Saint Louis Manuscript Collections

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 colletion 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 metarials 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. collectin consists of photographs, scrapbooks, historical notes, correspondence, and personal reminiscences ofa 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, memoranda, 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, newsclippings 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.

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen Records contains subject files on family violence, anti-gay terrorism, and dog and animal shelters.

The Ahern Real Estate Records contain deeds of trust, correspondence, and photographs that document the financial dealings of the Ahern family. The Ahern family lived in the city of St. Louis and county during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and engaged in real estate sales. Transactions took place with the Builder’s Investment Company, various individuals, and Washington University.

The Eliot Chapel Unitarian Church Newsletters collection covers the activities of its members from September 1967 to December 1972. It includes sermons from its leader, Webster Kitchell, on the social and political issues of the era, including race relations, politics, and the conflict in Vietnam.

The May Department Stores Company Records contain annual reports, newsletters, photographs, and scrapbooks relating to the Railway Exchange Building and David May, the founder of the company. May founded the May Department Stores Company in 1878 to buy and merge retail stores throughout the country. Some of May's most notable acquisitions occurred in 1911 when he purchased the famous Clothing Store and the William Barr Dry Goods Company and merged them into Famous-Barr. Macy's purchased the May Department Stores Company in 2006.

The Maffitt Family Papers contain financial correspondence, a map of St. Louis, as well as a street guide. 

The Katharine Flora Berridge Mleczkos Genealogical Collection contains family histories, newsletters, family tree charts, photographs, and oral histories pertaining to Mleczkos's research on the Wells, Taft, Carpenter, and Berridge families.

The Eastern Missouri Collection is an artificial collection combining miscellaneous small acquisitions related to Missouri places, individuals, organizations, and events. The Eastern Missouri Collection continues to have material added to it. New additions are added at the end of the collection. Researchers should browse the index and container lists to locate pertinent material.

This collection contains student counter-culture newspapers published in St. Louis during the Vietnam War and the presidency of Richard M. Nixon.

This collection contains thirty 35mm slides of St. Louis and Illinois streetcars, photographed by Richard R. Wallin for Blackhawk Films and published in 1958. The slides also include images of stations such as Wellston Loop Depot.

The collection contains one ledger reflecting Bartlett's financial activities in 1846 and served as exhibit A in a court case held in St. Louis, Missouri.

This collection contains 8mm family films of the Laube family, including scenes from the St. Louis Zoo.

The letters consist of reproductions of correspondence from Lieutenant H.H. Smith to his father during the Civil War. Smith served in the Union army in the 17th Regiment Indiana Volunteers and the 49th Indiana Regiment. The collection contains photocopies of the correspondence and a DVD that contains digitized versions of the documents.

Panoramic photograph of the 100th anniversary observance of Grace Church; annual report. 1944

This collections contains correspondence, post cards, and photographs of the Dolniuk family of St. Louis.

Papers collected by Patricia and Earl Semel (Normandy High School, class of 1944), including newsletters, photographs, publications, ledgers, and VHS tapes pertaining to the Normandy School District, the Normandy High School Class of 1944 reunions, and the history of Normandy, Missouri.

The International Women’s Forum Oral History Collection consists of oral history interviews conducted by Dr. Blanche Touhill with St. Louis City and St. Louis County members of the Missouri chapter of the International Women’s Forum. The collection documents the interviewee’s personal and professional lives and how they established themselves as successful, enterprising women leaders in the St. Louis region. These materials include DVD recordings of the interviews, as well as accompanying transcripts. The interviews date from 2013 to 2015.

The World War II Oral Histories collection contains three interviews conducted by Marie Morgan with women who lived during the conflict. Each interview tells the story about each woman during the conflict, their wartime experiences and life afterward in Europe and the United States.

This collection contains a scrapbook of River Faces parade in downtown St. Louis

Photographs of 2 Westmoreland Place (not extant). 1902

The papers of Ernest Bergmann contain business cards and brochures from financial institutions; MENSA and Norwood Country Club memberships; and handwritten notes.

The Mary Bergmann Papers contain photographs, newspaper clippings, theatre programs, correspondence, and supplies ledgers of The Lorelei nightclub in Gaslight Square documenting Bergmann’s career as an entertainer and club manager.

This collection contains choir music from the Christ Church Cathedral and the Church of St. Michael and St. George. Recordings of interest include the choir's tribute to the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.

This collection contains four photographs documenting the circus's performance held at the St. Louis Arena in 1946.

The English Speaking Union, St. Louis Branch Records contains agendas, correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, and newsletters pertaining to the group's mission to provide opportunities for native and non-native English speakers to develop their English comprehension and speaking skills.

This collection contains personal papers documenting the education, work, hobbies, and personal life of Sharon Leslie (Smith) Pedersen (1943-2017). Pedersen, a Kirkwood, Missouri resident, and mother of four, worked as a high school English teacher and librarian, public librarian, and Peace Corps educator in China. She earned degrees in English, philosophy, education, history, library science, and creative writing from the University of Missouri and the University of Colorado. Throughout her life she was an avid outdoorsman, master gardener and was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, International Folk Dance Association of St. Louis, Ethical Society of St. Louis, Wild Ones Native Plant Society, and Washington University Woman's Club. Papers include genealogy and family history, photographs, educational and work records, correspondence, journals, and essays.

This collection contains board meeting minutes, histories, conference materials, Star Award files, directories, and photographs of the Ballwin-Chesterfield branch of the American Association of University Women.

The Kirkwood-Webster Groves branch of the American Association of University Women was founded in 1971 to promote the educational growth and development of women. This collection contains annual reports, membership directories, promotional videotapes, and board of directors meeting minutes of the Kirkwood-Webster Groves branch.