Columbia Manuscript Collections

Sylvia Lorena Dick tells how the Martin family kept 200 acres in the family for several generations, and gives a history of the different owners of a store in the Lakota-Mt. Pleasant community of Moniteau County, Missouri.

Author describes Indigenous peoples of the area, the abundant wild game, timber, the first white settlers, the formation of the county and its villages.

May Gan Cox recalls the organization of Friendship Church, its first members and preachers. J.S. Zumwalt tells of the origin and history of the Swedeborg Church in a letter to a friend, Virgil.

English translation by William Wilke of Franke’s “Ein Verfehltes Leben.” News story on Franke’s death copied from the Washington, Missouri, Citizen.

Biography of an early European-American settler in Lawrence County, Missouri, written by his grandson. Clark was born in Kentucky in 1836 and died in 1907.

The collection contains historical sketches and recollections of episodes in the lives of Frank James, William Quantrill, Jim Lane, and the Younger Brothers, either compiled or as told by Hoffman, who knew some of them and defended some of their actions. Also includes the story of the painting, “Order No. 11.”

History written by Kathleen Jones about a Nodaway County town, and copied by Wallace F. Kennedy. Newspaper item on fiftieth anniversary of founding of Parnell.

A history of Frankford, written by Louisa Milburn, a descendant of Solomon Fisher, who owned the land on which this Pike County town was built in 1819.

Color postcard showing woods on University of Missouri campus. Sent by Charles, a student at the university, to Tillman in Rogersville, Missouri.

Synopsis of the history of Lone Jack Baptist Church, 1842-1880, read by Martin Rice at the 38th anniversary of the constitution of the church, October 1880.

List of 26 men who left St. Joseph, Missouri, on April 19, 1849, to seek gold in California.

Summary containing dates, losses, and casualties of approximately 225 military engagements fought in Missouri, Kansas and parts of Arkansas.

Article and supporting data, written to discredit the idea that Thomas Reynolds, governor of Missouri, and Thomas M. Reynolds, brother of the governor of Illinois, John Reynolds, were related.

The papers contain a sketch book, sketches, report cards, high school commencement program and other papers of a Missouri-born artist who gained national fame for his woodcuts and woodcut engravings.

Description by an unknown author of robbing, killing, and burning by guerrillas in the Johnson County town of Kingsville, Missouri, near the close of the Civil War.

Written by the Morgan County superintendent of schools upon the retirement of Anna Lee Kidwell, who taught school for 52 years in Morgan County, Missouri.

Award-winning essay on a residential neighborhood inhabited by Kansas City's wealthiest families in the 1880s. The author describes its decline and rebirth.

Thesis prepared for Library School of the University of Wisconsin. Gives description of books brought to St. Louis by European-American settlers, and acquisition of materials in early schools and libraries.

Letters introducing Robert G. Gilmer to Sam Houston and Asbell Smith of Galveston, Texas.

Primarily records of the Missouri Division, but also material from the Southwest Central Region, AAUW, and the International Federation of University Women.

Materials determined by Hearnes, governor of Missouri, 1965-1973, to be his personal papers. Bulk of collection is correspondence regarding campaigns, legislation, and Democratic Party. Material on gubernatorial succession amendment, 1965. Arranged by topic, then chronologically within topic. Scrapbooks are on microfilm.

Correspondence, souvenir programs, student publications and business receipts of Crotia Stevenson and her cousin Alvin Haggard, both of Boone County, Missouri, and their relatives in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee. A few letters describe conditions at home and on battlefields during the Civil War.

Correspondence, historical notes, book lists, and photographs of Snyder, joint heir of the Ozark Hahatonka estate, collector of rare books, and writer on many phases of western history, especially Kansas City, Missouri, and vicinity.

Minutes, scrapbooks, and award of a Republican women's club organized in 1932.

Papers of a professor of English at the University of Missouri from 1904 to 1946. Diplomas, writings, and speeches, and bills and receipts relating to the building of his house in Columbia, Missouri.

The papers contain two unpublished novels. The County Editor is autobiographical; The County Judge, or the Osceola Fox is about the repudiation of fraudulent railroad bonds in St. Clair County, Missouri, in the 1860s.

A native of Sedalia, Missouri, Fritts talks about her family and gives her views on politics and religion.

List of members and their service records, minutes of meetings, and cash expenditures of a post in Aldrich, Polk County, MO.

Data on Missouri industries’ and civilian and military participation in World War II, collected by the State Historical Society and used for a series of articles in the Missouri Historical Review entitled “Missouri in the War.”

Letter to Emeline E. Selleck, of Oregon, Missouri, from New Orleans, Louisiana, July 23, 1849. Written to his wife after her departure from New Orleans on the steamboat Ioway. They apparently had moved out of a house prior to her trip to Missouri.

A history of settlement, early houses, businesses, schools, churches, and social customs of Kahoka, Clark County, Missouri.

The collection contains newspaper accounts and illustrations of markers placed in St. Louis by the Young Men's Division of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce to commemorate events in the city's past.

A history of the organization including its founding, membership, projects, and social functions. The club was comprised of wives of the agricultural resident faculty of the University of Missouri.

Honorable discharge to George Moore, private, Missouri Cavalry, 15th Regiment, Volunteers, Company H.

Letter from Vaughan, publisher of the newspaper Express, asking Pat Ingraham of Saline County, Missouri, to show copies of his paper to friends there in order to increase subscriptions.

The collection contains materials, including photographs, on the life of Jesse Howard, sign painter of Fulton, Missouri.

The papers contain the correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, books, pamphlets, awards, announcements, and miscellaneous material of a soldier who fought in the Pacific Theatre during World War II.

History of Siloam Springs, Missouri, written by Clora Twedell Hunter who spent her childhood there.

The papers contain certificates, a diploma, ephemera, and photographs pertaining to Hill's activities as a cadet at Marmaduke Military Academy in Sweet Springs, Missouri, and his career as a football player for the University of Missouri Tigers.

The collection contains a list of names, compiled by Frank P. Robinson, of men who lived in Arrow Rock, Missouri.

The papers of Mary Eliza Rollins Bennet contain an invitation and letters to Mrs. Bennet, a daughter of Anthony Wayne Rollins of Columbia, Missouri.

The Clark County papers contain a record of names of voters and votes cast for all candidates in the August 1842 primary election in Clark County; and a muster order to the 75th Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 14th Division of Clark County Militia, May 8, 1846.

The collection consists of a history written by a former member of World War I unit, the 138 or 2nd Missouri Field Hospital Company, organized June 23, 1917, in Chamois, Missouri. Gives the company’s movements in the U.S. and France until discharge in 1919.

The collection contains a court order. Schuyler County Court, after a petition by inhabitants of Queen City, ordered the incorporation of the town and a police established. Includes names of petitioners, trustees, and clerk of the county court.

The collection contains copies of a notebook in which Enos Stanley of Taney County, Missouri, made entries of marriages he performed as justice of the peace, recorded family births and deaths, and noted some money transactions.

The papers of Charles M. Bowring contain Bowring’s diary recording events in Wellington, Missouri, from 1819 through 1898, and poems which he wrote on many subjects.

The papers of Walter Barlow Stevens contain letters to Stevens, author of Missouri histories, from contemporaries in the newspaper profession; from Floyd Shoemaker, secretary of the State Historical Society of Missouri; and from relatives and friends.

The papers of Charles Claude Guthrie, Sr. contain college essays and notes, correspondence, and miscellaneous personal papers of Guthrie. The bulk of the collection is letters written between Guthrie and his mother and sisters living in Columbia and Marthasville, Missouri.

Formed in 1972, the CWPC is a multipartisan political action group affiliated with both the Missouri State Women's Political Caucus and the National Women's Political Caucus. These groups work to improve the status of women.

Correspondence, records, and working files. Originally designed to survey and inventory all county government records, the survey finally included inventories of church records, manuscript collections, vital statistics, American imprints, and federal archives. Incorporates records of the Federal Writers Project for Missouri.

The papers of the 1936 Olympic track champion contain her Olympic diary, correspondence, publicity clippings, posters, photographs, and other materials related to her long athletic career, both professional and recreational. Newsletters from her employers, Curlee Clothing Company, Curtiss-Wright Corporation, and the Defense Mapping Agency, along with some personal documents, are also included.

Correspondence, official reports, and personal papers of a Civil War officer stationed in Arkansas with the 60th U.S. Colored Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 7th A.C.

Photographs; military manuals and pamphlets; newspaper clippings; letterbook; records of marksmanship, merits and demerits, cadet appointments, cadet rosters, orders, and company morning reports; and scrapbook of newspaper articles and photographs of military training program at the University of Missouri.

Papers of a student activist at the University of Missouri-Columbia, 1966-1972, who served as president of the Columbia branch of Students for a Democratic Society and was active in the New Democratic Coalition and numerous other organizations. SDS papers and SDS New Left Notes are included.

Papers pertaining to the Meramec Iron Works, James family, Frisco Railroad, School of Mines and Metallurgy at Rolla, engineering education, testing of students, and other subjects of interest to Mann as an historian and engineer.

The collection contains newspaper clippings and photographs, feature stories and magazine articles on Mark Twain, compiled by a teacher in the English Department at Northeast Missouri State University, Kirksville.

The collection contains clippings about the military career of a Civil War general from Missouri, newspaper accounts of his death in 1897, tributes, and correspondence.

The collection contains newspaper feature stories and photographs about important events and persons in Missouri history up to 1939. Each scrapbook is indexed.

The collection contains an oversize poster with names and photographs of Confederate Civil War generals, and Jefferson Davis.

The papers of J.W. Wells contain a diary and miscellaneous items of a minister in St. Louis, Missouri, and Buffalo, New York, who helped alcoholics and the needy.

Carbon copies of letters sent from Stuart Symington's office while he was a Democratic senator from Missouri. The files are arranged alphabetically by year.

Correspondence and miscellaneous information on Missouri compiled by Sarah Guitar during her employment, under the direction of Floyd C. Shoemaker, as Reference Librarian for the State Historical Society of Missouri.  Includes one card file of reference notes.

The collection contains correspondence, clippings, photographs, diaries, and bound material on the George family, Quantrill, William H. Gregg, and civil rights, compiled and authored by a native of Jackson County, Missouri, whose father served in the Civil War under Quantrill.

The papers of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers contain yearbooks, programs, and convention materials of the Missouri branch of an organization formed to promote the welfare of children, home, school, church, and state. The organization is generally called P.T.A.

The collection contains an order for a board of three army officers to meet at Keokuk, Iowa, on May 5, 1865, to inspect the general hospitals and post in that city, and to report results to headquarters at St. Louis, Missouri.

The papers of John Thompson contain two handwritten letters addressed to John Thompson, Irondale, Missouri, one from Ella T. Hughes of South St. Louis, Missouri, and one from F. Conzelman.

The papers of Andrew Jackson James contain a history of Company M, 6th Cavalry Regiment, Missouri State Militia; and an order to James to return to his company after being captured and released by Confederate forces.

The papers of F.L. Schofield contain a copy of of a letter from Schofield on behalf of commission to erect a Mark Twain monument and marker, to Albert Bigelow Paine, Twain's biographer, and Paine's reply. Identity of the house in which Twain was born, and appropriate inscriptions for the monument and marker are discussed.

The papers of Charles D. Drake contain a speech of Drake in the Missouri House of Representatives on a "Sunday" bill which he introduced; and a letter to M.C. Goodlet from Drake regarding Aikman Welch's opposition to the bill.

Printed announcement of Ead's intention to be a candidate for the Missouri House of Representatives and of his position on issues of interest to voters in his district.

The papers contain correspondence, deeds, checks, and miscellaneous items, most of which pertain to Jones and his promotion of the Chester and Iron Mountain Railway in southeast Missouri, ca. 1874.

Diary documenting the day-by-day happenings in the lives of a family who lived on a farm in Ray County, Missouri. Weather and chores are the main topics.

The papers contain genealogical information, with photographs, compiled by a descendant of the Hawkins and Taylor families who settled in Knox County, Missouri, about 1840.

Five diaries written by Robert T. McMahan, a seminary student from Canfield, Ohio. He enlisted in the Second Ohio Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, Company E, on September 3, 1861, and was mustered out on September 18, 1864. He served as a cavalry soldier and gunner in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and was promoted to corporal on October 29, 1862. Additional material includes letters written to and from Robert T. McMahon, discussing Civil War and family matters. Also included are various certificates and other military papers, pre and post-Civil War newspapers, and some photographs.

Letter to James C. Lynch of St. Louis, Missouri, from Benton, on February 21, 1829, written twelve days before the inauguration of Andrew Jackson. States that it will take time to see what policy the new administration will follow on appointments.

Minutes, correspondence, reports, convention programs, and history of a branch of the Music Teachers National Association which included Missouri music teachers.

Miscellaneous papers of a professor and author of University of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy at Rolla. Included are manuscripts about minerals and ores of Missouri, and a copy of Noel Hubbard's history of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy and duplication of engineering education in Missouri in 1938.

Papers relating to author Thomas Wolfe collected by James K. Hutsell. Material concerns family reaction to Wolfe’s writing, especially Look Homeward, Angel. Clippings, Hutsell’s articles about the author and his relationship with Julia Wolfe, photographs, and letters from Wolfe’s family are included.

The manuscript by Donald J. Lehmer consists of Chapter 1, “Command Decision,” and Chapter 9, “Victory in Tennessee.” All twelve chapters are summarized. Lehmer's hypothesis is that Ulysses S. Grant and his staff were largely responsible for the ultimate victory of the North in the Civil War.

Address on the poetry of John G. Neihardt, dedicating ground for the Neihardt building in Bancroft, Nebraska, August 4, 1974. Bower Aly, Professor of Speech at the University of Oregon, delivered the ground dedication address for the Neihardt building erected by the State of Nebraska at Bancroft.

Journal describes life as a Midshipman 4th Class, 2nd Company, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis. Journal also used for math by William Reynolds Purnell (1886-1955). Newsclippings, photographs, calling cards, and name index for 2nd Company.

First pages of the record book of the President’s Club, organized February 6, 1906. Includes charter members, minutes of meeting, and constitution.

The papers of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Missouri contain a working copy of Early Portraits in Missouri, Painted Before 1860, which provides a detailed description of portraits existing in Missouri, arranged alphabetically by location of the work. There is an index by artist, but none by portrait subject. The manuscript includes many works by George Caleb Bingham. There are two scrapbooks that contain documents from the group’s meetings.

Papers of Democratic governor of Missouri from 1965 to 1972.

Letter to L.M. White, Mexico, Missouri, from Hoover, Washington, D.C., April 11, 1950. The letter is an acknowledgment and thank you for copies of the Mexico Evening Ledger story on Assistant Chief of Police William Sullivan.

The collection contains descriptions of homesteading in Jackson County, Missouri, and Stratton, Colorado; wagon trains; Baptist churches; Civil War battle and aftermath in Jackson County; and Flanery and McQueary family genealogies.

The collection contains a diary kept by a Denver, Colorado, student of music on a tour of Russia during the winter of 1909-1910. The group was guided by one doctor Babcock and his assistant, Dr. Seal, “of Philadelphia and Leipsig.” Included are casual descriptions of people, churches, museums, social events, a funeral, and a Christmas celebration attended.

Letter to Joseph A. Glandon, Mexico, Missouri, from Green in Miami, Florida, February 20, 1917, discussing business and expansion plans of the A.P. Green Fire Brick Company in Mexico, Missouri.

The collection contains a love letter to ‘Miss Lou” from Clarks Fork, Missouri, August 27, [18]77.

The collection contains copies of letters written by Benjamin E. Priest and William M. Priest to their sister while they were federal prisoners during the Civil War.

The Rufus Monroe Paine and Sophie Hougaard Paine Lectureship in Religion was established by the will of Catherine Paine Middlebush as a memorial to her mother and father. Includes correspondence, programs, annual reports, news releases, and course proposal.

The papers of the Allison-Ingram family contain letters relating family news and telling about life in Montana, and a power of attorney (in Spanish and translation) to Thomas Allison from Owen Ruble.

The collection contains a printed voting record of Kem for the 83rd Congress. Kem was a one-term Republican senator from Missouri.

Records in the form of minutes, journals and correspondence of boards, committees, and churches in the Missouri East Conference, United Methodist Church. Includes church histories, papers of early Methodist ministers, biographies, periodicals, books, and Hendrix Hall dormitory papers.

Personal and business papers of a Springfield, Missouri, businessman. Most of the collection deals with Cox's philanthropic activities, particularly his role as president of the Board of Trustees of Burge-Protestant Hospital. Cox's considerable business interests are less well represented, most of these records dating from 1968.

The papers of Arthur L. Kalleberg contain personal and departmental records and correspondence relating to the resignation of University President C. Brice Ratchford, the organization of the University of Missouri-Columbia Chapter of the National Educational Association, and the suspension of visiting associate professor of political science Patrick T. Dougherty. Kalleberg was a University of Missouri professor of political science.

Book by the president of Woman's National Liberal Union in which she portrays Christianity as degrading to women because it teaches that they are inferior to men and are responsible for bringing sin into the world.

Papers of a University of Missouri professor and dean of students in the College of Arts and Science, 1924-1948. Correspondence, office files, committee reports, lecture notes, speeches, articles, diaries, accounts, University history and photographs are included.

Papers of a journalism librarian at the University of Missouri-Columbia and active worker in the peace movement. Magazines, tracts, and financial and activity records of world, national, and local organizations are included.

Minutes, business and financial records of the chapter of a national professional fraternity for men in education located at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Includes personal histories, newsletters, correspondence and proceedings of meetings of national councils.