Saint Louis Manuscript Collections

The Alpha Kappa Alpha Collection contains material that documents the display Career Achievements Among Black Women In St. Louis, which was exhibited in branches of the St. Louis Public Library in 1974. The collection contains brief biographies of 23 Black career women of St. Louis, Missouri, along with their photographs. Also included are the original exhibit labels.

The Association of Family Women Collection contains newsletters, a brochure, a flyer, and a newspaper clipping, pertaining to the group’s mission to address problems faced by wives and mothers in American society.

This collection contains a manuscript titled The History and Origin of the Order of Eastern Star of Missouri and Jurisdiction 1887-1976, written by John W. Thomas. The manuscript chronicles the history of the Eastern Star of Missouri, an African American masonic temple founded in 1887 in St. Louis, Missouri.

The collection includes a one-page history of the Fern Leaf Study Club, a St. Louis-area African American women’s club, written by Lillie Robinson, the club’s secretary.

This collection contains a history of the Heroines of Jericho, Saint Mary’s Court No. 1, and the meeting minutes of the Official Proceedings of the Grand Court of the Heroines of Jericho for the state of Missouri.

The Coalition of Labor Union Women, St. Louis Chapter was founded in October 1974 in an effort to try to help women attain their rights as workers. The records contain meeting minutes, correspondence, bylaws, press releases, and membership lists pertaining to the group’s mission to assist unionized women in obtaining their rights as workers.

The Coalition of St. Louis Women Records contain meeting minutes, correspondence, press releases, newsletters, and a proposal to the St. Louis Land Reutilization Authority regarding the organization’s efforts at supporting women. The Coalition also focused their efforts in establishing a center dedicated to providing women and their children with refuge, counseling, and education.

Scrapbook contains correspondence, photos, newsclippings, programs, hisotry, and biographies of members of the St. Louis Chapter of the oldest academic soroties for black women in the United States.

The collection contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and a transcript, documenting the Committee for the Women’s Hearing on the War in Vietnam’s public hearing on the United States involvement in Southeast Asia, held on June 17, 1972, at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis, Missouri.

The St. Louis Women’s Labor Conference met in 1973 to discuss working women’s issues such as organizing the unorganized, job training, equal pay and advancement, and daycare. Conference participants listened to speeches by prominent women unionists, attended workshops, and passed resolutions as part of a larger plan that was designed to further women’s positions in the workforce. The collection includes correspondence, flyers, a meeting packet, resolutions, and handouts.

The collection contains correspondence, publications, and flyers documenting the organization’s mission to oppose legalized abortion in Missouri.

This collection contains pro-choice and anti-abortion groups’ pamphlets, and flyers, correspondence from NARAL, memos, newspaper clippings, press releases, and the Abortion Rights Alliance newsletter, Reproductive Freedom Letter.

The collection consists of correspondence, meeting minutes, fliers, and membership lists regarding St. Louis Area Women in High Education efforts to create a support network for women employees in higher education.

A report commissioned by the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, Women’s Group Women of the Junior College District of St. Louis-St. Louis County to determine the prevalence of discrimination against women with the Junior College District.

The collection contains two program books from the Tuesday Literary Club of St. Louis, a women’s club dedicated to providing “mutual culture and fellowship” for its members.

This collection contains three newsletters issued in April, Spring, and Summer 1971 titled Real Women: Women’s Liberation Newsletter for St. Louis. Published by the Women’s Center, located at the Young Women’s Christian Association of Metro St. Louis’ then headquarters at 1411 Locust Street in Downtown St. Louis, the newsletter focused on childcare, education, and equal working conditions for men and women. 

This collection includes a photograph circa 1911 of unidentified bakers, a photocopy of the Silver Jubilee edition of The Bakers’ Journal from 1911, and a photocopy of the 1916 30th-anniversary souvenir program for Bakers’ Union, Local No. 4.

The St. Louis Abused Women’s Support Project Inc. Records contains memos, flyers, newsletters, newspaper clippings, a questionnaire, correspondence, bylaws, legal advice, and a legislation notice relating to the organization’s mission to providing help and shelter for women subject to domestic violence.

The collection contains a letter from Jane Addams, co-founder of Hull House, in Chicago, Illinois, to an unidentified individual, in which Addams declines their invitation to attend an event due to her poor health.

The Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church Programs contains church service programs and anniversary booklets documenting the church’s history as one of the oldest Black churches in St. Louis.

This collection contains annual reports of Gateway National Bank, the first bank in St. Louis organized by African Americans.

The papers of Henry Winfield Wheeler contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, awards, and articles of a prominent African-American St. Louis civil rights leader. In 1953, Mr. Wheeler was elected president of the St. Louis chapter of the NAACP. He was elected state representative in 1958, 1960, and 1962 from the 17th district in St. Louis.

Born in St. Louis, Walter Lowe, Sr. attended Sumner High School and was a 1909 graduate. He was the second African-American to serve on the St. Louis Board of Aldermen in 1945 (19th ward). A veteran of World War I, he continued to serve his community, state, and nation by serving as Past Commander of Tom Powell Post of the American Legion (all black post named after a WWI veteran from St. Louis), and as Past Vice-Commander of the Missouri Department.

The Faulkner Family Memoirs was written by Edward Paul Faulkner and recounted the history of the family in the southeastern Missouri region, as well as the St. Louis branch of the family.

The collection primarily consists of annual reports of the trustees of the Charles Home (formerly Home of the Friendless), a long-term care facility for elderly women in St. Louis, established and governed by women.

Joseph Chapman and Wayman Smith organized the Gaylord’s Social Club in St. Louis in September 1935. It was composed of young Black men who had grown up together, went to different colleges, and returned to St. Louis. In addition to enriching the social lives of its members, the club also makes contributions to charitable organizations.

This collection contains articles of incorporation and bylaws of a fraternal, benevolent association of African-American men and women in Missouri.

This collection contains, yearbooks, programs, and a newspaper article collected by and about the Ladies’ Friday Night Musical Club of St. Louis, a Missouri-based social organization for female musicians in St. Louis, Missouri.

This collection contains newsletters, flyers, and poetry produced and collected by the Lesbian Alliance of St. Louis, a Lesbian-Feminist organization dedicated to advancing equal rights for women and lesbians. Materials of interest include Moonstorm, a magazine (and later a newsletter), written by and about the Lesbian community in the St. Louis metropolitan area. 

This collection contains correspondence and flyers documenting the Life Seekers mission to prevent infant mortality.

This collection contains newsletters, newspapers, speeches, and correspondence produced and collected by Life and Equality, a St. Louis, Missouri-based women’s organization that was dedicated to the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and pro-life legislation.

The Morris Henderson Scrapbook Collection consists of scrapbooks chronicling prominent Civil Rights leader Morris Henderson, who served as president of the St. Louis County Chapter of the NAACP (1955-1959, 1963-1964) and director of People's Hospital (1960-1964).

The papers of Peral Schwartz White contain correspondence, scrapbooks, programs, newspaper clippings of a St. Louis African-American educator. Items of interest include material on the Missouri State Association of Negro Teachers, as well as statistics on negro teachers in Missouri in the 1930s.

The Reed-Carter Family Collection contains a pamphlet titled Trails West: Breckenridge Hills (A Brief History), histories, and newspaper clippings of the Reed-Carter family, the first African-American family in Breckenridge, Missouri.

The Charlton H. Tandy Papers contain photographs, newspaper clippings, and biographical materials on Charlton H. Tandy, a prominent African-American Civil Rights leader. During his life, Tandy served as a captain in the 13th Regiment of the Missouri State Militia, helped establish Lincoln University, organized the St. Louis Streetcar Boycott of 1870, and assisted southern African-Americans who migrated to St. Louis.

The records of the St. Louis Peace Information Center contain correspondence, meeting minutes, and peace literature written and published by St. Louis and national peace groups, pertaining to the Center’s mission to facilitate communication and cooperation among St. Louis-area anti-war groups, as well as to inform the public about peace, activism, conscription, and the Vietnam War. The Center also provided draft counseling to conscientious objectors opposed to the war in Vietnam. Subjects of interest include anti-Vietnam protests in the St. Louis area, war tax resistance, and laws and regulations regarding draft counseling. The bulk of the materials date from the Center’s founding in 1967 to its closing in 1974.

This collection contains published and unpublished papers, newsletters, flyers, brochures, political circulars, and articles about various issues that occurred during the 1970s, including racism, highways, taxes, and foreign relations. Archivists collected the papers from the from US-China People's Friendship Association; National Committee to Support the Marion Brothers; Free J.B. Johnson Committee; Socialist Workers Party; the New American Movement; the West End Militant Forum; the 1976 St. Louis school tax increase, and the Alliance Against Racism.

St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church was dedicated November 7, 1791, by Manuel Perez, the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. Located off Main Street in the town of Les Petites Cotes, Perez officially changed the town's name to San Carlos (St. Charles) the same day he dedicated the church. Daniel Boone's oldest son, Daniel Morgan Boone, was married to Sarah Griffen Lewis at the church on March 2, 1800. The records include baptisms, marriages, and deaths, in Spanish, French, Latin, and English.

The records of the St. Louis National Stockyards Company contain Annual reports, stockholders meetings, histories, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and a rates investigation cases of one of the major stockyards in the nation.

This collection contains eleven papers from History 293 (Spring, 1981), a senior seminar held at the University of Missouri-St. Louis on the religious history of St. Louis.

Fred Small worked as a city engineer in St. Louis during the Works Progress Administration of the late 1930's He supervised WPA construction projects in North St. Louis County, including Pine Lawn District Sewer construction and the Arbor Terrace paving project. The collection includes city engineer reports, correspondence, town ordinances, village clerk minutes, films, and photographs of the Works Progress Administration's construction projects in north St. Louis.

The Julia Davis Papers are a research collection compiled by African-American educator and activist Julia Davis, documenting the educational and cultural activities of the black community in St. Louis between 1917 and 1988. The papers include articles, reports, lesson plans, programs, and literature from black educational institutions, as well as biographical material and tributes to black educators.

The Ralph Rosen papers document the fluoridation controversy in St. Louis and Missouri from the late 1940s through the early 1980s, and in particular, the actions of Rosen to convince others of its merits. Also included in the collection are pro and anti-fluoridation literature from throughout the United States.

The Ivan C. James papers contain correspondence, reports, newsletters, souvenir programs, and announcements pertaining to St. Louis housing developments and African American churches, fraternal, and social organizations in St. Louis. 

A land indenture agreement for Edmund Alden of London, 1670. One sheet of handwritten script on vellum, with seal. Sheet measures 22x29”.

1 oversize document of an indenture agreement between Hannah Henling, widow, of London and Randall Wiroll, also of London, on April 8, 1685, concerning a field or freehold parcel of meadowland called Bittersfield in London.

One sheet of handwritten script on vellum, with wax seal. Sheet measures 27x29”, total item measures 32x29”.

The Culture Club Records collection includes bylaws, constitutions, correspondence, meeting minutes, and programs documenting the Culture Club, a discussion group founded by affluent Jewish housewives in St. Louis, Missouri, to converse about topics involving literature, theatre, dance, and public affairs.

The records contain meetings minutes, agendas, correspondence, and membership lists of the St. Louis New Call to Peacemaking, a pacifist religious group affiliated with the New Call to Peacemaking coalition that was committed to opposing the United States militarism through tax resistance and providing draft registration counseling services to youth.

Photocopies of a diary of Lalla R. Kern documenting her eight visits to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in May and June of 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri. Kern provides descriptions of exhibits, buildings, show, and grounds.

The papers of Gloria Pritchard contain correspondence, photographs, and newspaper clippings pertaining to Pritchard's life and career as an African-American radio host and activist. Prichard was known for her radio shows, "World of Women (1957-1965) and "Great Negro Artists" (1960-1961) on KATZ. She was also active in Democratic politics, African-American Women's Clubs, and Civil Rights groups.

The Kinloch History Committee Records collection documents the effort by the Kinloch History Committee to research the social, political, and economic history of Kinloch, Missouri, before the bulldozing of Kinloch neighborhoods due to the expansion of Lambert Airport in the 1980s. The committee created the manuscript Kinloch: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow to publish the committee's research findings.

The Charles Peabody Diary collection consists of typescript copies of a diary written by Charles Peabody. The entries document his trip from New York through the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys between May 21 to September 11, 1846.

The collection contains articles of incorporation, agendas, histories, correspondence, and speeches documenting the organization’s efforts to support long-range infrastructure and culture improvements in St. Louis City.

The papers of Anita Frost contain photographs and military history of the first St. Louis African-American woman in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. She joined the St. Louis Marine Reserves on July 17, 1953, was discharged a year later and re-enlisted into the regular Marine Corps on September 17, 1954. She retired July 31, 1975, as a gunnery sergeant (E-7).

This collection contains a scrapbook titled, "The History of the St. Louis Housewives League, 1931-1973," as well as a program for the 43rd annual meeting of the National Housewives League in St. Louis, Missouri, 1980. The St. Louis Housewives League was founded on March 9th, 1931, to support African-American owned businesses in the St. Louis area.

The collection contains the script for the two-act play The Feast of Tsouris (The Feast of Troubles) written by Marcia Savin.

The records of the Cooperative Consumers of St. Louis contains bylaws, membership lists, correspondence, newsletters, co-op catalogs, and descriptive literature documenting this Depression-era consumers' cooperative's efforts to volume purchases from wholesalers and offered merchandise for sale to members at a reduced cost.

The bulk of the Missouri Citizens' Action (MCA) records documents the Missouri Public Service Commission's 1978 investigation of Union Electric rate structures in St. Louis but contains material on the investigation of Laclede Gas' rates conducted in 1980 by the Public Service Commission (PSC). The collection includes MCA meeting minutes and notes, public testimony, reports, and exhibits from the PSC proceedings.

The Upper Missouri River Basin Commission was established by presidential order in March 1972 at the request of the governors of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri to coordinate water resources management for the Upper Mississippi River Basin. The resulting organization of federal and state agencies became known as the Great River Resources Management Study (GREAT). The bulk of the Upper Mississippi River Basin Commission, Missouri Commissioner's Records are from 1980 to 1983, with some correspondence with railroads from 1973. The records primarily document the master plan developed by the Upper Mississippi River Basin Commission in 1981 to respond to needs identified by the GREAT studies and to resolve competing interests in the development of the river system. The records contain public statements, reports (including GREAT I, II, III, 1974-1983), studies, testimony, literature, memoranda, meeting minutes, drafts, and the final version of the commission's master plan.

The Carpenters’ Local No. 5’s Financial Books contain meeting minutes, financial ledgers, and rosters documenting weekly meetings of Carpenters’ Local No. 5 from 1885 to 1888 and 1904 to 1913.

The Carpenters’ Local No. 5 Records contains meeting minutes, rosters, treasurer reports, and ledgers documenting Carpenters Local No. 5’s effort to improve working conditions and increase wages for carpenters in St. Louis from 1886 to 1948.

The St. Louis Regional Chamber records contain materials from its six-predecessor organizations, the City Plan Commission, the Metropolitan Plan Association, the St. Louis Research Council, the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, the Regional Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC), and the St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association (RCGA).  The records include correspondence, meeting minutes, reports, photographs, newspaper clippings, and videotapes, documenting the St. Louis Regional Chamber and its predecessor’s mission to promote regional cooperation and planning for the development of the area’s resources. Materials of interest include RCGA and RIDC’s reports and studies, which provided economic and sociological analyses, as well as statistical data, of urban problems in transportation, public works, labor, the environment, capital investment, manufacturing, industrial education, and employment. The materials in this collection are incomplete, as they do not contain the records of the City Plan Commission before 1912.

Twenty-two carpenters met on December 8, 1871, to form the St. Louis Cabinet Makers' Protective Union. The following year they affiliated with the International Cabinet Makers' Union of America, becoming Local 12. In 1903 the local became part of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America as Local 1596. The collection includes records of other unions that joined Local 1596. Early volumes are in German.

The American Friends Service Committee was a Society of Friends (Quaker) peace organization. In 1966, the St. Louis chapter set up a local project, the St. Louis Vietnam Committee, to oppose the Vietnam War, especially through public education with guest speakers, political ads, films, and seminars. The collection contains correspondence, meeting minutes, anti-war literature, and information about public speakers.

The DeVeda Bishop collection contains memos, newsletters, circulars, correspondence, and a training manual from DeVeda Bishop’s experience as a legislative reporter for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) Local 495 and the St. Louis Legislative Committee. The St. Louis Legislative Committee, formed by the Southwest Regional Joint Board of the ACWA, encouraged legislative activities throughout all local chapters of ACWA in St. Louis.  

The collection contains correspondence, daybooks, photographs, and photographs documenting John Nooney’s career as a patrolman for the St. Louis Police Department.

The Herman Dreer Papers contain correspondence, newspaper clippings, plays, and articles written by Dreer, pertaining to his life and career as an author, historian, educator, and minister. Included in this collection are handwritten notes from Dreer's interview he conducted for his Ph.D. dissertation, "Negro Leadership in St. Louis: A Study in Race Relations."

The Gregory Nooney papers document his life as a St. Louis Real Estate Developer. In the 1930s and 1940s, Nooney worked as an executive for Stix, Baer, and Fuller and Lesser-Goldman. He also served on the City Plan Commission and the Missouri Retailers' Association. In 1945 he founded the Nooney Company, which developed St. Louis' first shopping center and Clayton's first high-rise building. The collection includes correspondence, employment contracts, memoranda, newspaper clippings, photographs, and a scrapbook.

The Paul Greer Papers contain the work of a newspaper editor, and liberal social activist, Paul Greer. Topics include senior citizens, integration, housing, agricultural conditions, and conservation and includes correspondence; subject files; Greer's writing, including drafts of his two books, articles and book reviews; articles about Greer; and photographs and memorabilia.

This collection contains the unpublished thesis The Saint Louis Unit of the March on Washington Movement: A Study in Sociology of Conflict by Louise Elizabeth Grant. In her manuscript, Grant chronicles the creation of the St. Louis’ March on Washington Movement chapter and its participation in the March on Washington Movement from 1941-1944.

The Harry Von Romer Manuscript contains two handwritten chapters by St. Louis laborer and union organizer Harry Von Romer. During the Great Depression, Von Romer worked to organize the auto industry, in particular, the Fisher Body Plant. The chapters describe daily life among the working class in the 1910s and 1920s in St. Louis, working conditions during the Depression, and the organizing efforts, parades, and strikes of local labor unions in St. Louis.

The collection contains newsletters, pamphlets, letters, bulletins, and circulars pertaining to the Peace Action Committee of Missouri’s efforts to lobby the United States government against participating in foreign wars. The group supported political candidates in Missouri and urged Congress to pass the Ludlow War Referendum Amendment in the late 1930s.

The collection contains correspondence, photographs, and newspaper clippings documenting John Keating Regan’s career as the United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri (1962-1977).

This collection contains photographs, correspondence, a contract book, and a memoir pertaining to the Fennell, Carpenter, and Bland families of Maplewood, Missouri. Materials of interest include photographs of the Floyd Alonzo Fennel's landscaping business, as well as Nancy Fennell Hawkins’ memoir: I Remember When: Memories of Growing up in Maplewood, Missouri.

The Metro St. Louis NOW records contain administrative material from the group, including minutes and correspondence of the St. Louis, state, and national organizations and chapter newsletter "& Nothing Less." The records are maintained in their original order as received. The bulk of the collection consists of subject files on the various causes that Metro St. Louis NOW supported, such as the ERA, abortion, person abuse, childcare, school reform, human rights, credit for women, employment discrimination, International Women's Year, politics, rape, and religion. A vigil log contains members' reports on their experiences in Jefferson City during the ERA vigil watch.

This collection contains the records of the St. Louis Bureau for Men, the first agency in the United States to provide social services to transient and homeless men. The collection is a combination of the Bureau's administrative files and the professional files of two of its four directors, Isaac Gurman and Charles Mann. The records document the founding of the Bureau until its demise in 1982 and the change of its focus from beggars, transients, and homeless men in the 1930s to ex-convicts in the 1950s-1980s.

This collection consists of the diaries of a St. Louis wife and mother with references to daily life, servant problems, Civil War, Lincoln's assassination, and the Chicago fire of 1871.

This collection consists of the diary of a young St. Louis woman, documenting her daily life, as well as her voyage to Venezuela with her father in 1867.

The Stanley Goodman papers document his life as a business, civic, and cultural leader in St. Louis, including his time as CEO of the May Department Stores Company (1969-1976); Consul to France (1971); president, St. Louis Symphony Society (1964-1970); member of Civic Progress, the City Plan Commission and Downtown St. Louis Inc. Included in this collection are Goodman’s speeches, and drafts of his book, How to Manage a Turnaround.

The Mary Metcalfe Rexford Memoirs recalls Rexford’s time serving with the American Red Cross in Great Britain and with Clubmobile Group A on continental Europe from 1943 to 1945. Her husband, Oscar Whitelaw Rexford, compiled information from letters Mary had written and interviews with other Group A members to create this memoir.

The Frank M. Rumbold Papers contain correspondence, patent information, reports, meeting minutes, telegrams, military tactics, and appointments related to his business, military career, and personal life. Rumbold experimented and patented inventions related to electrical resistance material and railroad switches during his time as a practicing medical doctor.

St. Louis German bakers sent delegates to the first national meeting of bakers in Pittsburgh in February 1886 and received a charters as No. 15. The local supported the eight-hour movement and helped organize the Central Trades and Labor Union. Rivalry with the English-speaking local was resolved in 1906 when both united as Local No. 4. The collection includes executive board membership and social club minutes, financial records, and membership lists. Some volumes are in German.

This collection consists of "Keepin' The Thing Goin'," the monthly newsletter of the North St. Louis County chapter of the National Organization for Women.

The collection contains minutes of general and board meetings, financial records, membership lists, correspondence, the Camp's newsletter (Solidarity Slants), and flyers. Complementary collections which include information on Camp Solidarity and its members are: Socialist Party of Missouri (S0090); Frei Gemeinde von St. Louis (S0037); Vorwaerts Workingmen's Singing Society (S0237); Robert Saunders' autobiography (S0087); Harry Von Romer (S0171); and the photograph collection.

The History of the Church Federation in St. Louis Manuscript contains a 268-page manuscript titled Thy Kingdom Come: The History of the Church Federation in St. Louis 1909-1969, chronicling the founding and evolution of the Metropolitan Church Federation.

The Edward Luckey Radford Manuscript contains the unpublished dissertation titled Implementing Court Ordered Desegregation for The Ferguson Reorganized School District R2: A Case Study by Edward Luckey Radford. In his dissertation, Radford chronicles the integration of the Berkeley, Kinloch, and Ferguson R2 school districts from 1971 to 1979.  

The Civil Rights Movement in St. Louis Manuscript consists of a thesis written by Gina L. Henderson titled The Civil Rights Movement in St. Louis, 1954-1970: A Socio-Historical Perspective. The author argues that Black St. Louisans were at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement despite popular notions that the city’s African-American population was complacent.

The papers of Winifred Lippman contain correspondence, photographs, video tapes, an oral history interview, newspaper clippings, and organizational records documenting Lippman's seventy-year career as a Labor activist and her work for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. 

The Mathews-Dickey Boys' and Girls' Club was founded in Handy Park, St. Louis by two neighborhood baseball coaches, Martin Luther Mathews and the late Hubert "Dickey" Ballentine in 1960. The club's mission is to produce physically active, well-educated, and hopeful youth by stimulating the pursuit of knowledge, attainment of a healthier life, and the skills of greatness. The Mathews-Dickey Boys' and Girls' Club Records primarily document the growth of the club from its incorporation to the construction of its $2.5 million sports complex. Most of the material is from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. Materials include correspondence, annual banquet programs, meeting minutes, enrollment sheets, sports schedules, financial records, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, and photographs.

The Albert Wenzlick Real Estate Company Records contain sales statements of properties, contracts, photographs, and statistical studies on population, living standards, home ownership, and labor costs for housing in the St. Louis area.

The collection contains photocopies of letters, photos, newsletters, and newspaper articles reflecting the ministry of Robert C. Williams and the history and evolution of the Church of God in Christ.

The Dismas House Records contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and annual reports documenting the Dismas House, the nation's first halfway house for ex-convicts.

This scrapbook contains newspaper clippings, brochures, and reports of the St. Louis Department of Public Welfare under the direction of Nelson Cunliff, 1923-1934. Topics include conditions of St. Louis hospitals, disease, hygiene, racial tensions over the use of local parks, crime, recreation, poverty, and calls to reform the public welfare system.

The Saint Louis Zoo Records document the evolution of Zoo's philosophy from providing entertainment to educating the public and preserving animal species. The collection contains annual reports, meeting minutes, photographs, films, and scrapbooks. Topics of interest include animal acquisitions, as well as birth and deaths, and construction of new zoo buildings.

The Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri Records document the group's founding in 1932 as the Maternal Health Association of Missouri, its transformation to Planned Parenthood Association of Missouri in 1943, and growth in the post-war period. The collection contains annual reports, correspondence, reports, scrapbooks, and two reel-to-reel tapes.

The Chuck Berry Research Project Collection contains newspaper clippings, research papers, and oral histories chronicling Kenn Thomas and George Lipsitz’s effort to document the life and career of singer and songwriter, Chuck Berry.

The Reproductive Health Services Records contain correspondence, brochures, reports, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks pertaining to the organization’s mission to provide reproductive healthcare to individuals. Subjects of interest include family planning, opposition to abortion, and birth control.

The Rita Oberbeck Papers contain correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, and writings relating to her career as Dramatics Director of the Southwest Region of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. In this position, Oberbeck produced plays, skits, and pageants for the union in St. Louis and the Southwest Region. Materials of interest include an unfinished biography about Meyer Perlstein, entitled Shortsnooping with Meyer.

The Double Helix Corporation Records document the activities of a non-profit, community media corporation incorporated in St. Louis in 1971 to preserve and expand non-commercial, community broadcasting. The records reflect Double Helix's search for radio and TV broadcasting frequencies after the demise of KDNA radio. The collection includes petitions to the FCC for share-time with radio stations KSLH and KHRU as well as later applications for television broadcasting on Channels 18, 40, and 46. Opposing petitions filed by competitors for these frequencies, including the independent petition filed by KETC-TV for the use of Channel 40. The FCC ruling on the television channels appears within the series as well as Double Helix's application for a federal grant, correspondence, minutes, notes, and membership lists. Also included in the collection are programming tapes from KDNA/KDHX.

In 1984, a coalition of civil rights activists, religious organizations, social service agencies, and environmentalists organized to place a voter-initiated anti-nuclear proposition on the November 1984 ballot. Proposition B, which was defeated, would have inhibited Union Electric from charging customers for the Callway County nuclear plant. The collection includes proposed legislation, meeting minutes, press releases, correspondence, memoranda, taped radio announcements, and petitions.