Contact Info
Archive, Manuscript & Rare Book collections are accessed in Olin Library at the Special Collections reading room.
HOURS: Monday - Friday 9:00-5:00 by appointment
LOCATION: Olin Library, 1st floor, Danforth Campus
REQUESTS / APPOINTMENTS: 314-935-5495 spec@wumail.wustl.edu
*collections stored offsite require advance notice for retrieval and use
Questions about a specific topic? Contact:
University Archives: Sonya Rooney
Rare Books: Cassie Brand
Manuscript: Joel Minor
Local History: Miranda Rectenwald
Dowd Illustration Research Archive: interim curator
Film & Media Archive: Andy Uhrich
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 "Race and Drugs in American History." Topics include alcohol, temperance efforts, tobacco, smoking, marijuana, hard drugs, criminal justice, national politics, and more.
- Evening Whirl Newspaper Collection
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St. Louis crime newspaper from circa 1950 - present. Includes violent crime, drug related crime, and other community event. Coverage includes city, county and metro area, with particular focus on African American community topics - WUSTL Yearbooks (list of years available)The Book and a Yearbag [1969-70] and Pandora’s Box [1970-71] include large sections that discuss drug-use on campus.
The 1934-35 yearbook especially included several full-page color cigarette ads. Also "smoker" social events are listed in various early yearbooks (pre-1930s) - Other Student Publications (list of titles and years)
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See especially:
"The Dirge" - a campus humor magazine published from 1919 - 1934 included many tobacco ads, and some jokes about smoking / tobacco use and "Eliot" - a general interest campus magazine published from 1939 - 1947 included many tobacco ads, including many in full color - Urban League of St. Louis Records (WUA00368), 1923-1969
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See especially:
Series 2, Box 1, Folder 18: Alcoholics Anonymous, 1962 - 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)
Vibrations: Drug Survival News, Vol. 2, No. 4 (S2B3)
Drugs: Enslaver - Not Liberator! (S2B12) - William Greenleaf Eliot PapersEliot, a Unitarian Minister, co-founded Washington University and was involved in many 19th century reform efforts including the abolition of slavery, ending prostitution, and the (anti-alcohol) temperance movement.
- City of St. Louis, Office of the Mayor: Raymond R. Tucker Records (WUA00336)
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Search terms: Excise Commission, Liquor, Malcolm Bliss Alcoholic Treatment Center - City of St. Louis, Office of the Mayor: Alfonso J. Cervantes Records (WUA00358), 1965-1973See: Series 1, Box 18, folder Narcotics and Drug Abuse - Task Force Report, [1965-1969]
Also Search term: Alcoholism - City of St. Louis, Office of the Mayor: John H. Poelker Records (WUA00119), 1973-1977Search terms: Public Safety - Excise Commission, Alcoholism
- City of St. Louis, Office of the Mayor: John H. Poelker Records (WUA00119), 1973-1977
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Series 1
Box 20 Folder 1: St. Louis Drug Abuse Coordinating Council (SLADACC), October 1974
Box 22 Folder 1: East-West Gateway Coordinating Council / St. Louis Area Drug Abuse Coordinating Council, 1974-1975
Box 68 Folder 4: St. Louis Drug Abuse Coordinating Council, January 1976
Box 86 Folder 23: Drug Abuse - Clippings, April 1973 - City of St. Louis, Executive Secretary to the Mayor: A.J. Wilson Records (WUA00369), 1970-1976
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See Box 11, St. Louis Area Drug Abuse Coordinating Council (SLADACC) - 1974-1976
- Karl S. Kaltenthaler Comic Books and Zines Collection (MGHL00015)
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Includes titles such as:
Captain America Goes to War against Drugs 1, 1990 (Marvel)
Cocaine Comix 1-4, 1980-1982 (Last Gasp)
Online Primary Sources
- America in Protest: Records of Anti-Vietnam War Organizations, The Vietnam Veterans Against the War (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new windowFBI reports dealing with antiwar work carried out by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), and their surveillance of antiwar student groups and Communist organizations. Contains over 20,000 pages between 1967-1975.
Smoking and Health @ School of Medicine Archives
A smoking machine used by Dr. Evarts Graham, of the WU School of Medicine, to test cancer risks in mice.
(Cover image from 1954 Alumni Bulletin)
- Dr Evarts A. Graham's papers are archived at the School of MedicineThis archival collection is located at the Bernard Becker Library, 7th floor, School of Medicine campus. Contact the Becker Archive to learn more.