Saint Louis Manuscript Collections

This collection contains songbooks, scorecards, and photographs pertaining to events, individuals, and places connected to Art Santen, a longtime resident of the Skinker Debaliviere neighborhood and noted collector of bottle caps.

The Dorothy Schneider Papers contain correspondence, diaries, photographs, scrapbooks, and a dissertation pertaining to Schneider's experiences volunteering with the American Red Cross during World War II in the Pacific Theater, as well as her peace activism with the United Nations Day World Holiday.

The Ellen Schwartz Papers contain photographs, a diary, and VHS and cassette tapes of oral histories pertaining to her research on the Freund family.

This collection includes newsletters and publications pertaining to abortion, including copies of "Our Bodies Our Selves" and the "Cervical Cap Handbook."

The Sue Shear Papers contains correspondence, legislative materials, and newspaper clippings relating to her career as a legislator representing St. Louis County (District 83) in the Missouri House of Representatives (1972-1998). Topics of interest in the collection include abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, mental health, and children and families in Missouri.

The James F. Shrewsbury Papers consist of meeting minutes, political campaign material, newspaper clippings, reports, and political campaign materials pertaining Shrewsbury’s career on the 16th Ward Alderman (1983-2007) and the President of the St. Louis Board of Alderman (2002-2007), for the city of St. Louis. This collection also contains political campaign ephemera—bumper stickers, political buttons, and flyers—pertaining to Missouri state and national politicians. The materials in this collection date from 1962 to 2015.

This collection contains postcards depicting the Majestic Hotel; the Cheshire Inn; the Sheraton Jefferson; the Jewel Box in Forest Park; Korean War Memorial in Forest Park; and the Streckfus Steamer "President."

The Skinker-DeBaliviere Times Collections contains issues of the newspaper documenting the history of the neighborhood, including the Delmar Loop and Bolivartown.

This collection contains issues of SLAM magazine, an underground LGBTQ publication.

Annual meeting minutes and Spring Grand Classic and Caravan files of the Spirit of St. Louis Region Classic Car Club.

The Carl Stelzer papers contains files on Dioxin, Times Beach, Missouri, the Ville, and Soulard, Missouri. Stelzer was a reporter for the Riverfront Times.

The Judith Stix Papers contains poetry written by Stix. Titles of interest include two anthologies "City of Birds," and "Sweet Length of Days.

The Talk Tapes/Textbooks on Tapes Records contain photographs, compact discs, and scrapbooks pertaining to the organization's mission to provide books to individuals with learning disabilities and visual impairments.

The Rosemary Hyde Thomas Papers contain photographs, oral histories, and research papers pertaining to the Landmarks Program, which encouraged middle and high school students to explore historical themes in their community neighborhoods. Materials of interest include oral history interviews students conducted with former Pullman Porters, Webster Groves, and the flood of 1993.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis Public Policy Library on St. Louis Collection consists of studies and reports regarding the formation and growth of Missouri state and local governments, including the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. 

This collection contains correspondence, articles, oral history interviews, and photographs collected by Cornelia Frances Sexauer for her 2003 thesis, "Catholic Capitalism: Charles Vatterott, Civil Rights and Suburbanization in St. Louis and the Nation 1919-1972." Charles Vatterott was a real estate and civil rights activist, who was instrumental in creating the St. Louis Interracial Justice council in 1944. He also established the Vatterott Foundation in 1948 to improve educational and career advancement opportunities for ethnic and religious minorities.

This collection contains local, state and national newsletters published by veterans' groups.

The Voluntary Interdistrict Coordination Council collection contains newsletters, reports, and a settlement agreement connected to the development of the magnet schools in St. Louis.

The papers of Herb Waerckle contain family histories and a scrapbook pertaining to Waeckerle's career as a journalist for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and as well as his career in public relations working for the Schnucks and Monsanto.

This collection consists of Issues of Nature Notes, the Bulletin of the Webster Groves Nature Society, Vol. 68, No. 6-Vol. 70, December 1998.

This collection contains a thesis written by Lisa Weinmann on mainstream feminism in St. Louis during the 1970s, as well as fifteen oral history tapes she used as research for her thesis.

The Judge Noah Weinstein Papers contain judicial files on juveniles, the legal justice system, and legal education, as well as correspondence. Weinstein was a St. Louis County Circuit Judge and assisted with writing Missouri juvenile code.

The Mae Wheeler Papers contains autograph and address books, contracts, newspaper clippings, flyers, and correspondence relating to Wheeler's career as a Jazz singer. Also included in the collection are photographs of Wheeler's performances. 

The Betty Wilson Papers contain correspondence, conference proceedings, position papers, reports, studies, and newspaper clippings regarding clean water and water conservation in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, as well as Dioxin pollution in Missouri.

This collection contains blueprints for an unfinished castle of George F. Wood-Smith, located in South St. Louis County.

The papers of Austin Wright contain newspaper clippings and photographs chronicling Wright's career as an entertainer and politician in St. Louis's African-American community. During his life, Wright's voice served as the main feature of a variety of local acts, including the Three Peppers, a group that performed in several large venues, most notably the Riviera Club. Wright also participated in such civil rights organizations such as the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). He also worked to support community organizations like the YMCA and Annie Malone Children's Home.

The papers of Ruth Osborne Write contain poetry, notebooks, correspondence, and artwork documenting Wright's career as an artist, as well as her service in the United States Navy during World War II.

The Young Audiences of St. Louis Records contain meeting minutes, memos, newsletters, photographs, videos, and newspaper clippings pertaining to music education for K-12 students. Founded in 1957, the Young Audiences of St. Louis's mission is to assist schools with developing and promoting live music and cultural events for students.

This collection contains calendars, rosters, membership lists, and mailings of a group founded by the spouses of the directors and staff associates of the Young Men's Christian Association Metro St. Louis

Environmental activist Kay Drey assembled this collection from the newspapers and literature of groups organized to oppose the Calloway Plant; legal documents from challenges to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Union Electric over the plant’s operating license and safety concerns; and the files of Bill Smart, an ironworker fired the plant for going public with complaints about below-standard structural steel work and defective materials used in the plant’s construction.

Subject files collected by Kay Drey pertaining to nuclear hazards in the United States. 

This collection contains meeting minutes, petitions, newsletters, newspaper clippings, notes, and photographs relating to Kay and Leo Drey's campaign to block St. Louis County from developing a recreational complex in Queeny Park and preserving it as open recreational space.

The University City Residential Trust Records contain correspondence, meeting minutes, and newspaper clippings relating to the University City Rental Trust’s (UCRT) mission to maintain cultural diversity during the integration process in the University City area. UCRT attempted to accomplish this task by purchasing homes in University City and renting them to white families in neighborhoods where African American children outnumbered white children in the elementary district.

The United Shoe Workers International Union (USWA) Records contain correspondence, meeting minutes, contracts, charters, and newsletters of the union's headquarters in St. Louis.

The Citizenship Education Clearinghouse Records contain meeting minutes, correspondence, grant files, and newsletters pertaining to the organization's mission to integrate participatory citizenship into high school curricula.

This collection contains the files of former St. Louis County Parks Director Robert J. Hall. Hall served as the County Parks director from 1996 to 2001.

The St. Louis LGBT History Project Collection consists of LGBT publications and three-dimensional objects (including t-shirts) collected by the Project. Founded by Steven Brawley in 2007, the St. Louis LGBT History Project is dedicated to preserving the history of the LGBT community in St. Louis, Missouri.

This collection contains meeting minutes, press releases, correspondence, and manuals pertaining to the St. Louis branch of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign.

Photographs of tornado damage in Joplin, MO from June 3, 2011.

This collection contains materials on the Missouri Teamsters and Ernest Calloway.

This collection contains slides of architecture from cities outside Missouri

This collection contains legal materials, reports, and newspaper clippings documenting the hazards posed by dumping nuclear waste in the town of Hematite in Jefferson City, Missouri. Mallinckrodt Chemical Works built a commercial uranium-fuel processing plant in Hematite in 1956 that the company used to produce nuclear fuel rod assemblies for commercial power plants. The plant closed in 2001.

This collection contains Videotapes of Outlook St. Louis, a WHSL-TV and cable access television program for the LGBTQ community. The program featured episodes that focused on political and cultural events relevant to LGBTQ community.

The Ron Elz Papers contain essays, speeches, photographs, and reel-to-reel tapes pertaining to his career as a radio station at KSHE 95 and as a disc jockey at radio stations KXOK and KMOX under the moniker Johnny Rabbit. Materials of interest include radio scripts Elz wrote for his KMOX radio show, Route 66; essays he wrote on Gaslight Square; and reel-to-reel tapes featuring advertisements and jingles for local St. Louis businesses.

The Gaylord Container Corporation Records contain two volumes of legal materials pertaining to the company's operations from 1937 to 1939.

The Architecture collection contains three booklets published in 1928 written about the use of marble in various types of buildings found within the urban landscape. The supplemental materials include an architectural bibliography, photographs of various buildings, and a portrait of an unidentified woman.

The St. Louis County Parks and Recreation Division began the Missouri Quilt Inventory contest in September 1983. The collection includes correspondence to contest winners, a newspaper article about the contents, provenance about the quilts, and photographs of the quilts on display in the contest.

The Robert C. Williams Collection contains three spiral-bound news clipping scrapbooks on Martin Luther King, the assassination of JFK, and the 2005 resolution of the 1964 murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.

A copy of the commemorative book Looking Back...Moving Forward, A Report To The Community on the St. Louis 2004 Effort by Deborah A. Dugan.

Film footage of the Foest Park Highliands fire, taken on July 19, 1963, and the Raltson Purina fire, taken on January 11, 1962.

The Missouri Forest Heritage Records contain correspondence relating to Loe A. Drey's efforts to preserve Missouri forests and the wildlife within them from 1954 to 1999.

The Peg Serrano Papers contains literature from Univeristy City delegates pertaining to the National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas, held from November 18 to 21, 1977.

Gateway Human Resources (GHR) was an organization that provided professional development resources for women in the workplace. The materials in this collection contain meeting minutes, budget reports, membership applications, and correspondence relating to developmental workshops, dinner meetings, and annual conferences. Also included in this collection is a short history of GHR and the National Human Resources Association (NHRA), the parent organization of GHR.

This collection contains slides of the Mississippi River, Forest Park, and the lower Meramec River.

This collection contains research materials used to prepare Jefferson Barracks nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

This collection contains slides of St. Louis architectural landmarks, some of which no longer exist, such as the St. Louis Club at Locust and Ewing. F. Ray Leimkuehler was an architect for the St. Louis City Public School Board and used the slides for a presentation on St. Louis architecture. Also included in this collection are notecards describing the images and newspaper clippings recounting Leimkuehler's career.

The Abortion Class Records contain oral history tapes, newspaper clippings, flyers, pamphlets, handouts, and books on abortion in the state of Missouri, collected by a University of Missouri, St. Louis class on reproductive rights and abortion.

The Robert Logsdon Papers contain newspaper clippings and photographs relating to Logsdon's labor activism as a candidate for the governor of Missouri in 1948 and a member of the executive board of the Union District 8.

The Milissa Grant Civil Rights Oral History Collection contains oral histories grant conduct with St. Louis Civil Rights leaders.

This collection contains items related to Gloria Simpson’s time working for sculptor and commercial photographer Frank Morgan White (1877-1956), who was active in St. Louis from 1913 to 1947. Photographs include images of streetcars, the September 29, 1927 tornado, Soldan High School, and sculptures. Also included are White’s official photographs of Charles Lindbergh’s trophies.

The Barnes Medical College Notebooks document the classroom experiences of students who attended Barnes Medical College from 1902 to 1905.

The Cinema St. Louis Records contains schedules, calendars, promotional materials, newspaper clippings, and press release notebooks documenting the organization's mission to advance film as an art through the presentation of independent films. Cinema St. Louis sponsored events have included the St. Louis International Film Festival, Cinemaspoke, and the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase.

This collection consists of posters from Circus Flora, a St. Louis-based theater company specializing in one-ring theater productions.

The Hassebrock Family Papers consist of correspondence written by members of the Henry Hassebrock family of Mascoutah, Illinois, during World War II. The correspondents include Henry Hassebrock's sons, Walter, Henry, and Elmer, as well as his son-in-law, Benjamin Keck, and his daughter, Mona Hassebrock Keck. All four men served in the United States Army during World War II.

The Walter Shafer Diary consists of 58-page typewritten diary entries written by Shafer, describing his experiences as a soldier overseas with the 35th Infantry Division in World War I. The diary entries date from May 2, 1918, through May 13, 1919.

This collection consists of the 1909 edition of the Ivy yearbook of Hosmer Hall, a young women's school that opened in Clayton, Missouri, in 1904. The yearbook contains photographs, cartoons, illustrations, and business advertisements that document the activities of the school and its students. The Clayton School District purchased the building in 1936 and converted it into a middle school.

The John J. Buse, Jr. collection consists of photographs, scrapbooks, historical notes, correspondence, and personal reminiscences of a St. Charles, Missouri , historian and collector. An extensive photograph collection by Rudolph Goebel, John Gossler, and A. Ruth are included.

This collection contains meeting minutes, financial statements, and newspaper clippings of a St. Louis firm dedicated to producing metal products, including fenders, hood supports, and ordinance fuse liners.

This collection is an artificial collection combining miscellaneous oversize acquisitions related to Missouri places, individuals, and events.

This collection contains two LP records recorded at WBPA Sound Systems in Webster Groves, MO. Included in the recordings is a Jewish wedding and music.

The records of the Carpenter's District Council of Greater St. Louis contains dues, membership, and meeting minute ledgers, documenting the union's efforts to unionize carpenters in the St. Louis area.

The collection contains newspaper clippings, photographs, and art reproductions related to the history of Missouri, St. Louis, and the United States. Staff members of the Community School, an independent educational institution that encourages a non-rigid educational environment for children, collected the materials to educate their pupils. Topics of interest include the Veiled Prophet Ball, the Old Courthouse, Jefferson Barracks, and the Gemini and Apollo space programs.

This collection contains meeting minutes, newsletters, memorandum, and correspondence about the unionization movement at the Missouri History Museum (MHS). Of interest is the correspondence, which revealed the divisions within MHS over the attempt to establish a union for employees.

This collection contains publications produced by St. Louis area municipalities and schools. Included in this collection are issues of the "Ferguson Times" and "Normandy News."

The Harley Haton Papers contain correspondence, photographs, obituaries, photocopies of marriages, wills, and birth records, ancestral charts, and cassettes pertaining to Harton's (1922-1989), research on the Ehler, Fischer, Kroeschen, Nolting, and Wittrock families, who immigrated to the United States from Germany in the 19th century. 

The Loosely Identified Collection contains flyers, membership lists, newspaper clippings, and poems of Loosely Identified, a St. Louis-based women’s poetry group formed in 1974 to promote the cause of women’s equality through progressive and empowering poetry.

This collection contains publications concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy, collected by Kenn Thomas.

The Barbara J. McGough Papers contains correspondence, photographs, calendars, scrapbooks, and newspaper and magazine clippings pertaining to her activism in the LGBTQ and feminist movements in St. Louis and the Midwest. Interspersed in the collection are newsletters and pamphlets produced by LGBTQ businesses and groups, including Moonstrom, as well as McGough’s handwritten notes documenting the connections and networks she made throughout her life. The collection is arranged chronologically according to the order McGough maintained her papers, except for boxes 10-13, which contain weekly planners, scrapbooks, ephemera, and additional materials not included in the original donation. The materials in these boxes are arranged chronologically by type. The materials in this collection date from 1945 to 2011.

The Annual Reports, the Police and Workmen’s Compensation journals span the period 1916 to 1947 and describe labor and financial conditions in St. Louis, along with the Metropolitan Police Department’s administrative relationship with the Board of Aldermen. The collection contains twelve journals, and the writers consist of Alroy S. Phillips and unknown individuals who worked for the Metropolitan Police Department.

The Paul Travers Collection contains scholarly articles written by John Dewey, as well as ephemera from the St. Louis Browns.

This collection consists of photocopies of Library of Congress holdings on the mail fraud trial of E. G. Lewis, founder and first mayor of University City.

This collection contains one report: "The Radial Express and Suburban Crosstown Bus Rider, St. Louis Metropolitan Area, Final Report 1964-1965." The report was commissioned by the Bi-State Development Agency to determine the potential sources of patronage for seven new radial express bus routes in the Missouri-Illinois bi-state area.

Transportation studies by the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council for the University of Missouri At St. Louis; Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville; Harris Teachers College; and St. Charles, Missouri Public and Parochial schools.

The Bill Brush Lantern Slide Collection consists mainly of glass lantern slides dating from approximately 1890 to 1970 which provide a visual record of St. Louis and the surrounding area. The slides came from St. Louis Public Schools, Schwarz Taxidermy Studio, and the St. Louis Naturalists Club. Highlights include images of steamships such as the Admiral and the Robert E. Lee, the 1904 World’s Fair, the St. Louis Zoo, and historic buildings in St. Louis. Both photographic images and drawings are used in the slides, and some slides are title cards. Contained with boxes located off-site are images pertaining to major events in United States and world history. Also included are 35mm film slides, and small number of nitrate film photographic negatives.

This collection contains microfilmed files on marital rape law and women's rights, collected by Laura X. Also included in the collection are photographs, news clippings, and scrapbooks, documenting Laura X's early life in St. Louis.

The Charles Klotzer Papers contains correspondence, subject files, issues of the St. Louis Jewish Light and Focus Midwest, and political pamphlets pertaining to mass transit, marijuana, Metrolink, the first amendment, and crime in the St. Louis metropolitan region.

Post cards, a note from the Pevely deliveryman, a Post-Dispatch rotogravure section n from 1922, the 1943 menu from the USS Von Steuben, a photograph from the September 1927 tornado

Maps of Missouri dating from 1934 to 1998.

This collection contains correspondence, photographs, court transcripts, and newspaper clippings pertaining to the lives of Civil Rights activists Charles and Marian Oldham. Charles Oldham was instrumental in organizing picket lines and demonstrations that helped open college admission for African Americans at Washington University in St. Louis in 1948. The Oldhams were also active members of the St. Louis chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and participated in the Jefferson Bank protests in 1963. Other subjects of interest include Marian O’Fallon Oldham’s tenure as a member of the University of Missouri’s Board of Curators and Charles Oldham’s time as the National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality. The materials in this collection date from 1913 to 2004.

The Arthur Washington Papers contains student handbooks, school programs, memos, certificates, and photographs pertaining to Washington's involvement in Sumner High School's academic and athletic programs. The collection also documents Washington's involvement with Alpha Phi Alpha, the Archdiocesan Development Appeal, and the campaign to revitalize the Ville neighborhood.

The John Buckner Papers contain correspondence, reports, photographs, yearbooks, and scrapbooks pertaining to John Buckner's career as an educator in the St. Louis Public Schools system. The collection also contains materials on Julia Davis and the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

The John Diedrich Voerster collection includes family tree data for the Voerster family. Also included in this collection is family tree data from the descendants of John Diedrich Voerster (1802-1878), Engelbert Voerster (1842-1908), and John Voerster (1870-1936). The collection also includes forty-six photographs of Voerster family members.

This addenda to the George McCue Papers contains correspondence, memos, notebooks, book manuscript drafts, newspaper clippings, and photographs relating to McCue's career as a journalist, author, and architectural critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Materials of interest including correspondence between Joseph Pulitzer Jr. and McCue, as well as McCue's editorial comments for "The way We Came: A Century of the AIA in St. Louis."

This collection contains drawings of St. Louis area buildings from 1986 to 1995

This collection contains a photograph book of the 1904 Worlds Fair held in St. Louis, Missouri, and contains personal notes of members of the Spainhour family, a Jackson County, Missouri, family, who owned the book. Additionally, the names of other residents of Jackson County, Missouri, appear throughout the book.

The J. Peter Schmitz Papers contain correspondence, legal research materials, and newspaper clippings relating to Schmitz's career as an environmental lawyer. Subjects of interest include the Open Space Council, the Missouri Pacific Railway, and White Haven, Missouri.

The Kay Drey Subject File collections consist of photographs, newspaper clippings, reports, and Kay Drey's notes, reflecting a variety of topics related to the St. Louis area, including the St. Louis Art Museum, the health effects of cell phone towers on the residents of University City, and nuclear waste.

This collection contains reports, legal materials, Kay Drey's notes, and photographs pertaining to the Coalition for the Environment's efforts to prevent Fort Leonard Wood, a United States Army base located 130-miles from St. Louis, to move its gas, germ warfare, chemical weapons center and "obscurant" training program, into the Missouri Ozarks. Also included in this collection are books Kay Drey collected on arms control, landmines, germ, chemical, and nuclear warfare and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Meeting minutes, news clippings and proclamation. 2012-2013

The Parents as Teachers Records contain correspondence, meeting minutes, evaluation reports, facilitator guides, training manuals, DVDs and CDs, pertaining to early childhood education. Established by early childcare educators in 1981, Parents as Teachers mission is to promote early childhood development by assisting parents and caregivers with providing educational opportunities for pre-K-12 children.