continue reading "The Man behind the Headlines"

During his three decades in St. Louis, Takuma Kajiwara became one of the most prominent photographers in the US. He was born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1876 and moved in the 1890s to Seattle, where he worked at a photography studio. A photographic plates manufacturer invited Kajiwara to St. Louis to run a studio for …

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This post is part of a series about the materials that built St. Louis. Anyone who has spent time driving around St. Louis has likely been blown away by some aspect of our city’s architecture. We have structures of every shape, size, style, and era represented in our city. But far fewer people probably realize that the …

Continue reading "Built St. Louis: Limestone"

Rowing was a very popular sport in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, receiving much newspaper coverage and drawing large crowds for races and regattas. A group of rowing medals in the Missouri Historical Society Collections attest to this popularity. There were numerous rowing clubs in St. Louis, and their members were considered local …

Continue reading "A Crack Four-Oared Crew: Rowing Medals in the Collections"

EDITOR’S NOTE: In order to bring a plurality of voices to our storytelling, the Missouri Historical Society frequently asks guest writers to contribute to History Happens Here. The views and opinions expressed by guest contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missouri Historical Society, its affiliates, or …

Continue reading "Lucas and Garrison: Robert Barnes"

As part of the Missouri Historical Society’s Collections Access project, the collections management department recently cataloged and photographed over 250 chairs in collections storage. Pull up a chair as we dive into a few of my favorites from the collection. Chair from Paddock’s Grove in Moro, Illinois, ca. 1850 This Jacobean-style chair, featuring a tall …

Continue reading "Highlights from the Chair Collection, Part 1"

The idea of two steam-powered paddleboats racing upriver from New Orleans to St. Louis at breakneck speeds of up to 15mph may not sound exciting to people today, but in the mid-1800s, steamboat racing was a spectator sport that drew crowds the St. Louis Cardinals might envy. “Two red-hot steamboats raging along, neck-and-neck, straining every …

Continue reading "Full Steam Ahead: The Great Paddleboat Race of 1870"

In the first part of this two-part series, we explored the author and mixologist behind The Ideal Bartender, Tom Bullock. Bullock’s book was the first cocktail manual published by an African American and was one of the last published before the start of Prohibition in the US. Bullock spent a few decades in St. Louis …

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For this installment of Tasting History, the focus is on cocktails, and more specifically, The Ideal Bartender by Tom Bullock. The Ideal Bartender was published in 1917 in St. Louis, and it was the first cocktail manual to be authored and published by an African American. It was also one of the last cocktail manuals …

Continue reading "The Ideal Bartender, Part 1"

Listen to an episode about the Great Forest Park Balloon Race on our Here’s History podcast with KDHX. Each fall, thousands of St. Louisans gather to witness the Great Forest Park Balloon Race. This event has been celebrated by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and is recognized as one of the …

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The Missouri Historical Society (MHS) Collections house a plethora of artifacts and objects that serve as valuable resources for students, scholars, and the community at large—and this includes photographs. Some of these photographs are so representative of St. Louis history that they’ve elevated to become instantly recognizable icons, each with their own story to tell. Here …

Continue reading "Six Iconic Photographs from the Missouri Historical Society Collections"

EDITOR’S NOTE: In order to bring a plurality of voices to our storytelling, the Missouri Historical Society frequently asks guest writers to contribute to History Happens Here. The views and opinions expressed by guest contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missouri Historical Society, its affiliates, or …

Continue reading "Our Secret Wars"

The Missouri Historical Society’s extensive silver flatware collection contains over 750 pieces. These artifacts date between the 1750s and the 1920s and include a wide variety of styles and manufacturers. To best preserve these valuable objects for future generations, the conservation department embarked on a project to upgrade storage and treat damaged items. The silverware …

Continue reading "Putting a Shine on Our Silver Flatware Collection"

The blog post was originally published April 8, 2021. The last time you topped your dessert with whipped cream out of a can—think Reddi-wip—did you realize it was invented by a St. Louisan? In French, the word for rabbit is lapin. Thus, St. Louis businessman Aaron S. Lapin became known as “Bunny” when he was …

Continue reading "St. Louis Food Firsts"