Primary Sources available at Special Collections
This guide contains an overview of archive collections in the WashU Libraries Department of Special Collections that include primary sources broadly related to to the topic of prisons and incarceration. Most are focused on St. Louis and/or Missouri, with some national coverage.
Access collections at Special Collections, Olin Library 1st floor. Click each title for more information:
- ACLU-MO Records (WUA00355) 1930-2018
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Contains extensive files on prison reform efforts and legal actions; prisoner's rights; jail standards, state penitentiary system; St. Louis workhouse / Medium Security facility.
NOTE: Files 30 year or newer require advance permission of the ACLU-MO before use, for protection of confidential/private information. - Evening Whirl Newspaper Collection
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St. Louis crime newspaper from circa 1950 - 2018. Includes violent/gun crime, drug related crime, and announcements of arrests. Coverage includes city, county and metro area, with particular focus on African American community topics - Urban League of St. Louis Records (WUA00368), 1923-1969
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See especially files in Series 2, Box 8, on crime, parole and probation. - Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Collection
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See Series 2 for unusual pamphlets and publications for anti-war publications from independent newspapers in the USA (most dating from the 1960s and 1970s) including:
Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide by Michael "Cetewayo" Tabor (S2B1)
Drugs: Enslaver - Not Liberator! (S2B12)
Racism in Federal Prison by Jim Wessner (S2B3) - William Greenleaf Eliot PapersEliot, a Unitarian Minister, co-founded Washington University and was involved in many 19th century reform efforts. In his 1875-76 personal journal he discusses becoming a member of the National Prison Association. See also Series 5 for a newspaper article by Eliot, "Prison Reform, 1874"
- City of St. Louis, Office of the Mayor: Raymond R. Tucker Records (WUA00336) 1953-65
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Search terms: Workhouse, Jail, Probation, Parole - City of St. Louis, Office of the Mayor: Alfonso J. Cervantes Records (WUA00358), 1965-1973
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Search terms: Jail, Workhouse - City of St. Louis, Office of the Mayor: John H. Poelker Records (WUA00119), 1973-1977
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Search terms: Jail, Workhouse - City of St. Louis, Office of the Mayor: John H. Poelker Records (WUA00119), 1973-1977
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Search terms: Jail, Workhouse
Contact Special Collections to request access to these audio / visual recordings:
- Assembly Series Recordings*Stephen Bright, Crime, Prison and the Death Penalty: The Influence of Race and Poverty, November 2, 2005
*John Chisolm and Roland Simpson-Bey, Redefining Justice In America, September 25, 2015
*Rebecca Ginsburg, Why Universities Should Be in Prisons, September 24, 2015
*Jennifer Eberhardt, Visual Attention and Racial Bias in Policing and Criminal Justice, October 9, 2015 - Eyes on the Prize: America at the Racial Crossroads (FMA0002e) 1965–1985Includes research on federal prisons and Attica Prison Riot.