• Commissioner of the District of Columbia 1874
• US House of Representatives from Missouri's 2nd district 1863 – 1867
• Missouri Senate 1854 - 1858

Despite being raised in the south, Blow was an abolitionist. Henry's parents had owned a slave, Dred Scott, who was sold to Dr. Emerson, who took Scott to Illinois and Wisconsin, which were both free territories. When Scott returned to St. Louis, Henry Taylor Blow encouraged Scott to sue for his freedom since he had lived in free states.

Blow helped establish many organizations in St. Louis including a Presbyterian church, the Philosophical Society, the St. Louis Philharmonic Society, the Twentieth Century Club, the Western Academy of Art, and a Carondelet public school.

Blow Street, which passes through several south St. Louis city neighborhoods, is named for Blow.

The H.T. Blow School in Washington, DC was named for him. It was later merged with Franklin Pierce Elementary School to create Blow-Pierce Elementary. More recently it was changed to a charter school called Friendship Blow Pierce Elementary School