M-111: John Mason Peck Collection

This collection brings together works collected and produced by the Baptist missionary John Mason Peck. Peck founded many of the first Protestant churches and organizations in the St. Louis area, and he held deep connections throughout the continent tied to social issues of temperance, abolition, and education during the time known as the Second Great Awakening. The collection covers Peck's many educational endeavors and comprises an excellent picture of a frontier intellectual's interests through the cultivation of a rare and extant mid-nineteenth century personal library. His collection contains some of the earliest known copies of many Illinois newspapers as well as many other rare frontier Midwestern imprints. The collection holds original manuscripts and ledgers on such subjects as the development of Rockspring Theological Seminary, the first institution of higher education in Illinois, as well as important annotations and manuscript commentaries throughout. Most of this working library was composed of books from Peck's adult life, many of which are excessively rare today, and dates concentrate from the 1820s through the mid-nineteenth century.
St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis
John Mason Peck Book Collection
The books series of the John Mason Peck collection represent the holdings of Peck's personal library.
M-111 Series 2: Other Pamphlets
The bequest of Peck's Library must have been a great boon to the Mercantile in the 1850's, a time of rapid growth and collection development. The Reference Librarian of the Mercantile Library of 1940 and 1950, Elizabeth Tindell, and Elizabeth Kirchner, Head Librarian from 1965-1986, both have recently commented, on being interviewed, that various bound pamphlet volumes were almost entirely composed of Peck-owned titles. These materials were examined in the process of constructing this list of Other Pamphlets. Many of these materials fall within date ranges and possess remnants of trimmed or complete, untrimmed Peck signatures and other inscriptions, as well as previous pamphlet numbering marks in what reasonably appear to be Peck's hand. These materials, as Appendix 1 materials, await full bibliographic description and comparison studies for further verification of provenance, but have been included based on internal C1 evidence and careful hypothesis, now, as part of the original Peck bequest. Each is arranged alphabetically by the first important word of the title or creating organization and numbered consecutively. This number is carried over to the first leaf of text (verso) and the non-acidic enclosure are housed in boxed groupings. These pamphlets were bound with a few non-Peck related items (i.e. those dated after 1858 have been removed; these had been added at binding for their related content, obviously.)
M-111, Series 1: Baptist Pamphlet Collection
Historically, the Mercantile Library had several bound volumes of "Baptist Pamphlets" which were initially part of John Mason Peck's library but catalogued together under one call number. These volumes have been disbound and each pamphlet put in a separate, non-acidic enclosure. A number has been added to an alphabetical arrangement. The list is roughly arranged alphabetically by the first important word of the Church, benevolent Society, or other organization's title or name concerned.
The Principles and Tendencies of Democracy
John Mason Peck's musings on the elementary principles of democracy, given at the Belleville, Illinois, Courthouse, on the 63rd anniversary of the independence of the United States, July 4th 1839.

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