St. Louis City Directories, Gazetteers, Rosters, and Guides

This collection contains resources that cover the people and places in the city of St. Louis, including but not limited to residential, business, and street directories, membership rosters for organizations, clubs, and social societies, and descriptive guidebooks of notable residents, businesses, institutions, and landmarks. A comprehensive list of directories for St. Louis available at other institutions can be accessed at List of St. Louis City Directories, Gazetteers, Rosters, and Guides or at this list created by the Missouri History Museum. Washington University in St. Louis has a particularly strong collection digitized as part of its St. Louis Circuit Court Records Project.
St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis

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Shewey's Pictorial St. Louis Past and Present
Shewey's Pictorial St. Louis is an illustrated guide to the life and times of St. Louisans and the buildings around them. Detailed descriptions of significant structures and historical events.
Sketch Book of Saint Louis
Containing a series of sketches of the early settlement, public buildings, hotels, railroads, steamboats, foundry and machine shops, mercantile houses, grocers, manufacturing houses, &c.
St. Louis Business Directory
James Green published this business directory shortly after the Great Fire of 1849. The fire destroyed much of St. Louis’ business district and made Green’s previous directory obsolete since many businesses and people had to relocate. The directory contains a listing of trades and professions listed alphabetically by occupation type, an alphabetical street and ward listing, as well as a listing of business advertising cards. In addition to the directory, it contains an Almanac to the city of St. Louis for the year 1850, and a detailed account of many local events of 1849, including the Great Fire and the Asiatic cholera outbreak.
St. Louis County and Town Directory
1901 directory for the businesses, residents, and post offices of St. Louis County, Missouri. The population of St. Louis County was still considerably smaller than the city at this time and many older communities such as Bobring, Centaur, and Gumbo were still in existence decades before their consolidation into later, larger municipalities.
St. Louis Directory of Charitable, Philanthropic, and Humane Societies, 1902
Presenting a brief statement of the special work, location, officers and necessities of the most prominent of such institutions; with a mention of such other organizations as look to public for support. A hand-book for charity workers and a ready reference book for the benevolent public., The digitization of this directory 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.
St. Louis Directory of Charities and Philanthropies, 1905
Presenting a brief statement of the special work, location, officers and necessities of the most prominent of such institutions; with a mention of such other organizations as look to public for support. A hand-book for charity workers and a ready reference book for the benevolent public., The digitization of this directory 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.
St. Louis Directory of Charities and Philanthropies, 1907
Presenting a brief statement of the special work, location, officers and necessities of the most prominent of such institutions; with a mention of such other organizations as look to public for support. A hand-book for charity workers and a ready reference book for the benevolent public., The digitization of this directory 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.
St. Louis Pictorial Advertiser and Illustrated Business Directory, for the Years 1858 and 1859
A business directory distributed to hotels, railroad stations, reading rooms, and steamers for the use of travelers. It pairs descriptions of major cities in the United States with illustrated advertisements for businesses, including St. Louis.
St. Louis Taxpayers' Directory
This directory provides a list of taxpayers in the city of St. Louis for the year 1900 who were assessed at $1,000.00 or over for personal and property taxes. It includes their names, addresses, and assessed taxes.
St. Louis Up To Date
This promotional directory for the year the 1895 features a history of St. Louis, a listing and description of major businesses and industries operating in St. Louis, and photographs of landmarks and buildings.
Stranger's Guide to St. Louis
WHAT TO SEE AND HOW TO SEE IT, IN AND AROUND THE CITY, COMPRISING NOTICES OF EVERY OBJECT OF INTEREST TO STRANGERS INCLUDING public buildings, churches, hotels, public halls, places of amusement and recreation, parks, gardens, libraries, reading rooms, literary institutions, etc., etc., WITH CITY MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Street Railway, Hotel and Park Guide of the City of St. Louis
This is a small pocket-sized street directory for the city of St. Louis. It lists street names alphabetically with their beginning and ending points, street railway lines, ward boundaries, hotels, and parks. While it has no publication date, research suggests that is was published in the late 1880’s, possibly 1888 or 1889.
The Hand-Book of Sedalia Missouri
General history and directory of Sedalia, Missouri from 1882. Includes views and illustrations of public buildings.
The Illustrated Guide of St. Louis
1896 guide book to St. Louis along with descriptions of places and images of buildings.
The Masonic Manual and St. Louis Guide
A handbook produced for visitors to the Knights Templar Triennial Conclave of 1886 hosted in St. Louis, it lists Missouri members of the various Masonic Bodies, has advertisements for Mason supported businesses, and features descriptive guides for many major points of interest in St. Louis, including parks, libraries, sports teams, and buildings.
The Saint Louis of To-Day
Travel guide to St. Louis with an index of businesses and illustrations of buildings in 1888 put together by the Western Commercial Travellers' Association.
The St. Louis Complete Business Directory for 1858
A complete business directory containing a listing and an index of St. Louis businesses for the year 1858 beginning with Agents-Advertising and ending with Wool Dealers.
The St. Louis Directory, for the Years 1836-7
This directory contains advertisements for local businesses and services, historical sketch of the city, business listing, the names, occupations, and addresses of residents, which in some cases are identified as African-American with the abbreviation col'd (colored). Following the listing, this directory provides information related to tariff charges for a number of common goods, city and county officers, postage rates, mail arrival and departure times, exchange rates, insurance prices, and other information related to public institutions and social organizations. It ends with a calendar for 1837.
The Western Metropolis
Description of St. Louis, Missouri in the year 1846 with a historical description and list of residents. There is also an almanac for the year with important dates.
Third Annual Bulletin of the Engineers' Club of St. Louis
This bulletin for the year 1898 contains a program for the club's activities, annual reports, transcripts of addresses given at the annual dinner, library rules and recent additions to the collection, a list of technical publications in other St. Louis libraries, and various other matters including articles, club rules, and past presidents. Additionally, it lists club members, including occupations, addresses, and the date they became a member. The bulletin ends with an advertising directory.
Tracy's Guide to Missouri and St. Louis
Containing: I. A Colored Township Map of Missouri, corrected down to the time of publication. II. A Colored Map of the City of St. Louis, showing the Wards, Lines of Street Railroads, etc. III. A Colored Outline Map, showing the Railroad Connections of St. Louis and the West. IV. Table of Stations, Distances and Connections, for all Railroads leading out of St. Louis, embracing nearly one thousand stations on seventeen Railroads, with a combined length of about four thousand miles. V. Statistics of the counties of Missouri, showing for each county its population, area in acres, assessed value of land, average value per acre, value of real and personal property, number of farms, value of farm products, value of manufactured products, number of schools, children of school age, children attending. VI. List of nearly five hundred cities, towns and villages in Missouri, showing population, number of business houses, with directions for travelers or shippers to reach them most conveniently. VII. Brief sketch of Missouri and St. Louis. VIII. Brief sketch of the Counties of Missouri.
Watson & Co.'s Classified Business Directory of St. Louis and Other Enterprising Cities of Missouri and Illinois, 1899-1900
This directory predominately lists business in the city of St. Louis, but it does contain brief lists of business from cities and towns in the metropolitan area around St. Louis in both Missouri and Illinois., Includes directories for other Illinois cities: Alton, East Saint Louis, Belleville, Murphysboro, Centralia, Vandalia, Edwardsville, Litchfield, Mt. Vernon, DuQuoin, Chester, Sparta, Collinsville, Waterloo, Nashville, Carlyle, Greenville, Salem, Highland, Lebanon, Carbondale, Hillsboro, Virdin, Pinckneyville, Girard, Mt. Olive, Staunton, Ashley, Carlinville, Carrollton, White Hall, Roodhouse,and Jerseyville; also Missouri cities: Saint Charles, DeSoto, Washington, Sainte Genevieve, Kirkwood, and Webster Groves.
Wilson's History and Directory for Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois
Published in 1875, this directory contains a condensed history of Missouri beginning with Spanish settlement in Florida, descriptions of counties, towns, and villages in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois with a listing of their business owners, population figures, distances between towns, and civil officers. It also contains a U.S. legal directory, hotel directory, and brief history and partial business directory of St. Louis.

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Mercantile Library Collections Directory

Mercantile Special Collections Directory

Barriger Library Collections Directory

Barriger Special Collections Directory

Pott Library Collections Directory

Pott Special Collections Directory