Missouri Valley Sundays

Investigative journalist Richard Serrano tells the story of his grandfather’s murder and its cover-up—with links to political boss Tom Pendergast and other colorful characters. A drunk living on Kansas City's skid row, James Patrick Lyons was arrested 80 times for public intoxicatio...

The Lewis & Clark Expedition paused at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers for three days on its way west in 1804 – longer than at any other place on its 7,600-mile journey aside from a winter encampment with the Mandans. Now called Kaw Point, this site proved significant for wildlife observati...

Comprised largely of free-state sympathizers, the German community of Concordia was located in Lafayette County, which contained more slaves than any other Missouri county. During the Civil War, the settlement became a target of a guerilla band led by "Bloody Bill" Anderson. Despite wartime travails, Concordia...

In 1917, as the U.S. entered World War I, Isaac Katz turned a challenge into an opportunity. A wartime decree prohibited stores from staying open past 6 p.m. – peak hours for the Katz brothers’ tobacco store near Union Station in Kansas City. Only pharmacies could remain open in the evening. Katz found a ret...

In 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued the "Order of Extermination" that ordered the killing or removal of Mormons residing in Missouri—initiating an exodus of Latter-day Saints. Though there seems to be no historical evidence that Missouri carried out these threats, the order spurred Mormons to l...

From its start in 1857, the Quindaro township—in present-day Wyandotte County—was an unabashedly free-state community surrounded by pro-slavery sympathizers. Amid this conflict, Quindaro residents forged a community based on multi-ethnic collaboration—a model for ethnic solidarity today. The...

p>Renowned Kansas City artist Thomas Hart Benton produced drawings that ranged from detailed nature studies to spontaneous gestural sketches. Joan Stack leads an illustrated presentation that examines the drawings of Thomas Hart Benton on Sunday, Febr...

The influence of the Missouri River on the urban development that first started along its banks goes beyond infrastructure and extends to the social fabric of the community, as Amahia Mallea explains in this presentation on Sunday, November 16, at 2 p.m. at the...

In the aftermath of Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence, Kansas, Union General Thomas Ewing, Jr., became suspicious of local support for Confederate sympathizers and issued the infamous General Order No. 11 “ the enforced evacuation of rural communities in four Missouri counties surrounding Kansas City....