Browse Items (44 total)

Scott Joplin is known as the father of ragtime music. He was a Texas native who in fact did play the piano in Joplin, Missouri in the 1890s at a Joplin saloon called the House of Lords. It was in this venue that Joplin native Percy Wenrich got to…

Percy Wenrich was a Joplin, Mo native who was born in 1880. He grew up with the booming mining town. Joplin's musical trends were varied and Wenrich was influenced by many diverse winds. But he was strongly influenced by regional celebrity Texan …

In 1896 May Kennedy portrays a gypsy maid in a play at Galena, Mo High School. She was 16 years of age. While in high school she met her future husband Charles McCord.

In her teens May Kennedy was already the nervy girl that would try anything. A born leader she was involved in all aspects of her school career, including a role as a "gypsy maid" in an 1896 Galena School play by that name. May was sweet 16. In…

An 1885 photo of very young May Kennedy of Carthage who would soon move with her parents to Galena, Missouri where she would grow up. She was born in 1880. Her father was Thomas Kennedy whose roots were Scottish. May's mother was Della Fike of…

The Stonehill Band of Salem Missouri of Dent County in 1893.
Photo courtesy the Missouri State Archives.

An 1890's photo of the R. Stewart piano showroom at 308 St Louis Street in Springfield. In the 1880's and early '90's the Stewart Music Store was advertised as the "largest single floor wareroom in America."

It is October 1903 and the Springfield Missouri Shriners are photographed on the north side of the Springfield square. We are looking northward onto Boonville Street, heading toward Commercial Street. This photo represents a portion of the…

The Springfield Missouri Military Band of October 12,1887 likely directed by Henry Gehrs. Charles Dumars had been the original director. Gehrs was born in Carlisle, IL in 1847. He married Jane Adams in 1870 and moved his family to Springfield in…