Columbia Manuscript Collections

The records of the state organization and member clubs of an association to improve the status of Black women in the home and community include correspondence, financial records, conference files and programs, and information on the history of the organization and member clubs.

Papers of Moses Harman, founder and publisher of Lucifer, the Light-Bearer, later the American Journal of Eugenics. He was a proponent of women’s rights and the eugenics movement during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The papers include type­script copies of speech and articles by Harman, a photograph, articles about Harman, and issues of Lucifer, the Light-Bearer, 1896-1907.

Papers related to the Ruskin Hall Movement, a British socialist movement, and to Ruskin College, an American branch of the movement located in Trenton, MO. The collection includes a typescript history, catalogs, and newspaper articles.

Record book of a Montgomery County, Missouri, shopkeeper and justice of the peace. Contains sales records (1837-1838) of the Loutre Lick Store, Loutre Lick, Missouri, and justice of the peace dockets (1843-1859) for Danville Township, Montgomery County, Missouri. A donor-compiled index is included.

The papers of and materials collected by a Fulton, Missouri, resident relating to the history and residents of Callaway County. The collection is comprised of correspondence, copies of speeches and lectures given by Bell on historical topics, and documents including a typescript 1849 diary of James Tate, tax rolls for Callaway County, Callaway County Agricultural and Mechanical Society membership lists, and a regimental history and troop roster of Company B, 1st Missouri Cavalry, C.S.A.

Papers of a professional educator and president of the University of Missouri, 1891-1908. Includes correspondence, school records, biographical materials, and manuscript copies of speeches and articles.

Records of a regional association centered in Missouri and Kansas and comprising university professors and other specialists in Soviet and East European Studies. Affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. The records include correspondence, conference programs, copies of papers presented, membership lists, and promotional material concerning the annual conference sponsored by the organization.

The papers of the Cornett family of rural Linn County, Missouri, including William and Martha; their children, Bracy, Winifred, Jo Lee, and Carl; and Martha’s family, the Moores and Roots. Letters, household and farm records, photographs, and other family papers, along with the early records of the Moore School near Linneus, document the social, cultural, and agricultural life of a northern Missouri family and the teaching careers of two of their daughters.

Records of a non-traditional, alternative social service organization which specialized in drug counseling and education, crisis intervention, and emergency food and shelter. Includes grant applications, financial records, minutes, training manuals, surveys, and correspondence concerning funding, recruitment and training of volunteer staff, and development of counseling procedures and programs.

Two recordings of traditional fiddle tunes played by thirteen musicians from Missouri. Accompanying illustrated booklet includes introduction to traditional violin playing in Missouri, biographies of the musicians, annotations of the tunes, bibliography, and discography. The project was produced by the Missouri Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Record of court proceedings and stray livestock. Cases concern settlement of debts, loan repayments, damage suits, breach of the peace, and assault and battery. Donor-compiled index included.

Papers of a New York City newspaper executive and graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. The collection has correspondence, clippings, speeches, in-house publications, pamphlets, and photographs from Flynn's tenure at the Japan Advertiser Press and the New York Daily News.

Collection compiled by Francis Asbury Sampson. Includes Democratic and Republican party campaign literature for national and Missouri elections, 1838-1958; speeches and pamphlets concerning national and state political issues; materials concerning the history of Boone, Schuyler, Pettis and Ste. Genevieve counties and Sedalia; papers of Garland C. Broadhead and William Switzler; and speeches, notes, bibliographies and personal papers of F.A. Sampson.

Papers of a sociology professor at the University of Missouri, 1930-1967. Concerns primarily Pihlblad's research in gerontology. Includes correspondence, papers, and articles by Pihlblad and other sociologists, and material on aging studies conducted in Missouri during the 1960s.

The diaries of a Grand Pass (Mo.) woman from 1936 to 1992 as well as some miscellaneous personal materials such as her marriage certificate and grade school diploma

The papers of the Matthews family of Columbia, Missouri, include a reminiscence written by Mary Matthews Maupin in memory of her father, James L. Matthews, and two letters written during the Civil War by James L. Matthews.

Journal of Wick Morgan describing his trip to California from Dade County, Missouri, with a wagon train. The notes detail the availability of food, the conditions of the roads, and the mileage traveled daily by the group.

Diary kept by Morgan, the wife of five-term Missouri Congressman Charles Henry Morgan, in Washington, D.C., during 1885. The diary records such events as a suffrage meeting, Washington politics, and Grover Cleveland's inauguration and provides insight into family life and entertaining.

Autobiographical writings covering the childhood of Clara Smith Steichen in the Ozark region of Missouri. The work delves into the Civil War, family life, and the regions idiosyncrasies such as “feuding.”

The records of Galena Christian Church in Stone County, Missouri, consist of membership lists, vital statistics information, and correspondence concerning membership in other churches. The records are incomplete and appear to have been transferred from other record books.

The papers contain letters from McCutcheon to his parents during his service in World War I. Topics include camp life, training, service with the 22nd Railroad Transportation Company in France, Red Cross and YMCA services, descriptions of Cincinnati, Ohio, Washington, D.C., and a trip to Paris, Reims, and Soissons describing war damage and an uncleared battlefield.

Letters from three English brothers to their parents and various siblings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, describing everyday camp life for soldiers of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. Includes detailed accounts of picketing, troop movements, and guerrilla warfare. Also contains discharge papers of John Alker.

The collection contains photocopies of personal letters from Franklin County, Missouri, farmer Nathan L. Smith to his brother William D. Smith in Todd County, Kentucky. Includes Smith family genealogy to 1858, a list of census and church references to Nathan Smith, and one letter from John and Mary Frances (Smith) Fox to William D. Smith and his sister Caroline.

Diplomas of Robert H. Simpson from the public schools and University High School, Columbia, MO; photograph of Boone County Hospital where Simpson was a staff doctor; and newspaper clippings about doctors who trained at the University of Missouri.

Correspondence, business and law firm records, civic, political, legislative, and personal papers of a German American family of Brunswick, Missouri.

The collection contains recordings and related material of Missouri and Ozark folk musicians and folklor­ists, primarily Max Hunter, Loman Cansler, and R.P. Christeson. The recordings include songs and discus­sions on many aspects of folk song collecting and folklore.

Record book of the Hopewell Congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Kirksville Presbytery; includes information on the organization of the church, minutes, and membership lists.

Papers of a Kansas City, Missouri, grocer who developed and promoted the "Virtuana Lengueje," or "Niu Speling Sistem," a phonetic method of spelling English. The papers consist of promotional materials and photographs.

The papers contain Blanton family genealogical research, including correspondence, census records, tax lists, land grants, deeds, and genealogical charts, as well as marriage, birth, and death records.

The Dorsey-Fuqua Family Collection consists of correspondence and legal papers concerning Jerre S. Dorsey during the Civil War. Also includes memorabilia of Columbia, Missouri; the University of Missouri; a souvenir of Mark Twain’s 70th birthday at Delmonico’s in 1905; and an illustrated atlas of Boone County, Missouri, from 1876, with handwritten notations.

Correspondence between husband and wife concerning Civil War ravages of home and property in Keytesville, Chariton County, Missouri. Hill, a Southern sympathizer, returned to Keytesville to locate and rescue his property, but decided to reopen his mercantile establishment and bring his family home. Relates hazards, sectional animosity, loss of property, Reconstruction politics, friends, and neighbors.

The Fitzpatrick Papers contain the personal and business correspondence of D.R. Fitzpatrick, editorial cartoonist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The collection also contains magazines and newspaper articles concerning “Fitz’s” cartoons of local, regional, and national politics, including government propaganda for both World Wars. Sixteen one-half hour television documentaries on political affairs, entitled Forty-five Years with Fitzpatrick are included in the collection.

The papers of Kathleen Kinderfather consist of bylaws, correspondence, ephemera, meeting agenda, membership lists, minutes, and press releases. Dr. Kinderfather was involved with the formation and activities of the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and later the founding of the Missouri Foundation for Health, Fitness and Sport. The papers show the council's development and the development of the Show-Me State Games.

The papers of a Boone County, Missouri, family with roots in North Carolina include school notebooks, genealogical material, photographs, and account books of the Lenoirs and Frank G. Nifong, a physician who married Lavinia Bradford Lenoir.

Collection of Rose Kentner Poehlman concerning the Isaac Hinton Brown Award for Missouri women in undergraduate education. Poehlman was a recipient of the award from 1930 to 1934. The collection consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and a scrapbook.

Papers of John Willard Riley, Jr., concerning his research into his family genealogy. The papers were given to Gerald M. Petty who used them in the writing of his book, Petty, Wright, Riley and Other Related Families. The papers consist of correspondence, charts, newspaper clippings and notes.

Records of the Church of Christ, Hallsville, Boone County, Missouri. The documents in the collection include information about baptisms, marriages, funerals, expenses, visiting preachers, and dismissals. The records of the Church of Christ pertain to business meetings, church proceedings, and membership lists.

The Schiermeier Record Books consist of letter books, a ledger, and stock inventories of stores owned by John Henry Schiermeier in the New Melle, Missouri, area.

The papers of Roberta Applegate consist of awards, correspondence, miscellaneous material, newspaper clippings, and speeches. Applegate was a student at Michigan State University and reporter for the Associated Press of Michigan from 1935 through 1946, first female press secretary to the governor of Michigan from 1946 through 1949, reporter and editor for the Miami Herald from 1950 to 1964, and Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kansas State University in Manhattan beginning in 1964.

The records contain minutes, committee reports, correspondence, clippings, conference materials, and housing surveys. The major emphasis of the records is on racial discrimination in housing in Columbia, but also includes information on the entire state.

The collection contains extension course lessons in botany, chemistry, medicine, and pharmacology through the Bowen Institute of Pharmacy in Brunswick, Missouri. Dr. Cyrus W. Bowen began the pharmacy school in 1910.

Papers of Gladys K. Pihlblad, Director of Student Affairs for Women at the University of Missouri from 1952 to 1973. Her papers cover such subjects as women, blacks, homosexuals, student unrest, University organizations, and University events. The collection consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, photographs, and reports.

Papers of a Republican U.S. Representative from Missouri, 1947-1949, and general counsel for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1953-1961. The papers consist of correspondence, subject files, and miscellaneous materials.

Papers of Stuart T. Hadden, a chemical engineer whose research included the statistical mechanics of liquid hydrocarbons. Includes correspondence, memos, copies of reports and professional papers, some printed material and handwritten notes, graphs, lists, and tables.

Papers of the Moffett family of Linn County, MO, farmers and merchants who migrated from Kentucky and Illinois around 1840. The papers consist of some correspondence relating to family genealogy, family photographs, wedding invitations, and a typescript family genealogy written in 1985.

Papers of Lawrence L. St. Clair an educator who spent over forty years working in various primary, secondary, and higher education positions in Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas. Collection consists largely of personal correspondence; also includes occasional fliers and bulletins.

Papers of Lewis E. Atherton, a professor of history at the University of Missouri, Columbia. The papers consist of correspondence, notes, notebooks, photograph books, publications, and miscellaneous material.

Papers of Roy Lee Carver of Columbia, MO, director of the Missouri Division of Veterans' Affairs, 1953-1973, and active member of the American Legion for 39 years. The papers consist of correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, speeches, reports, programs and miscellaneous material relating to Carver's activities on behalf of veterans and veterans' organizations.

Papers of a Columbia, MO, architect who established the architectural firm of Hurst John and Associates. The papers include client files, correspondence, architectural drawings, blueprints, photographs, and miscellaneous material.

Interviews of and readings by American prose writers. These recordings document the authors' renditions and interpretations of their works. The American Audio Prose Library of Columbia, Missouri; a grant-funded library; organized and produced the recordings for public radio stations and individual purchase.

Letters of the extended Hinrichs-Bauerrichter family living in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, Germany, as well as in Nelsonville and Steffenville, Missouri, with some letters from Louisiana, New York, and Illinois.

A collection of Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad operating papers, equipment records, promotional materials, photographs and slides, publications, and newspaper clippings concerning the company. The collection also contains similar but less extensive materials of other American and foreign railroads, American railroad industry publications, and railroad enthusiast periodicals.

Business, financial, and manufacturing records. Correspondence, advertising literature, blueprints, photographs, maps and plats, books, miscellaneous material. Occupational health and safety and natural gas supply materials.

Papers of Dudley Alver Reid, an editor and publisher of weekly newspapers in Missouri and Iowa. The papers consist of correspondence, miscellaneous material and scrapbooks.

Papers of a family of farmers, lawyers, bankers, doctors, and business people of Kahoka, Clark County, Missouri.  The collection includes correspondence, photographs, genealogical records, estate records, diaries, personal account books, deeds, military records, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, manuscripts, and miscellaneous material.

Correspondence, scrapbooks, newspaper articles, photographs and films of two Missouri families with roots in Jasper and Pike counties. Guy M. Wood was First Associate City Counsellor for the City of St. Louis in the early 1930s. Roy G. Smith served nearly fifty years with the Young Men's Christian Association in the Philippines, Peru, and the United States.

Papers of Howard E. Klinefelter, editor of THE MISSOURI FARMER, the magazine of the Missouri Farmers Association. The papers consist of correspondence and miscellaneous material such as newspaper clippings, photographs, and publications.

A record book concerning crimes and misdemeanors in Boone County, MO, from 1900-1902.

Sick report kept by Sgt. Richard B. Corson, listing soldiers in General Hospitals in Jefferson City and Nashville, TN, or confined to quarters.

Diaries of James Henry Wheeler containing his writings on social, business and church events in Hannibal and Kansas City, MO. There is one folder of miscellaneous letters, programs, receipts, and newspaper clippings.

Correspondence concerning the compilation of lists of Sterling Price's Confederate troops taken prisoner in Missouri in 1864.

Six ledgers, cash book and miscellaneous bills, receipts, certificates and advertisements of Dr. John Hendricks Kinyoun from Centerview, Johnson County, MO.

The collection of Verna Mary Wulfekammer, University of Missouri professor of art from 1928 to 1968, contains teaching materials and artifacts, correspondence, clippings, publications and photographs related to the personal and professional life of Wulfekammer and her mentor and colleague, Ella Victoria Dobbs.

A scrapbook given to Lula Wheeler by her friend Lucy to commemorate her four years at Sweet Springs High School, Saline County, MO, 1914-1918. The scrapbook includes pictures, newspaper clippings, autographs and lists of classmates.

The diaries of Willard H. Mendenhall record his life on a farm near Lexington, MO, during the Civil War.

The records of the Pleasant Grove Cemetery association consist of correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings and notes.

Lantern slides of Salisbury residents taken along Salisbury streets by an unknown photographer.

The personal and professional papers of a Springfield, Missouri, journalist and writer consist of newspaper clippings, correspondence, research notes, manuscripts, pamphlets, photographs, and scrapbooks.  The papers are especially strong in the history of Springfield and the Ozarks region, and in Ozark folklore.

Records of a labor union local which include correspondence, grievance reports, shop meeting notes, manuals, and production figures and other employee data.

Posters, handbills, and newspaper advertisements for Democratic and Republican candidates running for various state offices.

An audio recording of the 10 June 1945 "America United" radio program produced by the National Broadcasting Company and hosted by the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Correspondence, research notes, photographs, and literary manuscripts of historian and author Charles Van Ravenswaay, former director of the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis; Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA; and the Henry F. duPont Winterthur Museum and Gardens, Wilmington, DE.

The papers of William Stuart Symington, U.S. Senator from Missouri (1953-1976), include constituent correspondence, family and personal correspondence, limited genealogical and family materials, appointment books and calendars, audio and video recordings, campaign materials, editorial cartoons, select invitations and itineraries, limited pre-senatorial materials, photographs, photographic negatives and slides, press files, scrapbooks, selected Congressional testimonies, speeches, staff memoranda, voting records, and miscellaneous ephemera.

Photographs of various Missouri Lumber and Mining Company operations in and around the Ozark town of Grandin, MO. Taken and collected by Harry M. Griffith, a company physician.

Four song books containing only the words of German songs, including folk songs and hymns (two are published and two are handwritten).

Minutes, resolutions, maps, reports, and legal documents concerning the urban redevelopment project in Columbia, MO, for the area known as Flat Branch and/or the Douglass School Urban Renewal Area.

By-laws, corporation records, correspondence, financial records, meeting minutes and notices, photographs and miscellaneous records of a black men's social and service organization, founded in Columbia, MO, in 1971.

Correspondence, press releases, awards, and office files of the organization and its predecessor, Theta Sigma Phi, a national honorary professional organization for women in communications.

Records of a professional association of academics and practitioners of community development in the United States and Canada. The records consist of correspondence of officers; board meeting minutes; society publications, annual meeting materials, and other assorted records.

Family histories and genealogies of Boone County and central Missouri families. The collection also includes cemetery, census, marriage, school, and will records; Bible and church records and histories; clippings, photographs, and source materials; and family genealogical correspondence.

The papers contain correspondence, newspaper clippings, speeches, memoranda, and office notes of the administrative assistant to U.S. Senator Stuart Symington from 1952 until Symington's retirement in 1976. Includes material relating to various Symington campaigns, as well as Fike's personal life.

The records of a national resource office for religious communicators, founded in 1975 and based in Los Angeles, consist of administrative correspondence, minutes of board meetings, reports, financial records, pamphlets, photographs, audio cassettes, and miscellaneous material of the service and its successor organization, the Center for Communications Ministry.

Papers of a journalism educator and author, primarily dealing with research on women and minorities in media. Contains her work on, "Taking Stock: Women in the News Media 20 Years Before the 21st Century," including taped interviews and transcripts of media professionals and extensive research data. Also includes correspondence, speeches, publications, teaching and conference materials, and papers pertaining to her early career in journalism, media, and public relations.

Records of the Arizona Project, a cooperative journalistic investigation into organized crime and political corruption in Arizona, consisting of subject files, photographs, and audio cassettes.

Correspondence and files belonging to St. Louis attorney James H. Meredith. Concerns Stuart Symington's senatorial and presidential campaigns from 1952 through 1960, for which Meredith acted as Missouri state coordinator.

Journals, farm records, and correspondence of a Boone County, KY, family who settled in southeastern Arkansas. Details 1819-1820 steamboat trips up the Missouri River from St. Louis to Council Bluffs, and farm operations in the 1850s and 1860s.

The collection consists of studio portraits of groups, families and individuals; and scenes of the Higginsville and Concordia areas in western Missouri.

Negatives of portraits believed to be from a photographic studio in Osage County, MO. A photocopy of each image made from prints held by the Osage County Historical Society is included in the inventory.

Typescript of the AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF J.A. WARD, M.D. written by a 19th century, Lincoln County, MO, doctor.

Audio recordings of political statements of 1964 Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater for local level campaigning.

The professional papers of Ernest R. Sears, a wheat cytogeneticist associated with the University of Missouri from 1936 until his death in 1991. The papers consist of correspondence, reprints of publications, reports, manuscripts, research notes, speeches, photographs, news clippings and miscellaneous items.

This collection contains business records of lead mining companies and company stores in Washington County, MO. The companies include R. Smith and Company; Stone Manning and Company; Manning, Smith and Company; the Missouri and Pennsylvania Lead Company; the Palmer Lead Company; and the Renault Lead Company.

Papers of a commander of a Union Cavalry unit in northeast Missouri during the Civil War, and State Treasurer of Missouri following the war. The papers consist of personal and military correspondence and miscellaneous documents, and State Treasurer records.

In an 1864 letter from Russellville, KY, to his grandfather in Missouri, Dr. John A. Pegg, Union soldier W.J. Dunn relates his plan to form a company of cavalry to fight Confederate guerrillas in Missouri.

Papers of a University of Tulsa history professor related to his research of the Missouri outlaws Jesse and Frank James, consisting of correspondence, research notes, bibliographies, newspaper clippings, photographs, and ephemera.

The papers of ceramic sculptor, potter, painter and University of Missouri-Columbia Professor Emeritus of Art, include personal and professional correspondence, exhibition announcements and catalogs, photographs, publications, clippings, research project records, scrapbooks, biographical materials, records of the University of Missouri Department of Art, and miscellaneous material.

The papers of Eleni Sakes Epstein, fashion and beauty editor of the Washington Star from 1943-1981, consist of correspondence, speaking engagements, photographs, miscellaneous material pertaining to the fashion industry, Fashion in Newspapers, clippings, and audio cassette interviews with American, European, and Asian fashion designers and others.

Manuscripts of fiction and non-fiction works by Mumpower, a psychologist and University of Missouri alumnus who taught at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

Correspondence, photographs, and miscellaneous papers of Methodist missionaries to the Belgian Congo. The Mumpower family along with two other couples were the first white missionaries to the Otetela village of Wembo-Nyama in the central region of the Belgian Congo, now Zaire.