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The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and Missouri’s Response
The Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 occurred just as World War I was winding down. The name, Spanish Influenza, likely derives from the King of Spain’s diagnosis, followed by a sensationalized report of his illness. Unlike many wartime countries, Spain was neutral in the Great War and had no press censorship. The pandemic unfolded in…
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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…
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Springfield’s Boy Scout Band
The Springfield Boy Scout Band’s history of goodwill tours, community engagements, and honors began in 1920. Springfield’s Boy Scout organization struggled at the time. Community support for the group came initially from Springfield’s Rotary Club, whose membership made its first civic project the funding of Springfield’s Boy Scouts. The leaders of Springfield’s council of Boy…
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Route 66: America’s Mother Road
Route 66 is collectively remembered as the “Mother Road”: a path to opportunity and a symbol of freedom. Officially named in 1926, this 2,400-mile highway started in Chicago and traveled southwest through eight states before ending in Los Angeles. Route 66 connected small towns to urban centers and facilitated the prolific growth of new towns…
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Missouri Mules
In 1995, the mule was recognized as the official animal of Missouri. The honor was much deserved for an animal that helped many Missourians on their farms and many soldiers on the battlefield. The Missouri mule was a prized draft animal known for its strength and agility. In the late nineteenth century, Missouri livestock breeders…
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American School of Osteopathic Medicine
Osteopathic medicine emerged in north-central Missouri in the last decade of the 19th century at a time when medicines commonly included addictive opioids and damaging mercury purgatives. Andrew Taylor Still (1828–1917) touted a medicine-free healthcare system that idealized the body as a machine capable of curing itself once restored to proper alignment. Still’s operators, as…
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Ozark Jubilee
Ozark Jubilee was a massively popular country music variety show broadcast from the Jewell Theatre in Springfield, Missouri. It aired weekly on the ABC Television Network from 1955 to 1960. The Jubilee originated in December 1953 as a local television broadcast on KYTV and went through rapid transitions in 1954. From KYTV it was developed into a stage…
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Remembering the Border War in History and Sport
University of Missouri head basketball coach Norm Stewart famously despised the University of Kansas so much that he refused to spend a penny in the Sunflower State. The legendary coach was well known for his hatred of the Jayhawks, even going so far as spending the night in Kansas City and gassing up the bus…
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St. Louis Germans, 1820 – 1910
Slightly more than half of German immigrants who came to Missouri during the nineteenth century chose St. Louis as their primary destination. The majority of St. Louis Germans initially came from southern and western Germany, where economic and social upheaval had been the most intensive and devastating. These German immigrants were not destitute peasants but…
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Early German Immigration: 1820-1860
During the first half of the nineteenth century, German settlers came as groups, families, or individuals to Missouri. At the time Germany was not yet a united country but a conglomeration of duchies and principalities. As a result, these German immigrants differed in regional origin, social background, and religious persuasion and lacked a shared sense…