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Frank M. Karsten

American politician (1913-1992)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ1443711 ↗
Source-derived summary

Frank Melvin Karsten (January 7, 1913 – May 14, 1992) was a Democratic United States Representative from Missouri.

Biography

Frank M. Karsten was born in San Antonio, Texas on January 7, 1913. His family moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1925, and he graduated from Beaumont High School. Karsten was a staff assistant for Congressman John J. Cochran from 1934 to 1946. He attended National University (now George Washington University Law School) while working for Cochran, and graduated with an LL.B. in 1940.

Karsten ran to succeed Cochran in what was then the 13th district in downtown and north St. Louis in 1946, when Cochran withdrew on suffering a stroke the day after he filed for reelection. He won with 54 percent of the vote. However, he would never face another contest nearly that close, and was reelected 10 times.

Editorial summary

“Frank M. Karsten” enters the record as american politician (1913-1992). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Frank, Karsten and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1913, 1992, 1925, 1934—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1913-01-07. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Frank, Karsten and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Frank M. Karsten” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Frank, Karsten and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1443711. VIAF identifies the subject as 18809271. The Library of Congress control number is n89112030. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1992, 1925 and 1934.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Frank M. Karsten”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Frank M. Karsten primary sources, Frank M. Karsten archive and Frank research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Frank M. Karsten”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Frank M. Karsten” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.