Gen. Henry W. Halleck replaced Gen. John C. Fremont, the vain and ambitious local Union commander, in January of 1862. Nicknamed "Old Brains," Halleck was a stern, unlovable lawyer who restored order in St. Louis by publishing numerous heavy-handed edicts and methodically enforcing them.
1/6/2012
Album ID: 1391233
Photos by Missouri History Museum and the Library of Congress
Look Back: Carolers of Christmas Past
13 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- In 1924, area leaders founded the Community Chest (now United Way) and discouraged separate fundraisers by member organizations, such as the Christian Aid Society. Thus was born the St. Louis Christmas Carols Association, headed for the next 31 years by William H. Danforth, president of Ralston-Purina Co., who had formed one of the original groups on his street, Kingsbury Place, with help from fellow members of Pilgrim Congregational Church.
12/23/2011
Album ID: 1383251
Photos by St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff
Look Back: Eugene Field house, 1936
16 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- Eugene Field’s childhood home at 634 South Broadway was opened during a five-inch snowstorm on Dec. 18, 1936, after a frenzied campaign to save and restore it. The first 50 visitors were students at Eugene Field School, 4466 Olive Street, named after the newspaper columnist who was known, sometimes to his distress, as "the children’s poet."
12/16/2011
Album ID: 1380154
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Pacific Railroad, 1852
9 photos
by Tim O'Neil --- The first passenger train west of the Mississippi River began its portentous jaunt towards the West Coast at 1 p.m. on Dec. 9, 1852, from a station near 14th Street and Chouteau Avenue. The Pacific Railroad Co., St. Louis’ bid to reach the Pacific Ocean by rail, was building its way westward with dreams bigger than progress.
12/9/2011
Album ID: 1376529
Photos by Missouri History Museum and Missouri State Archives
Look Back: Pearl Harbor, 1941
13 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- The front pages of Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, gave little hint of a surprise attack upon Pearl Harbor that radio broadcasters would report breathlessly at 1:31 p.m. local time. Next morning, hundreds of civilians mobbed recruiting stations downtown. More than 400 applied for the Navy, 40 times the daily average. Outside the federal Custom House (Old Post Office), crowds gathered around a temporary loudspeaker at Eighth and Olive streets to hear President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s war speech to Congress.
12/5/2011
Album ID: 1373724
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Service cars' last run, 1965
11 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- Before World War II, almost 500 service cars plied St. Louis and its surrounding suburbs, charging five-cent fares. Cabbies and streetcar motormen loathed service cars because they siphoned customers and clogged downtown corners. Bus company executives called them "parasites." The last runs were scheduled for the morning of Nov. 30, 1965.
11/23/2011
Album ID: 1367417
Photos by St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff
Lookback: Woman Suffrage Association
6 photos
for sale
Nov. 21, 1872, as a national women’s convention opened downtown St. Louis. The Missouri Democrat, a St. Louis newspaper, predicted that the drive to grant voting rights to women would fizzle. It was a common reaction for the times, abetted in part by a schism within suffragist ranks.
11/18/2011
Album ID: 1364471
Look Back: Mob trials, November 1924
15 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- ST. LOUIS • The courtroom’s cast-iron shutters were slammed shut. Only people with passes were admitted. A phalanx of federal agents surrounded their star witness. For two weeks in November 1924, Ray "the Fox" Renard, one-time wheelman for the notorious gang called Egan’s Rats, broke the gangster code and testified against former cronies.
11/11/2011
Album ID: 1360171
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Elijah P. Lovejoy
6 photos
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.
