Columbia Manuscript Collections

The records of the Maramec Iron Works in St. James, Missouri, and the papers of the James family, who owned the iron works, includes financial records, correspondence, and account books. The correspondence discusses the hiring of enslaved people, prices, banking and financial conditions, transportation costs and railroads, political conditions, immigration, and the Civil War.

Correspondence, 1944-1958, consists primarily of letters of congratulation on speeches and on MISSOURI LAWYER, Barker's autobiography. Reviews of the book. Letters from Harry S. Truman concerning politics. Scrapbooks of clippings about Barker's early career.

Newspaper clippings and ephemera concerning the creation and development of the Katy Trail State Park in Missouri.

Papers of a Democratic governor of Missouri, 1937-1941. Material relates to official business, campaigns, and personal affairs.

Papers of a judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, 1917-1947 (presiding judge, 1928-1947), who continued to work with the court after his retirement in 1947. U.S. courts; Democratic politics, Kansas City and Missouri bar associations and law schools; and fraternal and charitable organizations.

The papers of a Missouri Republican lawyer, politician, educator, and author. Attorney general, 1905-1909; governor, 1909-1913; professor of law, University of Colorado, 1917-1923; and Washington University chancellor, 1923-1927. Includes letterbooks, scrapbooks, manuscripts, photographs, cartoons, and miscellaneous material. Originals in storage.

The papers of the Republican governor of Missouri from 1921 to 1925 and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1929 to 1933, consist of correspondence, clippings, printed material, photographs, and personal items. Major topics include agriculture, conservation, road construction, education, taxation, Republican politics, labor disputes, law enforcement, prohibition, and Missouri state institutions and politics.

Official and personal correspondence and papers of Guy B. Park, Democratic governor of Missouri from 1933 to 1937. Also includes his work as an attorney for the Chicago Great Western Railroad Company, 1933-1946, as well as some personal papers of Eleanora Park.

The papers of a St. Louis lawyer and politician; attorney general of Missouri, 1921-1925; Republican candidate for governor in 1936; commander of the Missouri Department of the American Legion, 1932-1933; and president of the Missouri Bar Association, 1933-1934. The collection includes material about the American Legion, Methodist Episcopal Church, Culver-Stockton College, Barrett’s St. Louis law practice, term as attorney general, Missouri Bar Association, business and family, and Republican Party campaigns and elections.

The records of departments of farm management (1910-1919), rural life (1919-1926), and agricultural economics (1926-1966), chaired by D. Howard Doane and O.R. Johnson.

Records dealing with the organization, and with participation of individual citizens in the organization. Bulletins, letters, budgets, plans, applications, forms, maps, insignias, mailing lists, minutes, newspaper clippings, and other material showing how the Council operated.

The papers include material on Denham’s legal practice in Florida; his work as trial examiner and general counsel for NLRB, including material on Taft-Hartley legislation, speeches, and participation in President’s Conference on Administrative Procedures; and personal papers.

Correspondence of a Republican congressman from Missouri's 3rd District dealing with topics as varied as World War II, agriculture, legislation on labor and the atom bomb, education, foreign relations, immigration, flood control, labor, housing, socialized medicine, politics and the postal service.

Correspondence, minutes, proceedings, literary productions, lists, printed material, financial and legal documents pertaining to the farm parity movement led by George Peek and Chester C. Davis. The photographs and the volumes, mainly newspaper clippings, deal almost exclusively with Davis’ career, 1933-1953.

Files from the University of Missouri chemistry department. Includes some of Schlundt's personal correspondence and papers as well as departmental and personal correspondence of Mary Violette Dover, D.H. Dolley, Henry D. Bent, and Allen E. Stern. Papers contain research notes for Schlundt's work on radioactivity and Dover's work on lubricants.

Correspondence, speeches, radio scripts, and related materials concerning the work of the Missouri Committee for the New Constitution and the Missouri Public Expenditure Survey to promote ratification of the Constitution of 1943-1944.

Papers of a St. Louis lawyer who was a Democratic delegate-at-large. He was elected president of the convention and took an active part in the campaign for adoption of the constitution drawn up by that body.

Letters and papers of a Maryville, Missouri, lawyer and Democratic delegate from the 1st Senatorial District. Papers deal largely with work of various committees on which he served, especially the Committee on the Executive Department which he chaired.

Letters and papers of a St. Louis lawyer and delegate from the 25th Senatorial District. Convention work, especially the Committee on Local Government (City of St. Louis, St. Louis County, and Jackson County) which he chaired. He also served on Committees on Military Affairs; Miscellaneous Provisions; and Information, Submission and Address to the People.

Correspondence and other papers of a St. Joseph lawyer and delegate to the state constitutional convention. Papers deal primarily with convention work, especially the committee on education which he chaired and the other committees of which he was a member.

Convention correspondence and working papers of Marr, 6th senatorial district Democrat delegate. Marr served as chair of the Committee on Preamble, Boundaries, Bill of Rights, and Distribution of Powers and as a member of the Executive, Judicial, Education, and Highways committee.

Correspondence and reports of 10th senatorial district delegate. McCluer was chair of the Committee on State Finance (except Taxation)--Expenditures, Public Indebtedness and Restrictions Thereon. He also served on committees for education, Congressional districting, public health and welfare, and scheduling.

Letters and papers of a Democratic delegate-at-large and chair of the State-Wide Committee for the Revision of the Missouri Constitution. He was chair of the Committee on Rules and Order of Business, and served on the Committees on Executive Department; Legislative Department; Printing; Reporting and Publications; Convention Library, Information and Research; and Phraseology, Arrangement and Engrossment.

Papers concerning the Missouri Constitutional Convention of 1943-1944. Morton was chairman of the St. Louis and St. Louis County committee, and treasurer of the statewide committee to raise funds for the convention. He championed unicameralism and served as a delegate-at-large and chairman of the Library Committee.

Correspondence, notes, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings collected by a delegate-at-large to the Missouri constitutional convention of 1943-1944.

Letters and papers of a Republican delegate from the 5th senatorial district. Smith was chairman of the Committee on Public Health and Public Welfare and Federal Relations with Respect Thereto, and served on the Committees on Initiative and Referendum and on Printing, Reporting and Publications.

Letters and papers of a St. Louis lawyer and Republican delegate-at-large. Shepley was chairman of the Committee on Taxation-Levy, Assessment, and Collection, and served on the Committees on the Legislative Department, Executive Department, Judiciary Department, Military Affairs, and Miscellaneous Provisions.

Correspondence, circulars, and bulletins maintained by Smith as the executive director of the Committee of Ten and the State-Wide Committee for the Revision of the Missouri Constitution. The collection also contains related correspondence of Chairman Allen McReynolds and Assistant Vice President Robert Kratky.

Letters and papers of a St. Louis lawyer and Republican delegate from the 25th senatorial district. He was chairman of the Committee on Suffrage and Elections and served on the Committees of the Judicial Department, Local Government, and Miscellaneous Provisions.

Letters and papers of a Democratic delegate from the 5th senatorial district, who was chairman of the Committees on Local Government (City of St. Louis, St. Louis County, and Jackson County), Highways, and Agriculture and Conservation.

Letters and papers of a Republican delegate from the 17th senatorial district, chairman of Committee on Information, Submission and Address to the People, and member of Committees on Rules and Order of Business; Miscellaneous Provisions; Accounts, Employees, Services, and Supplies; Publications; and Executive Committee which operated after sine die adjournment.

The personal papers and correspondence of Rainey cover his career as an educator; his directorship of the American Youth Commission; the struggle for academic freedom at the University of Texas; his campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Texas; and the administration of Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri. The scrapbooks contain news clippings, articles, and family genealogy.

Papers of University of Missouri vice-president, which include material on the re-establishment of a four-year medical school, Missouri School of Mines, and other University and educational matters.

Correspondence, business papers, and account books of Dr. John C. Parrish of Vandalia, Missouri. He was a member of the board of curators of the University of Missouri, 1905-1917; held interests in the lead and zinc mining industry in Missouri and Oklahoma; and was active in the Republican Party in Missouri.

The Papers of William Brewer Whitlow contain materials pertaining to the liquidation of seventy-seven insolvent banks in Missouri.  Whitlow, a lawyer from Fulton, was appointed to liquidate the banks. Also includes Whitlow's political papers as chairman, Callaway County Democratic Committee; member, State Democratic Committee, 1937-1939; and state senator from the 10th district, 1938-1942. These papers concern campaign programs, publicity and speakers; public opinion and reaction to proposed legislation; constituent requests and endorsements; and Senate bills, amendments and committee work.

Correspondence and papers of the Chairman of the Department of Spanish at the University of Missouri from 1926 to 1944. Copies of articles written by Warshaw for scholarly publications, extensive notes on Spanish and Latin American literature and life. Letters are about departmental matters, personal affairs, and Spanish scholarship.

The business papers and record books of a Shannon County, Missouri, lumber company consist of correspondence, financial records, minutes of directors’ and stockholders’ meetings, store records, cutting and other lumber records, land records, and survey maps.

The records of the first women’s college chartered in Missouri, and one of the first chartered west of the Mississippi River, consists of correspondence, catalogs, yearbooks, photographs, and financial records.

Correspondence, legal cases, speeches, clippings, and political material of a St. Louis attorney, politician, prohibitionist, and leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Several cases concern prohibition enforcement or lead companies in southeastern Missouri. Hay was three times an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator.

The papers of Frederick B. Mumford, instructor and dean of the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, include correspondence, speeches, articles, reports, and statistics concerning the College of Agriculture, Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities, Missouri Council of Defense, U.S. Food Administration, and Mission Americaine de Rapproachment to France.

Bills, accounts, speeches, notes, correspondence and book and article manuscripts on a wide range of subjects. Crow was a resident of China for a number of years and most of his writing was about China or related subjects. The collection includes a diary of a trip over the Burma Road, the diary of a Japanese soldier, and notes and articles on the Japanese opium trade.

The papers of William Hirth, a farm leader, organizer, and president of the Missouri Farmers Association (MFA), consist of correspondence, newspaper articles, and radio speeches. The material pertains to Missouri Farmers Association business activities, state and national politics, and The Missouri Farmer, official publication of the Missouri Farmers Association.

The business records of a Gordonville, Missouri, dry goods store, which grew into a general merchandise and farm service operation, follow this family-owned business from Vicksburg, Mississippi, through its move to Cape Girardeau County in 1840 and trace its development there into the 1970s.

Records of a bank organized in 1890 and liquidated in 1930. Also records of local businesses and schools.

This collection contains the papers of two families named Hickman, one of Boone County, Missouri, and the other of Alexandria, Louisiana. Related by marriage, the families had business dealings in slaves, agriculture, and livestock. The papers of the Bryan family, related to the Boone County Hickmans by marriage are also in this collection.

Correspondence, bills, receipts, clippings, pamphlets, and church supply catalogues of a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Dillman held pastorates in St. Louis, where he was engaged in settlement house work; Berwyn, Nebraska; and several towns in southwest Missouri. Papers are from the St. Louis and southwest periods of his ministry.

Business papers recording farming, mining, and mercantile activities in southeast Missouri, particularly Potosi and Washington County. The collection contains family correspondence, legal and financial records, as well as medical notebooks from Barnes Hospital in St. Louis.

Papers of an Equine Research Specialist on the staff of the Missouri State Museum and former horse breeder. The papers consist of research materials gathered for a history of Missouri livestock, the bulk of which concern horses. A small quantity of personal papers is included.

Papers of a Columbia, Missouri, lawyer and amateur local historian. Anecdotes, articles, speeches, and biographical sketches about events, people, and places in Columbia, Boone County, and Missouri. Family papers, correspondence, and some legal and business material.

Papers of a club woman pertaining to work of Missouri Federated Clubs, Eugene Field Foundation, Missouri Society for Crippled Children, and Council for National Defense. Also includes her MA thesis submitted in 1909 at the University of Missouri.

Copy books from Cape Girardeau State Normal School and public schools in Harrisonville, Kansas City, Lamar, Liberty, Mexico, Nevada, and Trenton, with samples of school assignments and essays. Also letters pertaining to standards of admission to agricultural and mining colleges.

The papers of John W. Connaway contain personal and professional correspondence, research notes and writings, and brief personal material regarding his family. Connaway was Professor of Veterinary Science and Comparative Medicine at the University of Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station from 1888 to 1947 where he made significant findings in controlling Texas fever, hog cholera, brucellosis or Bang's disease, and other livestock disorders.

Files relating to banking, insurance, education, land speculation, and politics in northwest Missouri. Includes material on the trust company, the Mutual Benefit Savings and Loan Association, Althouse & Williams, city of Cameron, MO, Wesleyan College, and other business ventures in which A.J. Althouse and J.E. Williams were involved.

Correspondence of Jonas Viles about scheduling courses, exams, deficiencies, recommendations, applications, illness of Professor Mike H. Cochran, work on dissertations, and transfer vouchers for office supplies. Also personal correspondence.

The papers contain correspondence of Brinkerhoff and Vial, land agents in Clinton, Missouri, later Brinkerhoff and Smith Land Agency. The materials cover renting and selling land, paying taxes on property for non-resident owners and checking titles, and loans on property in southwestern Missouri, particularly Henry County.

Records of rural schools in a 34 square-mile area around Strafford. Information pertains to Lamb, Potter, Flint Hill, Strafford, Danforth, and a black school (primary grades) and Strafford High School. Includes school board minutes, financial records, voter lists, election tallies, correspondence, teacher applications and contracts, and pupil records.

Records of the bank include balance books, collection register, daily statement registers, day books, deposit certificate register, discount registers, distribution of expense accounts register, draft registers, inventory book, ledgers, notes due books, record book containing minutes of the stockholders meetings, statement books, and stock certificate register.

Correspondence, army directives, student records, and other material pertaining to the program and staff of the ASTP Unit at the University of Missouri. Also includes material concerning a study of ASTPs made by Thomas A. Brady for the Rockefeller Foundation.

Course schedules, outlines, flight and class roles, grades, and instructions for teachers concerning policies of Air Corps and teaching methods. Tests for History and Americanism. Correspondence of Rogers Whitmore and Thomas A. Brady.

Personal correspondence and information and correspondence about cotton organizations, farm organizations, and transactions concerning his plantation and plantation store. General expenses of the plantation, purchase of cotton seed, and records of accounts.

Papers of a Columbia, MO, woman active in World War I women's work, who served as 4th District chairman of the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense. Papers pertain to Liberty Loan, Red Cross, food conservation, child welfare, patriotic education, and related work.

Bank business papers, legal papers, insurance papers, deposit slips and receipts, and miscellaneous papers. Also includes books of accounts used during the regular course of the business.

Two record books kept by the postmaster: the official postmaster's account book, 1905-1918, and the register of money orders issued, 1902-1916. Papers include accounts, audit sheets, federal communications, money order forms, orders for stamps, and registered mail forms.

Correspondence of Elder John Gano of Bourbon County, KY, an evangelist in the early Disciples of Christ Church. The papers also include accounts and bills, advertisements, circulars, publications, and a diary describing his conversion, baptism, and life as a preacher.

Financial material, correspondence, contracts, minutes and reports, blueprints, and photographs. Volumes include journals, ledgers, farm accounts, voucher register, cash book, and general records.

Bank accounts; documents; pamphlets; letters and bills having to do with the tobacco industry in Chariton and Carroll Counties and Chariton County Wool Growers Association; miscellaneous clippings. Account book of bank includes bills and receipts from various business concerns.

Letters written by servicemen during the war to friends and relatives throughout the United States. Arranged alphabetically by writer's name.

Journals, ledgers, and papers detailing the daily business of the Rothville Bank.

Remarks by Arnold printed in the Congressional Record, material for a weekly newsletter printed in local newspapers, and script for a weekly radio broadcast to the people in his district.

Correspondence and diaries of U.S. Senator David Rice Atchison. Correspondents include A.E. Hannegan, C.F. Jackson, James H. Birch, Jefferson Davis, Stephen W. Kearney, and J.W. Denver. Politics, including the slavery issue and Thomas Hart Benton; personal and family correspondence. Diaries concerning weather and farming are on microfilm.

Correspondence of a naval yeoman, 1916-1919, primarily to his sister, Gladys Bauer, and friend, Helen Elizabeth Clark. Diary of his service at Great Lakes, IL, and Guipavas Finistere and Brest, France. Copies of the GREAT LAKES BULLETIN and GREAT LAKES RECRUIT, 1918. 1895 photograph of Franklin County, MO, officials.

Correspondence, diaries, and miscellaneous items of families living in Saline and Pettis Counties, MO. Much of the correspondence pertains to news of family members and friends. Most of the letters are to and from family members, including children, of Mary Belwood Ezell and Francisco Ezell.

Biography of David Thomson, founder of Georgetown and Sedalia, MO; correspondence of his son, Milton T. Thomson, in Pettis County and California gold fields; James T. Walker and Charles W.C. Walker in Boonville, KY, and North Carolina; William and Thomas Berry's California gold mining expense accounts; and miscellaneous papers.

Correspondence, clippings, periodicals, speeches, State Department reports, and other government documents related to the career and duty stations of Maxwell Blake, a Foreign Service officer from 1906 to 1941.

Family letters, letters from Thomas A. Brady and Joseph A. Serena, prohibition campaign expense lists and political propaganda, Richmond and Ray County civic and political materials, and Durward B. Brady & Son Real Estate, Insurance and Loan Company records.

World War I letters of Robert Kirk Brady of Richmond, Ray County, MO, from Fort Sill, OK, and France. Scenes, customs, and people of France. Army life. Argonne, Verdun, battles, and Richmond and Ray County news.

Correspondence and business papers. Bills at general store in Lee's Summit; expenses of a house built in 1898; family news from sister in St. Louis and lawsuit by wife for regaining title to estate after his death; receipts for taxes, merchant's licenses, life insurance, steamboat freight bill, and notes due Breitenbaugh or payable by him.

Personal and business correspondence of the Bronaugh and Bushnell families, landowners and business operators near Clinton, Henry County, Missouri.

Correspondence, official and personal, of a Missouri secretary of state, regarding politics at all governmental levels, routine affairs of his office, events around his hometown of Poplar Bluff, MO, and religious activities. Collection is arranged alphabetically by correspondent. See also collection C2529.

Papers and correspondence of a Fredericktown, MO, lawyer dealing primarily with his business as a land agent. He paid taxes, made collections, sold land and furnished abstracts of title. Also a few cases involving collection of debts for merchants.

Papers of a Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad claim agent located in Cameron, MO, concerned with injury claims and law cases.

Letters of a Vermont Congregational minister to his wife, nee Harriet Lucretia Calton, describing several churches he served. Letters to him from his brother Edward P., who served in the Civil War and later was a traveling book salesman working out of St. Louis. Diaries and death records of the minister.

Correspondence and miscellaneous material of a northwest Missouri family. Includes letters from family members while in the Mexican War, in Oregon, traveling down the Mississippi River, and serving in the Confederate Army.

Papers of a commission established by a special election on May 4, 1948.

Papers of a pioneer St. Joseph, MO, family: deeds, bills of sale for slaves, tax receipts, legal papers, stock certificates, Pony Express bills; and material on early St. Louis area. Record book of the Mercantile Company, 1856; bank book, 1861-1869; volume of clippings concerning St. Joseph, 1881-1903.

Correspondence, newspaper clippings, and papers of Thomas T. Crittenden, governor of Missouri, 1881-1885, and U.S. consul general in Mexico City, 1893-1897. Letter book kept while he was consul general in Mexico.

Letters, receipts, speeches, newspapers, and pamphlets of a Ralls County politician. Included are business papers pertaining to the Ralls County branch of the St. Louis and Keokuk Railroad.

Diaries, newspaper clippings, and papers of a lawyer and farmer of Chicago and Hannibal, MO. Papers concern court cases, politics, recreation, opera, the theater, and actors. Includes records of farming and animal breeding in Missouri and North Dakota.

Family letters, Cottey College material, contracts, certificates for school teaching, tax receipts, and sales bulletins.

Accounts, legal papers, promissory notes, and receipts, of John Davis of Pleasant Hill and Warrensburg, MO, and William O. Colburn of Miller County and California, MO.

Speeches, news clippings, correspondence, and miscellaneous materials of a Joplin, MO, lawyer and Democratic congressman. Scrapbooks containing clippings, letters and other items related to his career. Also Anti-Saloon League material and platforms of the two major parties.

Correspondence, book reports, reading lists, and University of Missouri M.A. thesis, a rhetorical study of a speech by Nebraska Senator George W. Norris, March 4, 1917, the "armed ship filibuster."

Correspondence, receipts, bills, and miscellaneous papers of James H. Denny, a lawyer in Glasgow, MO, who was prosecuting attorney of Howard County and treasurer of Pritchett College, and was at one time in legal partnership with Thomas Shackelford. Also a few letters of his son, Thomas S. Denny.

The papers of a University of Missouri Professor Emeritus of Applied Arts include correspondence, an unpublished manuscript, speeches and essays, and Pi Lambda Theta materials. Also contains teaching notebooks, scrapbooks, and a copy of her biography.

Papers of Leonard Dodge of Bates County, Missouri, primarily pertaining to land. Copies of his will. Also papers of Wesley Melick of Horton, Missouri, a son-in-law of Dodge who was an army surgeon during the Civil War.

The correspondence, financial, and miscellaneous papers of the fifth governor of Missouri and a leading Missouri Democrat. The correspondence is especially rich in discussion of Missouri elections and of the leading political issues in Missouri and in the United States from 1829 to 1835.

Papers of the club, including stories, songs, and poems written by members of the organization in 1903. Roll of members, and part of a letter to Emma Simmons.

Papers primarily of Thomas Espy, an attorney who moved from Franklin, Pennsylvania, to Fort Madison, Iowa, and finally to St. Louis, Missouri.

Correspondence pertaining to mathematical science, publication of mathematical books, astronomy, and personal affairs. Also an algebra copybook.

Unfinished biography of Folk by his sister, Mrs. James Avery Webb. Clippings pertaining to Folk's career as circuit attorney in St. Louis, 1902-1904; Democratic governor of Missouri, 1904-1909; races for Senate and failure to win election, 1918; career in Washington, D.C., 1917-1923, under President Woodrow Wilson; and death in 1923. Letters of sympathy at death, Folk-Bates genealogy, speeches by Folk, and miscellaneous material.