-
A Portal into the Past: Prominent Newspapers of Missouri
In 1808, Meriwether Lewis, the former explorer and recently appointed governor of the Louisiana Territory, believed a newspaper could encourage public discourse throughout the region. Lewis called upon Joseph Charles, an Irish-born printer from Kentucky, to begin working in St. Louis. In 1808, Charles founded the Missouri Gazette and set up shop at First and…
-
The Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase encompassed 827,000 square miles (530,000,000 acres) of land within the North American continent. Prior to the purchase of Louisiana, the footprint of the United States was confined to land east of the Mississippi River. The purchase gave the United States control of a large section of land in the middle of the…