Hidden in Plain Sight Episodes
Visit historic sites across Missouri through stories that bring overlooked histories into focus.
Featured
Explore Trail of Tears State Park in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri to trace the myth of “Princess Ohtaki,” whose gravesite and story has long been enshrined at the center of the park, and about the ways the Cherokee Nation commemorates removal today.
Visit the Historic Daniel Boone Home in Defiance, Missouri, to learn about women like Olive Vanbibber Boone who farmed and protected the homestead, the knowledge shared by Native Americans, and the enslaved laborers often left out of the frontier story.
Visit The Old Courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri, to explore Missouri’s suffrage movement through the court case of Francis and Virginia Minor in 1875, and through the historic “Golden Lane” demonstration that took place in 1916 — both key turning points on the way to voting rights for women.
Travel to the Fulton Courthouse in Callaway County, Missouri, to learn about Celia Newsom, an enslaved teenager convicted for the murder of her enslaver and — in 2024 — granted a historic pardon, following the efforts of her many descendants and her champions across Missouri.
Travel to Brush Creek in Ralls County, Missouri, to learn the story of Martha Jane Chisley Tolton, an enslaved woman who liberated herself and her three young children as the Civil War raged on. Her son, Augustus Tolton, would become the first known African American Catholic priest in the United States, and today is being considered for sainthood.
Visit the Missouri School for the Deaf in Fulton, Missouri, to learn about the life of poet and journalist Laura Redden Searing. Educated at MSD after losing her hearing as a child, Searing later wrote under the pen name Howard Glyndon and became a Civil War correspondent whose poem “Belle Missouri” became a marching song for the Union Army.
Coming soon!
Travel to the Jasper County Courthouse in Carthage, Missouri, to explore the remarkable story of Annie White Baxter, who was elected Jasper County Clerk in 1890 — decades before women had the right to vote. With Jasper County Clerk and former Missouri State Representative, Charlie Davis.
Coming soon!
Travel to the Nodaway County Historical Society in Maryville, Missouri, to explore the story of Alma Nash, who founded an all-women’s marching band that gained national attention. With historian Elyssa Ford and Melissa Middleswart of the Nodaway County Historical Society.
Coming soon!
Travel to the Harry S. Truman National Historic Site in Independence, Missouri, to explore the life of First Lady Bess Wallace Truman, President Harry S. Truman, and the hometown roots that shaped their approach to public life.
Coming soon!
Travel to the Guadalupe Center in Kansas City, Missouri, to explore the story of Dorothy Gallagher and the local Latino community’s creation of what is today the longest continuously operating social services organization serving the Latino community in the United States.
Coming soon!
Travel to Missouri’s beautiful Ozark region, and to Shannon County, to explore the Shannondale community and its role in restoring forest land that had been stripped by early twentieth-century logging.
Coming soon!
Travel to the Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site in Florida, Missouri, to explore the small cabin where Samuel Clemens—later known as Mark Twain—was born, and to hear of his daughter Clara, who protected his legacy and helped support efforts to preserve his home.