As a lover of history, I have a great passion for archival photos. In the basement of Lee Hills Hall, the Columbia Missourian's newsroom building, are eight huge file cabinets with thousands of folders of old file photos, covering every subject from "Arkansas, University of" to "Zoo of St. Louis." I have spent hours looking through old photos for fun and love it when the opportunity presents itself to actually use some of these photos in the Missourian, usually for historical stories. I also make frequent use of our AP subscription, looking through the massive database for pictures which could be relevant today.
Twice in the fall of 2025, I was able to use my historical research skills to provide important historical context to the Missourian and show our readers something special.
1. NOVEMBER- CHENEY DEATH
When former vice president Dick Cheney died, I instantly started to wonder if he had ever visited central Missouri. But the Cheney, Dick folder in the archives revealed only old Associated Press wire photos from his time as Secretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. Of course, since Cheney became Vice President in 2000, around the shift from film to digital, I reasoned that if he had ever come to Missouri as VP, then it would be in the digital archive.
Sure enough, there he was, visiting Boone County Lumber Co. in 2004. Without my work finding this photo, the Missourian would have run a bog-standard picture of Bush and Cheney on election night. Through this hard work, the national story was made local for our readers.
2. MISSOURI-KANSAS BORDER WAR
The rivalry between the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas, known as the Border War has long been one of the most hateful rivalries in college sports, and is descended from the actual 1860s Border War, a bloody conflict which was a major factor in the outbreak of the American Civil War.
MU and KU played each other in football for over 100 years as part of the Big Six/Big Eight/Big XII conference, until 2012 when MU left for the SEC. In 2025, MU and KU played in football for the first time. The Missourian did a series of articles leading up to the game, for which I was assigned to find old file photos.
I scoured our film archives and found some great photos, including legendary MU coach Don Faurot beating KU in 1956, and other games from decades past. I also updated antique captions into AP style.
My knowledge of sports helped avoid disaster during this process. I selected one excellent 1987 photo of an MU receiver and a KU safety looking for a ball, though I couldn't see the logos. I punched the number into Kansas's 1987 roster and the name was wrong. In fact, that name didn't appear on KU's roster, or any from the 1980s. As it turned out, that picture was from a game against Kansas State, and it had been mislabeled decades ago. Had this task been handled by an editor without a love for history & sports, or without diligence, this photo would have made its way into the newspaper.
