Even among the iconic frontiersmen of the American West, Jim Bridger stands out as larger than life.  Born in 1804 and orphaned at 1...

In commemoration of the bicentennial anniversary of the Santa Fe Trail, historian Joy L. Poole examines the stories of five wives who...

While his story is not widely known, Kansas City civil rights leader Leon M. Jordan was among the most influential African Americans in Missou...

In 1934, brothers Dizzy and Daffy Dean were stars of Major League Baseball’s regular season and World Series. Following their St. Louis Cardinals’...

Women who were pregnant and unmarried in the early 1900s faced limited options and societal scorn. Many chose, or were sent, to deliver their babie...

As Kansas City grew in the 19th century, so did the business of sin. Noting the pervasiveness of vice and debauchery, a visitor in 1888 described i...

Censorship was an inescapable aspect of the American effort in World War I, applied not only to soldiers’ mail but also reports from war correspond...

Starting in 1918, at the urging of his son Harry, John Benton Hart began telling stories of a colorful three-year period of his youth. The native K...

One of the earliest, and best, accounts of travel along the Santa Fe Trail came from a young physician, Rowland Willard, who trained in St. Charles...

In a discussion of her book Pioneer Mother Monuments: Constructing Cultural Identity, University of North Dakota historia...