Books published by Missouri Historical Society Press

In the late nineteenth century, Jefferson County, Missouri, was striving to emulate its cosmopolitan cousin to the north, St. Louis, while it battled to wipe out the remnants of its frontier lawlessness. For over three years, Mack Marsden was suspected of every major crime in Jefferson County. Though the newspapers labeled him a desperado, he was tried only once and never convicted of any wrongdoing. So when he was ambushed, shotgunned, and left dying on a dusty road, his mystery took on a new life. Who murdered him? And if Mack wasn t behind all those crimes, who was? This narrative nonfiction book is a true mystery that bears striking parallels to that of fellow Missourian Jesse James and is as thrilling as any of the more famous tales of the Old West."

"This book examines the importance of the Mississippi River across time and through the lens of a single city: St. Louis. Features hundreds of maps, artifacts, and fascinating historic images, spanning back to St. Louis's founding and even earlier"--

"Companion catalog to the Missouri History Museum exhibit WWI: St. Louis and the Great War. Featuring more than 250 photographs and archival documents from the collections of the Missouri Historical Society and Soldiers Memorial Military Museum--most of which have never been published--this book details how the war touched the city and how its citizens rose to the challenge"--

The history of Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis is told through the stories of those who are buried there. The book is organized into sections, such as artists, fur traders, and Civil War generals, which feature biographies of individuals. Besides being a history of a significant place, this book functions as a guidebook to St. Louis and its notable residents. Because so many of St. Louis's leading citizens (such as William Clark, James Buchanan Eads, Susan Blow, and Adolphus Busch) are buried in Bellefontaine, the book is a tale of the city. Cemetery records and interviews with such insiders as the cemetery's superintendent and gatekeeper inform the research. The contributions and controversies that make up St. Louis history are revealed, and the architecture and landscape of the cemetery are celebrated as significant to the region.

The book is an exhibition catalog that explores the topic of the color black and how it went from a traditional color of mourning to an essential item in almost every woman's wardrobe today. The catalog begins with Victorian mourning rituals and the attire that was considered appropriate for women during the different stages of grief. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, black was worn primarily as a symbol of mourning and loss. A widowed woman was considered in full mourning, which lasted for a year and a day, and was to wear plain black clothing with no decoration. "Second" and "half" mourning followed, which allowed for different kinds of fabrics and embellishments to be worn. Stages and time frames varied by a woman's relationship to the deceased. Besides mourning dresses from the collection, mourning jewelry and accessories are featured. The catalog then explores the transition of the color black into a fashion color. Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries black worn for mourning and black worn for fashion were beginning to occur simultaneously. Fabric choices and trims help to distinguish the difference. Dresses from the collection ranging from 1880 to 1918 are shown in this section. In the 1920s designer Coco Chanel created a line of black dresses as a versatile and affordable option for women. Other designers quickly followed suit, and black has prevailed in the fashions of almost every decade since. A special section of the catalog is devoted to Chanel and her dresses. The remainder of the catalog is devoted to the little black dress, broken down into those that are worn for everyday versatility and those for evening wear--from the 1920s to the present. There is information pertaining to the designers, original owners, and historical context pertaining to the time period of each dress.

In early January 1904, a reporter for the" St. Louis""Post-Dispatch" braved the winter chill, traveling to the Missouri State Penitentiary for a big story an interview with the Thorny Rose, Laura Bullion, who was convicted of forgery. But the real story was that she and her boyfriend Ben Kilpatrick had been bank robbers and members of Butch Cassidy s Wild Bunch. After eluding the law for years in several western states, they fled to St. Louis, where their freedom lasted only a few months, thanks to good police work and tips from alert citizens. After the article about Bullion was in print, the reporter took a train to Oklahoma City for his next assignment, an interview with Ed O Kelley, the man who killed Robert Ford, proud assassin of Jesse James. The reporter and the vigilante met on the dusty streets in the former Indian Territory, where statehood was still three years off. O Kelley, who was a forgotten relic of the Wild West, described how he was a friend of the James family and married a cousin of the infamous Younger Brothers. Though O Kelley had a chance to join their gang, he declined, choosing instead to leave his native Missouri. In Kansas and Colorado he served as a lawman, using violent tactics that earned him a reputation as a man with a quick temper, a ready gun, and a penchant for bending the law to suit his needs. In a series of meetings the reporter struggled to keep O Kelley sober enough to tell his tale. Gradually he described a great circle of vigilantism, from the Civil War to Jesse James s outlaw career, to the murder by Ford, to O Kelley s revenge for the killing. Ford had thought he would be a hero for killing James, but he was reviled everywhere he went. Unable to settle down, he finally opened a saloon in a tent at the mining camp of Creede, Colorado, which happened to also be the home of O Kelley. He thought Ford was the worst kind of vermin, and the local silver miners encouraged him to avenge his old friend Jesse. In a tragic twist of irony, he thought, like Ford before him, that he d be a hero. After he ambushed Ford, killing him with a point-blank shotgun blast, he was arrested and spent twenty years in prison before his friends finally won his pardon. He was released a broken man, his dream gone, entering a modern world of telephones and streetcars that cared little about his exploits. Even on the whiskey-drenched backstreets of Oklahoma City he found no peace. The night before his last meeting with the reporter, a drunken O Kelley was killed in a prolonged street fight and shootout with an Oklahoma City policeman. Just a month later, back in St. Louis, the reporter covered the capture of William Rudolph and George Collins, popularly known as the Missouri Kid and Black Frank. Adoring women crowded the streets to see the handsome bank-robbing murderers who evaded escape across a dozen states. The reporter knew that the court of public opinion would love to see them freed. But the wheel of justice had turned. Relentless detectives brought them in, a stout jail held them, and the court sent them both to be hanged with the same rope. As the reporter witnessed the execution he pondered America s progress beyond vigilantism. Was O Kelley the last vigilante standing? We always think it ends here, he wrote. But it never does. This title is narrative nonfiction and the third in the Missouri Vigilantes series following Johnston s 2011 book "The Mack Marsden Murder Mystery: Vigilantism or Justice?" and 2014 s "Necessary Evil: Settling Missouri with a Rope and a Gun.""""

Consists of the 166 letters that St Louisan James Love wrote to his fiancee, Eliza Mary "Molly" Wilson, during his Civil War service. This book includes the letters that discusses the war, including activities in Missouri, battles, Love's life as a soldier, and his time in a Confederate prison, and more.

John Caspar Wild, expert painter and lithographer, produced some of the earliest known depictions of urban America in the nineteenth century. This illustrated book presents Wild's paintings and prints for all to appreciate, and a catalogue raisonne identifies all of his known works. The author draws on his previous writings about Wild as well.

From the Mormon Wars to the Border Wars to gangs of Bald Knobbers and Bushwhackers, Missouri's reign of vigilante justice during the nineteenth century is unparalleled by any other state in the nation. This book chronicles the implications of vigilantism in Missouri.

In 1959, at the age of twenty-one, Max Starkloff was in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. How did this young man with barely a high school education become the leader of a powerful disability rights movement and the founder of the Starkloff Disability Institute? This is his remarkable story.

Fifty years ago, the post-World War II population boom produced a flood of new college students across the US. In St Louis County alone, the demand for higher education increased fivefold, and the State of Missouri responded. This book offers us a photographic history of the University of Missouri - St Louis.

Starting at the beginning of the twentieth century, Raymond E Maritz and W Ridgely Young built more than a hundred homes in the most affluent neighborhoods of St Louis County. This title presents a collection of their work, featuring photographs, architectural drawings, and original floor plans of homes built in a variety of styles.

For the first time, William C. Winter presents the story of the 1st Missouri Infantry, a Confederate regiment, through the complete works of Captain Joseph Boyce. Less than two decades after the war, Boyce began presenting his history of the regiment to the Southern Historical and Benevolent Society of St. Louis, which appeared as a serialized account in the "Missouri Republican." Boyce s narrative addresses his service from his involvement as a member of the Missouri Volunteer Militia in the Camp Jackson massacre on May 10, 1861, until the regiment s surrender at Fort Blakely near Mobile, Alabama, in April 1865. Winter includes introductions for each chapter, extensive footnotes, and other writings by Boyce."

St Louis has a history of planning. The plans that have been made over the years by public, nonprofit, and civic agencies have given the St Louis metropolitan area its shape and direction. Part of the ""St Louis Metromorphosis Book"" series, this work reviews the history of planning and provides insight into the planning successes and challenges.

Part of the ""St Louis Metromorphosis"" book series from the Public Policy Research Center. This book reviews the performance of the St Louis region on the standards of growth and development, and identifies several hidden assets that distinguish the region from other metropolitan areas.

Moving from one century to the next is an appropriate time to reflect upon how past trends frame choices for the St. Louis region's future. These discussions occur in many venues but they can all be more richly informed by analyses of what has been happening within the St Louis metropolitan area during the past five decades.

Suitable for everyone from kids to adults, this title looks specifically at the history of two resort communities on the shores of Lake Huron in Michigan. It celebrates our common need to get away from the humdrum, and it can be welcome reading for all of us daydreaming of crystalline lakeshores.

War in the Balkans in the 1990s displaced millions, including nearly 20,000 refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina to the American city of St Louis. This text looks at the impact of the war and the reality of ""ethnic cleansing"" in the life of one extended Bosnian family in St Louis.

From 1968 to 1972, St. Louis was home to the Black Artists' Group (BAG), a seminal arts collective that nurtured African American experimentalists involved with theater, visual arts, dance, poetry, and jazz. This book narrates the group's development.