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
Modern Graphic History Library: Skye Lacerte
Film & Media Archive: Andy Uhrich
Social Justice & 19th Century Unitarian Church
Reverend William Greenleaf Eliot, a Unitarian Minister, co-founded Washington University and was involved in many reform efforts including:
- Abolition and Emancipation
- Women's Rights (voting, education, equality, against prostitution)
- Laborer's Rights
- Temperance Advocate (anti-alcohol)
Reverand Eliot's personal notebooks, correspondence, sermons, articles, phootgraphs, and more available to resarchers at University Archives.
For more information about the collection, and links to documents accessible on-line, see:
Social Justice: Equality and Civil Rights
Finding aids to materials in WU Special Collections:
- ACLU of Eastern MissouriThe ACLU of Missouri has placed their archives at Washington University. In numerous cases the ACLU-MO worked on topics related to religion and civil rights. *Some materials in this collection are restricted, and Archive staff can help you with this if there are materials you would want to see.*
- SCAN ScrapbookStudent Committee for the Admission of Negroes (SCAN) scrapbook detail the activities of SCAN as they sought to persuade the Washington University administration to allow African American students admission to undergraduate studies.
Religion and LGBTQ Rights
Finding aids to materials in WU Special Collections:
- Tom and Audrey Miles PapersTom Miles and his wife Audrey Miles were activists for LGBTQ rights. Included in their records are are full issues of Bondings, a publication dedicated to positive relations between the Catholic Church and the LGBT community. Correspondence captured includes e-mails discussing the removal of a priest from Miles' church, PFLAG (St. Louis Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and other LGBT activism.
- St. Louis LGBTQ+ Research Collection (WUA00438)Includes local and national periodicals, conference and task force publications, buttons, t-shirts, photographs, and posters related to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community of Greater St. Louis. Includes some periodicals from Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis.
Social Justice: Housing and Social Welfare
Finding aid to materials in WU Special Collections:
- Delmo Housing Corporation Records(Southeast Missouri "bootheel" region - sharecropping, flood control, farming, New Deal policies, and more)
- Social Work: Pumphrey PapersMuriel and Ralph Pumphrey were former WUSTL Social Work professors who studied the history of Social Work and Social Services extensively. Their collection includes many subjects, and includes publications from United Church of Christ.
Social Justice: Science & Religion
Finding aid to materials in University Archives:
- Arthur Holly Compton PapersCompton was a Nobel prize-winning physics professor and WU Chancellor (1945 - 1953). In December 1949 he was one of several University chancellors who attended the "India-America Relations Conference" in New Delhi, India. In 1950 Compton presided over an assembly at UNESCO House in Paris to create the "World Brotherhood" organization, in cooperation with the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
See folders in Series 02, Box 13 for documents related to these programs, including conference agendas, speeches, travel documents, and so on. Also included are various publications collected by Compton, dating from circa 1945-1956 related to India, Pakistan, and the region, such as "Report on the Session of the 1st Conference for the Indian National Commission for Co-operation with UNESCO, April 9-10, 1949.
Social Justice: Protesting war and the draft
- Dan Bolef Papers (social activist)The paper's of Professor Bolef (a former WU physicist and social activist) includes activism against the Vietnam War and related US military draft (See Series 6 and 7). Includes publications by American Friends Service Committee, and other religious groups opposed to the war.
On-Line Primary Sources
Full-Text Databases:(Requires WUSTL log-in if accessed off campus):
- Archives Unbound: America in Protest: Records of Anti-Vietnam War Organizations, The Vietnam Veterans Against the WarFull-text. 'The Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) started in 1967 with six Vietnam veterans marching for peace. This publication consists of FBI reports dealing with every aspect of antiwar work carried out by the VVAW. The collection also includes surveillance on a variety of other antiwar groups and individuals, with an emphasis on student groups and Communist organizations.' (from database homepage)
Full-text materials available from various sources, freely available:
- House of Bethany Journal (Christian women service - Civil War era St. Louis)Lindenwood University Archives
Secondary Sources: Religion and Social Justice
Available from WU Libraries:
Movers and shakers, scalawags and suffragettes : tales from Bellefontaine Cemetery by Call Number: F474.S262 B457 2008- Seasons of change : reflections on a half century at Saint Louis University byCall Number: LD4817.S517 R45 1996
- Discovering African-American St. Louis : a guide to historic sites byCall Number: F474.S29 N485 2002
Victory without violence : the first ten years of the St. Louis Committee of Racial Equality (CORE), 1947-1957 by Call Number: F474.S29 N45 2000- Partners with God: Arthur Holly Compton and the moral leadership of science byCall Number: LD5791.8.AB86 C37 (Archives Ref)
- The Vietnam War : Christian perspectives byCall Number: DS557.A68 V5