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St. Louis Mercantile Library
The St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis is the oldest library in the St. Louis region. It holds many records and artifacts of importance to the history of St. Louis and the American West. The special collections of the Mercantile Library consist of more than 400 individual collections with archival materials numbering in the millions, including over 100 historic newspaper titles, presidential letters, early travel diaries and civil war era letters, fur trade records and the newspaper and printing morgue of the St. Louis Globe Democrat. Parts of these collections may be available through the digital library, but the full collections may be better accessed in person. For a complete list with finding aids, see the St. Louis Mercantile Library Special Collections Directory for more information.
St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis
draggable directories
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- Directories, Gazetteers, Rosters, and Guides
- This collection includes city directories, blue books, gazetteers, membership rosters, city guides and other objects linking large numbers of people to places, businesses, and organizations. To search for all directories within the UMSL Digital Library that cover a given year, begin with a basic search for all directories and narrow your results by selecting dates from the left-hand margin. The initial creation of this collection was made possible through the support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Missouri State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State. A duplicate collection is available on Missouri Digital Heritage.
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- Maps
- The Mercantile Library's map collection is a vast holding of maps dating from the earliest days of printing to the 21st century. The Library's cartographic works include stand-alone maps; rare books with maps; travel ephemera; atlases; plats; federal, state and local urban planning and government documents, and much more. The maps cover geography and subjects ranging from the far and wide (the world, the territory of Louisiana, exploration of the far east) to the local and specific (cemetary plats, street car and feeder bus routing maps).
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- St. Louis Mercantile Library Books
- Digitized books (monographs) belonging to the general collections of St. Louis Mercantile Library, the Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library, the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, the UMSL University Archives and the Thomas Jefferson Library. In some cases, a digitized book is part of a larger archival, manuscript or special collection. In such cases, the book has been included with the collection.
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- St. Louis Mercantile Library Newspapers
- The St. Louis Mercantile Library has extensive newspaper collections covering much of the history of printing in St. Louis including complete runs of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Many shorter run newspapers are available in print and on microfilm in the library's reading room.
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- St. Louis Mercantile Library Special Collections
- The special collections of the St. Louis Mercantile Library consist of over 400 individual collections with archival materials numbering in the millions, including over 100 historic newspaper titles, presidential letters, early travel diaries and civil war era letters, fur trade records and the newspaper and printing morgue of the St. Louis Globe Democrat, some of which is available digitally. The M-Series of collections represents the core of the Mercantile's holdings. Finding aids and descriptions can be accessed from the library's website through the Mercantile Special Collections Directory.
Mercantile Library Collections Directory
Mercantile Special Collections Directory
Barriger Library Collections Directory
Barriger Special Collections Directory