Alton newspaper editor Elijah P. Lovejoy, known for righteous and unforgiving prose against slavery, was almost 35 when he was killed Nov. 7, 1837. The mob tossed his press into the Mississippi River. It was the fourth press that Lovejoy had lost to people who hated his words. He soon became a martyr to the nation’s small but rising wave of abolitionism.
11/8/2011
Album ID: 1354371
Photos by Larry Coyne
Look Back: Interregional Highway
12 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- When the $13 million Interregional highway between downtown St. Louis and Gravois opened on Oct. 15, 1955, there was no ribbon-cutting. It took seven years to build the 2.3 mile highway, and everyone was tired of talk. But commuters liked it.
10/14/2011
Album ID: 1342345
Photos by St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff
Look Back: Browns and Cardinals World Series
21 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- The final game of the 1944 World Series was played on a chilly Oct. 9 between the National League's St. Louis Cardinals and the American League's St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park. Only 31,630 fans -- almost 3,000 fewer than a full house -- saw the game. The Cardinals won that final game, 3-1, and the series, 4-2.
10/7/2011
Album ID: 1337719
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Catholic school integration
9 photos
for sale
Angry white parents, opposed St. Louis Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter instructions to allow black students into the Catholic schools, scheduled a rally for Sept. 21, 1947, threatening to take the archbishop to court. Ritter responded with his own threat ---- excommunication for anyone who participated in the lawsuit. Organized opposition collapsed two weeks later, and about 140 black children were enrolled in previously all-white Catholic schools.
9/18/2011
Album ID: 1322605
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: St. Louis Merchants Exchange
23 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- When the St. the Louis Merchants Exchange building opened in 1875 it was a bustling affair, fitting for the importance of the new building to commerce and society. Grain traders used its vast hall to buy and sell the harvests that poured into St. Louis by steamboat, railroad and horse cart. The following year, the Democratic Party held its national convention there, choosing Samuel J. Tilden as their candidate. Last call was on Sept. 13, 1957, when business moved to a new, forgettably modern brick building at 5100 Oakland Avenue, leaving the old haunt to grain-nibbling pigeons and mice.
9/9/2011
Album ID: 1318466
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Eads' Civil War gunboats
12 photos
by Tim O'Neil --- James B. Eads, salvage king of the Mississippi River, promised President Abraham Lincoln he could build iron-armored gunboats in 65 days. On Aug. 7, 1861, Eads won a contract to build seven burly gunboats from a novel design. At $89,000 apiece, each was to carry 13 heavy cannon, have 2.5 inches of armor and be delivered to Cairo, Ill., in sixty days.
9/2/2011
Album ID: 1314568
Photos by Larry Coyne
Look Back: St. Louis mob wars, 1980
13 photos
for sale
Shortly after the death of boss Anthony "Tony G" Giordano on August 29, 1980, mob leaders recruited John J. Vitale, the old consiglieri to come out of retirement and smooth the transition. The quiet following Giordano’s death lasted 19 days, and the subsequent murder of James A. "Horseshoe Jimmy" Michaels set off St. Louis’ last big-time gang war.
8/27/2011
Album ID: 1301671
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: River Des Peres, 1915
18 photos
The urban growth of St. Louis made the previously pleasant and meandering River Des Peres become a flood-prone sewer. Its path through Forest Park was encased temporarily in a wooden culvert for the 1904 World�s Fair. On Aug. 19, 1915, remnants of a hurricane reached St. Louis from Texas, and heavy rain dumped 7.4 inches across the area. In 1923, city voters adopted an $87 million bond issue that included $11 million to tame the River Des Peres. Steady work with steam shovels, horse teams and men swinging picks continued for more than a decade. They ran the river underground through the park and into a nine-mile-long open channel to the Mississippi.
8/19/2011
Album ID: 1302908
Photos by St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Missouri History Museum
Look Back: V-J Day, 1945
16 photos
for sale
By Tim O''Neil --- The first unofficial news bulletin of Japan''s surrender in World War II came by radio at 2:30 a.m. local time on Aug. 14., 1945. Henry Ruggeri rushed to reopen his tavern at Edwards Street and Elizabeth Avenue. "I must celebrate," Ruggeri said. Downtown that morning, office workers filled the air and streets with paperwork from their desks. Teenagers snake-danced down Olive Street. Adults banged washboards and dragged strings of clanging cans across pavement. At 5 p.m., when President Harry Truman confirmed the surrender, the party leaped into overdrive.
8/13/2011
Album ID: 1301309
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Heat wave of 1936
10 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- The heat of July 1936 had been withering and deadly, reaching at least 100 degrees on 18 days. It had killed 332 people by July 30, when cooling breezes soothed raw, sweating faces. The relief didn’t last. A drought that burned the Plains and Midwest restoked itself, pushing the temperature here back to 100 on Aug. 9. On 15 of the next 18 shimmering days, the high would be at least 100. It was 103 or hotter 11 times. On Aug. 18, the high was 106. The summer’s toll was 479 dead of heat, including 29 children.
