Taylor Swift’s music career is filled with tributes to her late maternal grandmother, Marjorie Moehlenkamp Finlay. Photographs and home videos of Finlay are included in several of Swift’s lyric music videos, including the one for “Timeless,” which was released exclusively for the album Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). But Marjorie Moehlenkamp Finlay wasn’t just Taylor Swift’s grandmother—she was an opera singer and TV show host whose family roots trace back to the St. Louis area. Marjorie Moehlenkamp in the 1949 Linden Leaves yearbook. Missouri Historical Society Collections. Growing up in S ..read more

Delmar Boulevard is one of St. Louis’s best known streets, stretching over 10 miles from just outside Laclede’s Landing downtown to the western edge of University City. For six blocks after it leaves the St. Louis City boundary, it’s known as the Delmar Loop—a reference to an early streetcar line that would make a loop there before returning downtown. A streetcar on Delmar Boulevard, ca. 1914. Missouri Historical Society Collections. While most modern St. Louisans understand that historical reference, very few know what attraction would have enticed someone in 1900 to ride a streetcar so far f ..read more

In the mid-1800s, St. Louis was notoriously filthy, but nowhere more so than the riverfront. On the riverfront it wasn’t just St. Louis’s own dirt to worry about, but the dirt, disease, and sickness from dozens of other towns, brought along with the residents of every incoming steamboat. In 1849, some of them were carrying a microscopic bacterium that would kill as many as 1 out of 10 St. Louisans. View of St. Louis from the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, 1845. Missouri Historical Society Collections. The tiny cholera bacteria is passed along through bodily fluids, and that was precis ..read more

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 its employees. “Ladies and gentlemen, one of the great moral forces of the world has just walked in the door.” Those were the words of Reverend Andrew Young, future United Nations ambassador and Atlanta mayor, upon seeing Sister Antona Ebo, Franci ..read more

This post is part of a series about the materials that built St. Louis. Check out part 1 for more about clay in St. Louis. Bricks weren’t the only thing being made in Cheltenham. Workers also crafted sewer pipes, floor tiles, roof tiles, chimney liners, flower pots, and more out of clay. The other main product made from clay that you can see around town? Terra cotta. Laclede Christy Tile Factory storage yard, 1905. Library of Congress. | Local clay was turned into tiles and many other products. Architectural terra cotta made its St. Louis debut in the 1880s, and it soon filled t ..read more

Where were you on August 21, 2017? If you were like most people in St. Louis, you were watching the total solar eclipse cover our region in shadow. You were also probably watching with a group of people, whether they were family, friends, neighbors, classmates, or fellow science geeks. As St. Louis prepares for the next solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, check out some other ways people have gathered to watch eclipses in the past. Three stages of a solar eclipse, ca. 1870. Missouri Historical Society Collections. | St. Louisans have long been fascinated by eclipses.Viewing for Science St. Louisan ..read more

Threads, our highly anticipated signature fundraiser, is returning on April 18, 2024. This year, St. Louis-based designers have been selected to create a 21st-century piece inspired by an item of their choice from the Missouri Historical Society’s textile collection. Check out the 10 historic artifacts that inspired these student and professional designers to make bold, patterned pieces that will work on any runway. Paper Mini-Dress | Design Inspiration for Brooke Cowen Woman’s paper mini-dress, ca. 1967. Missouri Historical Society Collections. |This dress was worn at the Zoofari Ball in 1968 ..read more

You might not expect to find a 46-year-old cardboard box in the Missouri Historical Society Collections. But this seemingly everyday item, still in relatively good condition, held a shrine belonging to Gee Wong and Gee Hong, the owners of the last hand-wash Chinese laundry in St. Louis. The story of their business, Sam Wah Laundry, is one of community and the effects of urban development. Box holding the Sam Wah laundry shrine. Missouri Historical Society Collections. Sam Wah Laundry was located at 4381 Laclede Ave. Chinese immigrants Gee Wong and Gee Hong made their way to St. Louis in 1922 a ..read more

On June 17, 1966, a crew aboard a boat near Cam Ranh Bay off the coast of Vietnam witnessed a Lockheed C-130E Hercules crash into the water of the South China Sea. There was no sign of gunfire, no smoke, and no evidence that any hostile action had occurred. When the boat arrived to look for survivors, little evidence of the crash remained. The plane had hit the water so hard that reports said there was barely enough to salvage. Every person on the plane died on impact, and their bodies were nowhere to be found. Cam Rahn Bay, 1969. Wikimedia Commons. Thousands of miles away, Opal Savoy and her ..read more

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 its employees. Beloved for her generosity and impeccable style, Princess Diana’s tragic death shook the British public—and the world—to its core. Millions of people from across the globe began to mourn the beloved royal as soon as information abou ..read more