African Americans

St. Louis Department of Public Welfare Scrapbook, 1923-1924 (S0193)
0.02 cubic feet

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.

St. Louis Desegregation Case Records, 1849-1986 (S0684)
3 cubic feet, 35 folders

 Finding Aid

This collection contains legal materials, reports, and analyses pertaining to Craton Liddell vs. the Board of Education, City of St. Louis. Minnie Liddell, the mother of Craton Liddell, organized a boycott against the Board of Education of the City of St. Louis in 1971 after the school board announced that they would bus her son from the overcrowded Yeatman School to a substandard school outside Liddell's neighborhood. The Board of Education relented to the boycott, and transferred her son to another school. Liddell continued her fight, filing a lawsuit against the Board of Education in 1972. The lawsuit was finally settled in 1999 and resulted in a city-wide busing plan that encompassed sixteen school districts in the St. Louis area, known as the Voluntary Interdistrict Transfer Program.

St. Louis Housewives' League Scrapbook and Programs, 1973-1980 (S0155)
0.01 cubic foot

 Finding Aid

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.

St. Louis Public Schools Power Plants Struggle Manuscript, 1982 (S0095)
0.01 cubic foot

 Finding Aid

This collection contains an autobiography titled The 30’s: Donnybrook Decade in St. Louis Public School Power Plants (A Geechee Maverick’s Quest in a Jim Crow City), written by Frank Weldon Young. Young wrote the manuscript to discuss his life as the first African American to receive their stationary engineer’s license in the city of St. Louis.

St. Louis Unit of March on Washington Paper, 1944 (S0170)
0.02 cubic foot

 Finding Aid

This collection contains the unpublished thesis The Saint Louis Unit of the March on Washington Movement: A Study in Sociology of Conflict by Louise Elizabeth Grant.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.

Frederick Starr, Jr. Papers, 1850-1863 (C2073)
0.42 cubic feet (20 folders)

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

Starr was a colonizationist, free soiler, and Presbyterian clergyman in Weston, MO, 1852-1855. The collection contains correspondence, broadsides, pamphlets, and clippings on settlement of the Kansas-Nebraska Territories, border conflicts, abolitionism vs. slavery, local politics, Indian affairs, public land sales, claims, and prices, popular sovereignty, squatters' rights, and religion on the frontier.

State Historical Society of Missouri Typescript Collection, 1814-1962 (C0995)
14 rolls of microfilm

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The State Historical Society of Missouri Typescript Collection consists of typescripts of articles and manuscripts donated over the years to the Historical Society.

Ste. Genevieve, Missouri Archives, 1756-1930 (C3636)
78 rolls of microfilm (1474 folders)

 Finding Aid

The collection contains French colonial and territorial records of the District of Ste. Genevieve, along with Ste. Genevieve County records and court records. A third of the documents are dated 1756-1804; the remainder date from 1805 to 1930.

Margaret Nelson Stephens Papers, 1823-1927 (C0311)
1.05 cubic feet (22 folders)

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The diaries of Margaret Nelson Stephens, the wife of Missouri Governor Lon V. Stephens, 1897-1901, document her daily life from 1875 to 1927. Genealogy notes describe Margaret's ancestry and other documents cover a wide range of topics pertaining to relatives through her sister Nadine's marriage to Charles E. Leonard. Most deal with Charles E. Leonard himself, and his brothers Leverett and Abiel. Two Missouri Militia muster rolls, 1862-1863, and a bill of sale for slaves, 1849, are most notable.

Pauline H. Stratton Papers, 1841-1870 (C0842)
0.15 cubic feet (7 folders)

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The papers contain a typescript of a diary of Pauline Stratton’s life in Virginia and Missouri. She writes of spinning, weaving, soap making, rearing her children, enslaved people, the Civil War, and business difficulties after her husband’s death. Also included is a photostat letter written by her to her husband in 1841 before their marriage.

Arvarh E. Strickland Papers, 1920s-1990s (CA4995)
32.5 cubic feet, 11 audio tapes, 18 computer discs

 Finding Aid

Personal and professional papers of a historian, educator, and University of Missouri administrator.

Peter Tamony Collection, 1890-1985 (C3939)
877.6 cubic feet (798 folders, 865 boxes, 6 card files), 14 audio discs, 89 audio tapes, 2 audio cassettes

 Finding Aid

Correspondence, articles, research files, personal papers, audio tapes, and word files of a noted etymologist and neologist of San Francisco. The collection primarily relates to the study of American colloquial language and neologisms but also includes rare jazz journals and materials on sports.

Charlton H. Tandy Papers, 1868-1967 (S0135)
0.15 cubic foot, 7 folders

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

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 Case of the Ville Manuscript, 1975 (S0005)
0.01 cubic foot, 1 folder

 Finding Aid

"Symbolic Emergence of Community in an Historically Black Neighborhood: The Case of the Ville," or simply "The Case of the Ville," was an essay written by Charles Bailey. The paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society in Chicago, April 9-12, 1975 and discussed the history of the Black majority neighborhood "the Ville" and the symbolic sentiments that have been attached to the neighborhood because of its history.

The Palladium Newspaper, 1903-1907 (S0576)
3 microfilm rolls

The Palladium was African-American newspaper in St. Louis published in the early 1900s. This collection includes editions of the newspaper from January 10, 1903 to October 5, 1907.

The Ville Collection, 1975-1990 (S0497)
0.4 cubic foot, 19 folders, 9 cassette tapes

 Finding Aid

This collection contains oral history tapes, unpublished and published manuscripts, and articles pertaining to "The Ville," known initially as Elleardsville, a predominately African-American neighborhood in northwest St. Louis, where African American intellectuals and the elite lived before integration.

James Irving Threatt Papers, 1971-1999 (K0732)
41 c.f.

Personal files kept by Threatt concerning his many activities and interests while in public office. Topics include housing, city development, revitalization of the urban core, education, minority businesses and historical agencies. Contains correspondence, reports, photographs, clippings, books and magazines. Also his wife, Doris Elizabeth Threatt (1932-2000), professional and community activities.

David Todd Papers, 1821-1841 (C4511)
0.1 cubic feet (6 folders)

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The papers of a circuit court judge from Boone County, Missouri, contain receipts and legal papers. Includes material pertaining to the “case of Jim, a slave” vs. the State of Missouri. Jim, who was indicted for the murder of William B. Johnson, was enslaved by Todd.

Fannie Marie Tolson Papers, 1890s-2005 (C1704)
2.3 cubic feet (63 folders), 3 audio cassettes, 2 video cassettes, 1 DVD

 Finding Aid

Fannie Marie Tolson was the first African-American educator to teach in the desegregated schools of Fayette, Missouri. Her papers include family correspondence and photographs, memorabilia from Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri, teaching aids, documents concerning St. Paul's Methodist Church in Fayette, and recordings of two interviews conducted with Tolson.

Dante O. Tranquille Photographs, 1949 (P0148)
104 photographs

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

This collection consists of 104 images taken by Dante O. Tranquille, a photojournalist who worked at the Utica [New York] Observer-Dispatch in the mid-twentieth century. He visited Missouri in May 1949, likely to attend the Missouri Photo Workshop, and photographed areas in St. Louis, McBaine, and Columbia.

Troost Corridor Community Association Records, 1998-2005 (K1332)
0.5 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Records relating to this community-based organization in Kansas City, Missouri, that operated from 1998-2005. The records include materials that remained when the TCCA office was vacated.

U.S. Census, Cooper County, Missouri, 1850, 1850 (C1281)
0.23 cubic feet (2 volumes)

 Finding Aid

Vol. 1 (Schedule 1) enumeration of free inhabitants giving age, sex, and place of birth.
Vol. 2 (Schedule 2-6) slave inhabitants, including age and sex; deaths in previous year, including age, place of birth, cause of death; agricultural production; industries; and social statistics, including schools, churches, libraries, value of real and personal property.

United Brothers of Friendship and Sisters of the Mysterious Ten Records, 1908-1980 (S0127)
0.01 cubic foot

 Finding Aid

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

United Confederate Veterans Committee on History Record Book, 1897 (C1277)
0.02 cubic feet (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

Proceedings of a committee formed for "the preparation and publication of a correct history of the part borne by Missourians in the Confederate Army." 

University City Residential Trust Records, 1970-2002 (S1031)
0.3 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

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.

University of Missouri Reports to U.S. Bureau of Education, 1892-1900 (C3329)
0.02 cubic feet (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

These records include three types of reports: 1) reports listing expenditures, number of faculty and students, value of property/equipment, and library holdings; 2) scholastic reports giving breakdown of students into various fields, kinds of degrees offered, and University’s income; and 3) supplementary statistical reports. Reports for University and School of Mines.

University of Missouri, Admission of Blacks Papers, 1952-1954 (C0977)
0.06 cubic feet (3 folders)

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

Correspondence concerning the applications of Black people for admission to the University of Missouri during the years of transition from a segregated to an integrated institution.

University of Missouri, Black Theatre Workshop Records, 1982-1993 (C4710)
0.2 cubic foot (17 folders), 2 oversize items

 Finding Aid

Programs, posters, photographs, correspondence, production reviews, and other materials relating to workshop performances.

University of Missouri, Legion of Black Collegians Records, 1974-1993 (C4184)
0.4 cubic feet (18 folders)

 Finding Aid

The records of a Black college student organization consist of conference material, newsletters, guides, pamphlets, newspaper articles, applications, election ballots, questionnaires, flyers, notes, and artifacts.

University of Missouri, Saint Louis Black History Project Collection, 1911-1983 (S0201)
5 cubic feet, 143 folders, 415 photographs, 17 audio tapes, 7 microfilm rolls

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

This National Historical Publications and Records Commission funded project collected historical source material documenting the African-American experience in St. Louis. The project developed a slide presentation and held three conferences on St. Louis African-American history from 1981 to 1983. The collection includes correspondence, reports, surveys, biographical information, and a slide show.

University of Missouri-Columbia, Black Studies Program Records, 1961-1992 (C4125)
4.5 cubic feet (220 folders)

 Finding Aid

The papers of the Black Studies Program at the University of Missouri-Columbia include correspondence, programs, project proposals, articles, clippings, and photographs.

University of Missouri-Columbia, Missouri Folk Arts Program Records, 1982-2012 (C4035)
32.0 cubic feet (1000 folders), 2132 audio cassettes, 69 audio tapes, 82 video cassettes, 3 oversize volumes

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The records of the Missouri Folk Arts Program contain documentation of the annual work and various programming administered by the organization. The records include fiscal information, contracts with artists, press clippings and releases, publications, exhibit documentation, correspondence, working files, and files on folk and traditional artists. The records also include photographs, audio, and video that document folk and traditional arts, artists, and events.

Lucile Morris Upton Papers, 1823-1986 (C3869)
1 cubic foot, 25 rolls of microfilm (599 folders, 71 volumes), 1 video cassette

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

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.

Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis Collection, 1938-1982 (S0093)
0.2 cubic foot, 5 folders

 Finding Aid

The collection consists of annual reports, newsletters, and pamphlets chronicling the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’s efforts to provide social services for the St. Louis area’s African American population.

Valuation for People Enslaved by Richard Nowlin, 1844 (SP0102)
0.1 cubic foot (1 folder)

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

Valuation for three people enslaved by Richard Nowlin of Ray County, Missouri.

Valuation for people enslaved by William Spradlin, 1849 (C2641)
0.02 cubic feet (1 folder)

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

Valuation of ten people enslaved by William Spradlin, September 29, 1849, and their disposition to various heirs.

Charles Van Ravenswaay Papers, 1841-1990 (C3873)
21.8 cubic feet (1,359 folders), 1 audio cassette

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

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, Massachusetts; and the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum and Gardens, Wilmington, Delaware.

George Graham Vest Letters, 1874, 1896 (C1666)
0.02 cubic feet (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

Letters to Joseph Pulitzer, giving information about a colored couple, Si and Susan Williams, 1874, and his decision to begin a senatorial campaign at the old homestead, 1896.

Video Collection, 1990-2011 (S0832)
1 cubic foot, 34 videotapes

 Finding Aid

The Video Collection consists of VHS tapes, DVDs and other video formats of recordings pertaining to St. Louis history. Topics of interest include the Gateway Arch, Fran Landesman, Pruitt-Igoe, and the Saint Louis Zoo. Also included in this collection are oral histories staff members conducted with Judith Styx, James Neal Primm, and Irene Cortinovis.

Voluntary Interdistrict Coordination Council Collection, 1986-1987 (S1007)
0 .4 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

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

James Blaine Walker, "The Unmuffled Voice in the Ozark Tourist Region", 1950 (R0929)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The James Blaine Walker, "The Unmuffled Voice in the Ozark Tourist Region" are two newsletters for two African American Methodist churches of which James Blain Walker was the pastor. They were Mount Lebanon Methodist Church at Lebanon in Laclede County, Missouri, and Elkins Methodist Church at Rolla in Phelps county, Missouri. Included are church calendars and news items, inspirational articles, and advertisements for local businesses.

Mildred Wallhausen Papers, 1949-2002 (CG0050)
2.1 c.f.

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The Mildred Wallhausen Papers is a collection of various articles, correspondence, pictures, programs, and newsletters with a primary focus on local African American peoples of Southeast Missouri. There are many negatives and photographs of Black churches and church leaders, integrated youth sports leagues, integration protests and projects, Lincoln High School before it was demolished, and assorted individuals; programs from funerals and churches; and newspaper clippings from the 1950s-1990s from papers like The Enterprise-Courier, which Mildred helped run, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Standard Democrat, the Chicago Defender, the Southeast Missourian, the Charleston Spokesman, and others. The collection also contains scrapbooks with clippings from Millie's Soap Box column, with dates from 1970-2002.

Arthur Washington Papers, 1929-1995 (S1113)
1 cubic foot, 72 folders, 52 photographs

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

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.

Thomas A. Webster Papers, 1921-1988 (K1219)
9 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Webster was executive director of the Urban League of Kansas City, community activist, and chairman of the Social Science Department of Avila College. Includes files related to his research and writing: notes, clippings, preliminary and final drafts of articles, correspondence, and printed material. Also his personal and professional correspondence and scrapbooks and files of his wife, Fern Beck Webster (1911-2002), an early childhood educator and advocate.

Clayvon A. Wesley Papers, 1969-1970 (S0572)
0.01 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

The Clayvon A. Wesley Papers contain materials from Wesley's time serving in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. Items of interest include letters of recommendation, newspaper clippings, photographs, and a handmade award given to Wesley from the hospital he served in during the war.

Western Historical Manuscript Collection, St. Louis, Vertical File Collection, 1834-2012 (S0694)
4.25 cubic feet, 265 folders

 Finding Aid

The Western Historical Manuscript Collection (WHMC)-St. Louis’s vertical file was begun in 1968 as part of WHMC’s collecting mission under the direction of Irene Cortinovis and Ina Watson. The collection chronicles numerous St. Louis-related topics, including African Americans, Anheuser-Busch, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Shaw neighborhood.

Henry Winfield Wheeler Papers, 1953-1980 (S0122)
0.01 cubic foot, 1 folder

 Finding Aid

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.

Mae Wheeler Papers, 1975-2004 (S1013)
3 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

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. 

Pearl Schwartz White Papers, 1911-1981 (S0133)
0.15 cubic foot, 6 folders

 Finding Aid

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.

Wilkins Family Papers, 1931-2006 (S0273)
0.8 cubic foot

The Wilkins Family Papers contain correspondence, photographs, meeting minutes, programs, hymnals, and recipe books pertaining to the Wilkins family of Webster Groves. The materials in this collection primarily reflect the lives of Mattie Hunt Wilkins and her descendants. Items of interest include the meeting minutes of Order of the Eastern Star, Chapter 4. Mattie Wilkins was the Worthy Matron (WM) of the lodge.