Government and Politics Research Guide

Articles from Missouri Historical Review and Missouri Times

Catalog

Many of the State Historical Society of Missouri’s holdings are included in the SHSMO online catalog. Numerous titles can be found by typing the keyword “government” or “politics” into the catalog search bar. The Society has a large collection of government documents and privately published works.

Digital Collections

Digitized records of Missouri government at all levels (town, county, city, state, federal) and official records of government officers are available online. Digital collections may also include papers and records of politicians, political parties and organizations, political movements, and campaigns at the local, state, and national levels.

View the Missouri Government Digital Collection

Editorial Cartoons

The Society’s collection of editorial cartoons was started in 1946 with an important donation of works by Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Daniel F. Fitzpatrick. The collection continues to grow, with over 8,000 works from Bill Mauldin, Tom Engelhardt, and many others.

View Government-Related Digitized Editorial Cartoons

Historic Missourian Biographies

  • Annie White Baxter - Anna “Annie” White Baxter was the first woman elected to public office in Missouri and the first female county clerk in the United States.

  • George E. Creel - George E. Creel was a journalist, politician, and author. As chairman of the Committee on Public Information during World War I, Creel sought to influence public opinion and gain support at home and abroad for the war effort.

  • Richard Gentry - Richard Gentry was an early settler in Missouri who played an important role in establishing Columbia, Missouri. Gentry, a career military officer, served as the city’s first mayor.

  • Thomas J. Pendergast - Thomas J. Pendergast was the leader of a Kansas City political organization known as the “Pendergast machine.” The Pendergast machine controlled local government and the Democratic Party in Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri, during the Progressive era and Great Depression. He finally lost power after a series of political scandals.

  • Carl Schurz - Carl Schurz was a Union general in the Civil War, a secretary of the interior, and a US senator. He edited and co-owned the Westliche Post, a popular German-language newspaper, and employed the young Joseph Pulitzer, who later became one of the nation’s most successful newspaper publishers, as a reporter. Schurz continued to support the Republican Party, and in 1868 he became the first German American elected to the US Senate.

View All Politician Bios

Manuscripts

The State Historical Society of Missouri manuscript collections contain records of state legislators and government agencies at all levels of government; official records of government officers; and papers and records of politicians, political parties and organizations, political movements, and campaigns at the local, state, and national levels. Examples of such collections include the papers of Frank Hiram Farris, a longtime state legislator from Crawford and Phelps Counties; the papers of William Brewer Whitlow, state senator from Missouri’s 10th District; and the papers of Wayne Goode, Missouri legislator from St. Louis.

View All Government Manuscript Collections

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