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.
St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis

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M-001: John Quincy Adams Letter
This letter, by former President John Quincy Adams, is in response to a request by the Mechanical Library Association of Baltimore for Adam’s to speak at their facility at some future date. This association was connected to and an outgrowth of the Baltimore volunteer Mechanical Fire Company, formed by the company for member’s self education. Adams is informing them that he will not be able to speak at the Association’s venue on the date requested. For a full description see the collection page.
M-006: John Bell Letter
John Bell was an American statesman, a U.S. Senator from Tennessee. This letter is written to Rolfe Saunders, Tennessee, concerning legislation.
M-008 Thomas Hart Benton Collection
Created by Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858); early senator from Missouri who served six terms equaling thirty years in office. Included are the handwritten lecture, "Progress of the Age," delivered at the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association, 1850; 1 letter from 1829; and 2 letters from 1858, one from J.B. Brant concerning Benton's health. Senator Benton was among the first of many illustrious figures to speak at the St. Louis Mercantile Library on November 14, 1850. This particular speech, presented to the Library by Senator Benton, himself, and several letters make up the Mercantile's small collection of primary materials by or concerning Thomas Hart Benton
M-010: Augustus A. Blumenthal Letter
The St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad Company To Augustus A. Blumenthal Dr. 1864 October 1st To have my --- Time, thru there carelessness demolished and to totaly destroyed and my driver killd. ----- $200.00 To Dr. Karnsby ---- attendens on the man runnet over $10.00 To Dr. Starkloff for the same $10.00 $220.00 my Attorney John N. Stra-t is hereby authorized to recipt this Bill in my name Aug. A. Blumenthal
M-011: Daniel Boone Letter
Letter to Colonel William Cristen concerning plots of land., Reproduction of original letter dated 1785-08-23.
M-012 Botts, John
One letter, autographed, signed, and dated 26 January, 1867, from John Botts; American congressman, lawyer, and author. Leader in the Whig party, called to Washington by Henry Clay to aid in the Constitutional Compromise of 1850.
M-013 Maryland Land Grant
Royal land grant to Richard Brooks pertaining to 22 acres in Maryland.
M-015: William Cullen Bryant
American poet and newspaper editor William Cullen Bryant wrote this letter to S. N. Holliday, Esquire, concerning the poem "Thanatopsis".
M-016: Buchanan, James
Letter to A. C. Cazenove, Esq. concerning Nicolas Basler, by James Buchanan., 1.0 Comments: James Buchanan (1791-1868) was the 15th President of the United States (1857-1861). He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor, and the last president born in the 18th century. He was a U.S. Congressman and Senator for Pennsylvania and later served as Minister to Russia under Andrew Jackson. Buchanan was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in 1844. He became Secretary of State under President James K. Polk (March 1845 - March 1849 - through all of Polk’s Presidency). The two most important international events during his tenure was the settling of the Oregon Territory boundary with Canada and the Mexican War (1846-1848). (This is the period in which this letter was written.) After he turned down an offer for an appointment to the Supreme Court, President Franklin Pierce appointed him minister to the Court of St. James's. Buchanan was nominated and elected President in 1856. He was viewed as a compromise between the two sides of the slavery question. His election victory took place in a three-man race with John C. Fremont and Millard Fillmore. As President, he was often called a "doughface", a Northerner with Southern sympathies. He battled with Stephen A. Douglas for the control of the Democratic Party. Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides, and the Southern states ultimately declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War in December of 1860 in the last days of his presidency.
M-021: Henry G. A. Caspers Journal
Henry G.A. Caspers was corporal, later promoted to sergeant, in the artillery company of Capt. Fischer, organized in St. Louis, Missouri. At Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, the company was mustered into the service of Col. Kearney. Most of Casper's military service was served in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico, during the time of the Mexican War. This journal dates from June 13, 1846 - December 1848. Caspers included lists of company members; duties and battles; plus references to Col. Doniphan's victory at Chihuahua, Mexico; General Kearney's march to California; and the murders of Santa Fe Governor Bent in Taos, New Mexico., 1 small leather-bound, handwritten volume. 34 pp.
M-022: August Chouteau Journal
Auguste Chouteau (1749-1829), one of the founders of St. Louis, Missouri, was also a fur trader, territorial judge, and patriarch of the most influential French family in early St. Louis history. Written in English, Spanish, and French, the documents relate to exclusive trading rights among the Osage, including receipts; relationship between the Spanish and Chouteau; and treaty of peace with Great Britain and suppression of Indian hostilities. The journal is a fragment of Chouteau's "Narrative of the Settlement of St. Louis." It is the only eyewitness documentation on the activities surrounding the founding of St. Louis. A literal translation from the original manuscript by J. Givin Brown and J. Wilmer Stith was published by the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association in 1857 in the 12th Annual Report and again in 1989., 1 journal ca. 1810-1820, unsigned but in Chouteau's handwriting on ledger paper, 14pp. [in French]
M-023: Henry Clay Letters
Two letters written by Henry Clay, American Statesman, Speaker of the House of Representatives and a U. S. Senator from Kentucky. The letters concern peace with Great Britain and cholera.
M-051: Thomas Jefferson Collection
This collection consists of two pieces of correspondence by Thomas Jefferson, former President of the United States.
M-058: Little Shield Sketchbook
This series of sketches, a visual autobiography of "Little Shield, Chief of the Arrapohas," shows his exploits of valor and historical enemies in pictographic form. Little Shield's figure is riding a horse into battle in each sketch. This journal is one of the earliest extant examples of Plains Indian ledger art, this series of sketches was created by Little Shield, an Arapaho Chieftain, who recorded his own exploits in a pictorial journal sometime in the 1860s. The work contains 23 pencil sketches, colored on lined tablet paper.
M-060 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
One letter, autograph letter signed, dated 25 November 1878 from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1887-1882) 19th century American Poet, to a Miss Whiting concerning literary references.
M-069: Osceola Poem
This manuscript poem, written by Osceola, a Seminole Indian Tribe Leader (1804-1838) was written to Mr. Wilson Price Hunt.
M-078: Quincy Library [Illinois] 1841-1857
Handwritten record of books purchased by Quincy Library [Illinois], date and price, 1841-1857.
M-121 Early American Sheet Music Collection
The collection dates from the 1840s through ca.1875, and includes numerous local pieces, as well as many St. Louis and regional imprints. Many pieces include color engravings and color lithographs for covers that depict various aspects of the American scene and life in the nineteenth century. EXTENT: Approximately 1000 pieces. HISTORY & PROVENANCE: For many years in the nineteenth century, the Mercantile Library promoted concerts and other musical performances in its auditorium, and the earliest collections of music stem from the need for reference copies for such performances. The collection gradually grew and was bound into indexed volumes of songs and other scores. The collection continues to grow to this day through donation.
M-172: John O'Fallon Letter
One letter, dated May 2, 1828, to the Honorable James Barbour, regarding the recommendation of Thomas McNight for the appointment of superintendent of the Upper Lead Mines.
M-306: Early Account of Pearl Harbor Bombing
This typescript is one of the first detailed accounts of the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The account was written on December 8, 1941 by the Commanding Officer of the Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay to the Commandant of the Fourteenth Naval District, and then forwarded on to "All Stations, Ships, and Units Concerned with Aircraft" on December 16th.
M-313 Rev. John B. Meachum Collection
M-355: Thomas T. Kerslake Overland Journal from Canada to New Zealand
Thomas T. Kerslake writes of his travels from Ontario, Canada to New Zealand in 1877. He leaves Plattsville, Ontario, Canada on September 29, 1877. Traveling across the United States by rail, he gives accounts of large and small cities (Chicago, Des Moines, Council Bluffs, Omaha, Promontory Point, San Francisco) and of the landscape and wild life on the plains and the Mississippi River. At San Francisco he boards the boat "City of Sydney" sailing across the Pacific Ocean, stopping in the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands before landing in Wellington, New Zealand in early November 1877.
M-365: Latta-Hord Laundry Company Photograph
This collection consists of a single photograph purchased from Ian Brabner Rare Americana. It's a circa 1909 photograph of the Latta-Hord Laundry Company in St. Louis, Missouri. The building has clean new signs advertising "We Want Your Work". The company's employees include various women posed together at the corner of the building and men who stand to the sides next to the company's horse-drawn carriages. Others peer out of the second story windows.
M-366: Savanna, Illinois Town View
This collection consists of a single photograph purchased from Ian Brabner Rare Americana. It's a circa 1910 photograph of the town of Savanna, Illinois.
M-368: Ronald Reagan "A Time for Choosing"
This early draft of Reagan's speech, "A Time for Choosing" is a signed mimeographed manuscript, 12 pages in length. The speech contains five annotations and deletions by Reagan. Although the final version of "A Time for Choosing" was given on October 27, 1964, this earlier draft was created sometime in 1963. The draft bears little similarity to the final version, although Reagan's small government philosophy is on display in this draft.
M-369: Manuscript Cookbooks Collection
This collection contains manuscript works about cooking, including recipes and tipped-in content about homemaking., The preferred citation for this collection is "From the collections of the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri - St. Louis."
M-370: German Sisters Captivity Letter
This retained manuscript copy of an autograph letter by Thomas Neill to the sisters Sophia and Catherine German, was an attempt to secure their release from Cheyenne Indians that had captured the girls., John and Lydia German, as well as their seven children, were moving by wagon via the Smoky Hill Trail to Colorado when they were attacked by a hostile Cheyenne war party. Both parents and three of the seven children were killed and scalped. Four girls were taken captive. The two youngest girls, Addie and Julie, aged 5 and 7 respectively, were rescued in a military raid in November 1874. After the rescue of the two youngest girls, a letter was written, addressed to Sophia, aged 12, and Catherine, aged 17, by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Neill. The letter advised the sisters to read it Grey-Beard or Stone-Calf to secure the sister's release and for the Cheyennes to submit themselves to the mercy of the government. The sisters were rescued in March 1875 and reunited with their sisters at Fort Leavenworth.
M-380: Franz Liszt Score of Hungarian March
Hungarian March for orchestra composed for the coronation of Francis Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, as King of Hungary in 1867

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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