History Day - Government Information Resources

Need to do a school report about Missouri’s state history, famous Missourians, state symbols, or how Missouri’s state government works? Here are some links to get you started.

State Historical Society of Missouri

Contains historical collections about MO from the State Archives, the State Historical Society, and other institutions across the state. Search by keyword or browse collections.

Site is keyword searchable and browseable. Website is divided into following sections: Topics, Time Periods, Regions, Authors, Index, About.

This catalog comprises bibliographic records from their book, microfilm and archival collections, but it does not yet contain the records for all of the materials available at the Missouri State Archives.

Search for books, journals, magazines, government documents, electronic resources, and newspapers in the Missouri State Library.

A collection of select publications from Missouri state government agencies contributed by the Missouri State Library. The Missouri State Archives is the official statutory depository for print publications. Users should consult the copyright notice for using digital state publications contributed by the Missouri State Library.

Contains information on the settlement of and uprising against the Mormons in MO in the 1830s and 1840s.

Develop maps, reports and explore other data tools using a variety of information sources.

Contains immigration information from record books from various counties and the Supreme Court of Missouri. This is an ongoing project between the Missouri State Archives and the St. Louis Genealogical Society.

Searchable by name, institution, city, or type of library.

Use the Missouri map or list of newspaper titles to find digital collections of almost 200 Missouri newspapers. Newspapers are listed by their county, title and date range.

This catalog provides information regarding the newspapers on microfilm that are available from the State Historical Society of Missouri to the public on-site and through interlibrary loan. The Society's newspapers on microfilm offer information about the day-to-day lives of Missourians and the political, cultural, economic, and religious events that have influenced them. These Missouri newspapers document events and public opinion from the state's rural environs to its largest metropolitan areas. Use the search box to search for a newspaper by name; scroll down to the map of MO to find newspapers by counties.

Provides an index and abstract of the criminal and civil court cases that were appealed to the territorial and state Supreme Court of Missouri up to 1874, and a partial listing of cases to 1889. A number of documents in the earliest cases date from the 1780s to 1790s.

"Contains over 280,000 entries from French and Spanish land concessions, federal land sales and state issued patents. The records may include names of purchasers, claimants and assignees, county, date of purchase, and legal land description (township, section, range and number of acres sold)." Searchable by name of purchaser or section of land.

Produced by the MO Local Records Preservation Program, this is a compilation of inventories of local government records identified as having permanent or enduring value and housed primarily in county and municipal offices, but includes some libraries, museums, and historical and genealogical societies that maintain government records. Searchable by county or keyword.

Covers the War of 1812 to World War I and lists more than 576,000 Missourians who served in the military. It is abstracted from individual service cards. The database is searchable by name or unit and can be limited to a particular war. Images of the original service records are linked to most database records.

Searchable by state park, state historic site, and historic site tours.