Our Missouri

In this episode of the "Origins" series, Julie Winch talks to Sean Rost about the history and legacy of the Clamorgan family of St. Louis.

Episode Image: Laclede's Landing and Clamorgan Alley in St. Louis, date unknown [George McCue Photograph Collection (S0718), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Julie Winch is Emerita Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is the author of several books, including Philadelphia's Black Elite: Activism, Accommodation and the Struggle for Autonomy, 1787-1848; Between Slavery and Freedom: Free People of Color in America from Settlement to the Civil War; A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten (which won the American Historical Association's Wesley-Logan Prize), and The Clamorgans: One Family's History of Race in America. She is also the editor of The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis.

In this episode of the "Origins" series, Lily Santoro joins host Sean Rost to discuss the new exhibit, "Stars, Stripes, & Celebrations: Missourians Commemorating America’s Founding in Uncertain Times," curated by her and ASH Scholars from the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, which will be on display at the Missouri State Museum in Jefferson City from June 2026-May 2027.

Episode Image: Liberty Bell at the St. Louis World's Fair, 1904 [Charles Trefts Photographs (P0034), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Lily Santoro earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in American History from the University of Delaware and completed her B.A. in History at the University of Southern California. She holds certificates in Museum Studies from the University of Delaware and Digital Archives and Records Management from San Jose State University. Presently, she serves as an Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy.

In this episode of the "Origins" series, Stephen L. Kling, Jr. joins host Sean Rost to talk about his research into the American Revolutionary War in the West, the exhibition Gálvez and Louisiana in the American Revolution at the Louisiana State Cabildo Museum in New Orleans, and his October 2026 presentation for SHSMO's History on Elm series.

Episode Image: Drawing of Laclede's House [Gloria Simpson Collection (S1074), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Stephen L. Kling, Jr. is an independent researcher focusing on the western theater of the American Revolutionary War. His books include The Battle of St. Louis, the Attack on Cahokia, and the American Revolutionary War in the West; Cavalry in the Wilderness: Cavalry in the Western Theater of the American Revolutionary War and the French and Indian War; James Colbert and His Chickasaw Legacy; The American Revolutionary War in the West; and An Underappreciated Victory: Bernardo de Gálvez’s Mississippi River Campaign Against the British in 1779. He was the primary historical consultant for the 2021 Mid-American Emmy award-winning House of Thunder documentary on the Battle of St. Louis. He is the past curator of the American Revolutionary War in the West museum exhibition at the St. Charles, Missouri Heritage Museum. Currently, he is the curator for the newly opened Gálvez and Louisiana in the American Revolution exhibition at the Louisiana State Cabildo Museum in New Orleans based on his latest book. He will be the featured speaker at the State Historical Society of Missouri’s History on Elm series on Tuesday, October 13, 2026. 

Kling is a frequent speaker on the western theater of the American Revolutionary War being featured on C-SPAN, The American Revolution Institute in Washington, D. C. lecture series, as well as making presentations at the Missouri History Museum, the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park, the Friends of the Cabildo, and at numerous history conference and historical society meetings. Mr. Kling is a descendant of Joseph Robidoux III who was a soldier in the Spanish militia that defended St. Louis when it was attacked by British-led forces in 1780 during the American Revolutionary War.

In this episode of the "Origins" series, Bill Eddlemen, regional director of the SHSMO-Cape Girardeau Research Center, joins host Sean Rost to discuss his upcoming presentation on June 30, 2026, at the Center for Missouri Studies in Columbia, "The Role of the Revolutionary War and its Veterans in the Settlement of Southeast Missouri."

Also, be sure to check out Bill's YouTube presentation for SHSMO's Basic Genealogy series on "Documenting Your Revolutionary War Ancestor."

Episode Image: King's Highway, El Camino Real, Sikeston, ca. 1916 [Ethel Massie Withers Collection (C1440), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Bill Eddleman earned a PhD in Biology from Oklahoma State University. Eddleman served as a professor in the Department of Biology at Southeast Missouri State University from 1995-2014. He served as vice provost and dean of the School of Graduate Studies from 2011-2013 before being appointed as the provost of Southeast Missouri State University. After retiring as provost in 2016, Eddleman became the regional director of the State Historical Society of Missouri's Cape Girardeau Research Center. He is also past president of the Missouri State Genealogical Association. 

In this episode of the "Origins" series, John Craig Hammond joins host Sean Rost to discuss his new book, The Centrality of Slavery:
Empire and Enslavement in Colonial Illinois and Missouri.

Episode Image: Map of Illinois and Missouri, 1827 [The State Historical Society of Missouri Map Collection]

About the Guest: John Craig Hammond is Associate Professor of History at Penn State University, New Kensington. He is the author of The Centrality of Slavery: Empire and Enslavement in Colonial Illinois and Missouri and the co-editor of A Fire Bell in the Past: The Missouri Crisis at 200, Volume I and A Fire Bell in the Past: The Missouri Crisis at 200, Volume II.

In this episode of the "Origins" series, Frances Turnbell joins host Sean Rost to discuss her new book, Spanish Louisiana: Contest for Borderlands, 1763–1803.

Episode Image: Spanish Commander’s Home in Ste. Genevieve, ca. 1916 [Ethel Massie Withers Collection (C1440), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Frances Turnbell holds a PhD in History from Vanderbilt University. Presently, she is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of North Alabama. She is the author of Spanish Louisiana: Contest for Borderlands, 1763–1803.

In this episode, host Sean Rost sits down with Rachel Davidson to discuss Missouri's newest national park, Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park.

Episode Image: Pencil drawing by Roscoe Misselhorn of Jean Baptiste Valle Home [Missouri Postcard Collection (P0032), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Rachel Davidson is Superintendent of Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park

In the next episode of the "Origins" series, Linda Carol Jones joins host Sean Rost to discuss her book, The Shattered Cross: French Catholic Missionaries on the Mississippi River, 1698-1725.

Episode Image: Steeple of Ste. Genevieve Catholic Church, date unknown [Missouri Postcard Collection (P0032), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Linda Carol Jones holds a PhD in Instructional Technology from the University of New Mexico. Presently, she is Professor of Language Specialties at the University of Arkansas. She is the author of Language Encounters Along the French Colonial Mississippi and The Shattered Cross:  French Catholic Missionaries on the Mississippi River, 1698-1725.

In this episode for the "Origins" series, Mark Walczynski joins us to talk about his new book, Jolliet and Marquette: A New History of the 1673 Expedition.

Episode Image: Tower Rock in the Mississippi River, ca. 1960 [Missouri Postcard Collection (P0032), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Mark Walczynski is a retired faculty member at Illinois Valley Community College and the Park Historian for the Starved Rock Foundation. He is the author of The History of Starved Rock 1673-1911; Inquietus: La Salle in the Illinois Country; Massacre 1769: The Search for the Origin of the Legend of Starved Rock; and Jolliet and Marquette: A New History of the 1673 Expedition.

Next up in the “Origins” series, Patricia Cleary joins host Sean Rost to talk about her award-winning book, Mound City: The Place of the Indigenous Past and Present in St. Louis.

Episode Image: Monk’s Mound, 1987 [James Stebbings Photograph Collection (S0811), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Patricia Cleary holds a PhD in History from Northwestern University. Presently, she is Professor of History at California State University, Long Beach. She is the author of several books, including Elizabeth Murray: A Woman’s Pursuit of Independence in Eighteenth-Century America; The World, the Flesh, and the Devil: A History of Colonial St. Louis; and Mound City: The Place of the Indigenous Past and Present in St. Louis.