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
Quick guide to online St. Louis history resources
Finding Aids by Subject: St. Louis History
The links below describe archive materials at Special Collections, WashU Libraries
- most materials are not online
- access these materials by contacting Special Collections.
- Urban League of St. Louis PapersThe papers of the Urban League of St. Louis is quite a large collection of material. It includes 10 sections (series) that are linked on the above mentioned page.
- Guide to St. Louis Mayor's papersSt. Louis Mayor's papers covering the late 1940s through 1970s are described in more detail on a separate page.
- Joseph Badaracco PapersSt. Louis City Board of Alderman, President (1972-1975)
- Harland Bartholomew & Associates (HBA)Harland Bartholomew and Associates designed city plans for several hundred cities across the United States. The firm's projects in the St. Louis area included the 1920 Comprehensive Plan, the 1932 Major Street Plan, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, and the 1920 Comprehensive Plan for University City.
- Dan Bolef Papers (social activist)The paper's of Professor Bolef (a former WU physicist and social activist) include one section (Series 05) focused on civil rights, and including folders related to Percy Green.
- 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.*
Primary Sources: St. Louis City Directories
What are directories?
- Prior to print telephone books, companies made and sold listings of where people lived (residences) and worked (businesses)
- Most are organized by street name and block. Some have alphabetical lists, or businesses by category.
- Each is slightly different in contents and layout.
- They are a good primary source for tracing changes to the built environment, locating specific people and industries.
- Note: not all directories are available online.
Print from WashU Libraries
- Request books from West Campus Storage for use at Special Collections or the Art and Architecture Library.
- Researchers from outside WashU should contact Special Collections
- Gould's St. Louis (Missouri) city directoryCall Number: F474 S2 A18 (West Campus Oversize)Publication Date: 1881-1905, 1907-1914, 1916, 1918, 1920-1929, 1931-1932, 1935-1936, 1938-1942, 1952
- Gould's St. Louis red-blue book ..., a buyer's guide and a classified business directoryCall Number: F474 S2 A184 (West Campus Oversize)Publication Date: v.1-11 (1918-1928)
- Polk's St. Louis (Missouri) city directoryCall Number: F474 S2 A18 4o (West Campus Oversize)Publication Date: 1955, 1958-1961, 1963-1977
- Haines St. Louis city and county criss-cross directoryCall Number: F474 S23 H342 4o (West Campus Oversize)Publication Date: 1988-1999
St. Louis Newspapers (White predominatly)
Online access (providing wide-span of years)
- Digital Newspapers SHSMOClick "Search Digital Newspapers" for full text access to 30+ newspapers from St. Louis including:
St. Louis Globe-Democrat (1853-1963)
Neighborhood News (1923-1970)
Online, Microfilm and Print Access
Please contact organizations directly for newspapers not from WashU.
- Daily Evening Herald and Commercial Advertiser (1835) Digitalearly newspaper published in St. Louis.
digitized by UMSL Mercantile Library - Evening Whirl Newspaper Collection (circa 1950 - present ) Print @ WUSTL Libraries Special Collections
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St. Louis crime newspaper from circa 1950 - present - Outlaw (1970 - 1973) Print @ WUSTL Library Special Collections"An independent, radical newspaper." Continued in 1973 by Bridge.
- St. Louis Globe-Democrat (1875 to 1888) Full Text Oline
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- St. Louis Globe-Democrat Clipping Files @ UMSL Mercantile LibrarySearchable database of subjects / names. Clippings are not online. Contact UMSL for more information, 314-516-7247
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch (stltoday.com)Online version of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Charge for access to most issues.
- The St. Louis Republic (1900 - 1906) Full Text Oline
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Additional Newspaper sources
- Local Newspapers on Microfilm @ St. Louis County Geneology & History LibraryFor more information contact: genealogy@slcl.org
St. Louis Newspapers (African American predominatly)
Online access (providing wide-span of years)
Full text searching is available for the noted African American newspaper, Chicago Defender, which often covered near-by St. Louis, as well as Midwest and national news.
- Chicago Defender Historical (1910-1975) online
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Search for St. Louis related stories - St. Louis Argus (only 1915- 1926) Digitaldigitized by local historian and made available via Internet Archive
Online, Microfilm and Print Access
Please contact organizations directly for newspapers not from WashU.
- Evening Whirl Newspaper Collection (print) @ WUSTL archives
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St. Louis crime newspaper from circa 1950 - present (available at Special Collections - issues are not online) - Proud (Saint Louis, Mo.) 1970 -1985 Print (bound volumes) @ Webster UniversityContact: Webster University Library for more information (314) 968-6950
- St. Louis American 1951 – 1978 Microfilm @ Missouri History MuseumContact: Missouri History Museum Library & Research Center, 225 S. Skinker (across from Forest Park), St. Louis, Missouri, (314) 746-4500
- St. Louis Argus 1915 – 1997 Microfilm @ MO State Historical SocietyReels of microfilm can be requested via ILL for use in Olin Library. See pages 212 - 215 of the linked list to determine the reel number for your request.
- St. Louis Argus 1954 -1982 Microfilm @ WUSTL Olin Library1954:Oct.8 -1954:Nov.5 mid issue -1955:Nov.11mid issue, 1955:Nov.11-1955:Dec., 1956:Apr.13-1969:Oct.17,
1970:Mar.-Dec., 1971-1972, 1973:Mar.8-Dec.27,
1974-1982 - St. Louis Metro Sentinel. 1971 – Microfilm @ Missouri History MuseumContact: Missouri History Museum Library & Research Center, 225 S. Skinker (across from Forest Park), St. Louis, Missouri, (314) 746-4500
- St. Louis Palladium 1903 - 1907 Microfilm @ Missouri History MuseumContact: Missouri History Museum Library & Research Center, 225 S. Skinker (across from Forest Park), St. Louis, Missouri, (314) 746-4500
Books: African-American History in St. Louis
The Last Children of Mill Creek by Call Number: ebookISBN: 1948742799Publication Date: 2020-04-20Vivian Gibson grew up in Mill Creek, a neighborhood of St. Louis razed in 1955 to build a highway. Her family, friends, church community, and neighbors were all displaced by urban renewal. In this moving memoir, Gibson recreates the every day lived experiences of her family, including her college-educated mother, who moved to St. Louis as part of the Great Migration, her friends, shop owners, teachers, and others who made Mill Creek into a warm, tight-knit, African-American community, and reflects upon what it means that Mill Creek was destroyed by racism and "urban renewal."
Ain't but a place : an anthology of African American writings about St. Louis by Call Number: F474.S29 N423 1998 (Olin3 & Archives)
Lift Every Voice and Sing by Call Number: F474.S29 N454 1999 (Olin3 & Archives)Publication Date: 1999
Discovering African-American St. Louis : a guide to historic sites by Call Number: F474.S29 N485 1994Several copies may be checked out from the Library. Archives copy does not circulate.
The civil rights movement in St. Louis, 1954-1970 : a socio-historical perspective by Call Number: LD5791.8.AB80 H46 (Archives Reference)Thesis written in 1980
Groping toward democracy: African American social welfare reform in St. Louis, 1910-1949 by Call Number: F474.S29 N4345 2011 (Olin L3 and Archives)
The negro standard of living in St. Louis 1932 by Call Number: LD5791.8 MS32 B648 (Archives)
At the elbows of my elders : one family's journey toward civil rights by Call Number: F474.S29 N435 2008 (Olin L3)
Behind ghetto walls; Black families in a federal slum by Call Number: E185.86 R29 (Olin )
Selected neighbors and neighborhoods of North Saint Louis and selected related events by Call Number: F474 S26 N67 1988Publication Date: 1988Includes "five categories of the black experience in St. Louis: businesses, churches and religions, significant events, housing, and personalities." Written as expansion to 1974 booklet "The Ville" and Friends of Vaugn Cultural Center black history bus tour "Tour and Taste, St. Louis."
Books on St. Louis History
The Broken Heart of America by ISBN: 9781541646063Publication Date: 2020-04-14A searing portrait of the racial dynamics that lie inescapably at the heart of our nation, told through the turbulent history of the city of St. Louis. From Lewis and Clark's 1804 expedition to the 2014 uprising in Ferguson, American history has been made in St. Louis. And as Walter Johnson shows in this searing book, the city exemplifies how imperialism, racism, and capitalism have persistently entwined to corrupt the nation's past. St. Louis was a staging post for Indian removal and imperial expansion, and its wealth grew on the backs of its poor black residents, from slavery through redlining and urban renewal. But it was once also America's most radical city, home to anti-capitalist immigrants, the Civil War's first general emancipation, and the nation's first general strike -- a legacy of resistance that endures. A blistering history of a city's rise and decline, The Broken Heart of America will forever change how we think about the United States.
St. Louis and Empire by 
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Call Number: ebookISBN: 9780809333967Publication Date: 2015In this pioneering study, Henry W. Berger analyzes St. Louis's imperial engagement from its founding in 1764 to the present day, revealing the intersection of local political, cultural, and economic interests in foreign affairs.
Lion of the valley : St. Louis, Missouri, 1764-1980 by Call Number: F474.S257 P75 1998The go-to book for St. Louis history -- if you have trouble getting a library copy check GoogleBooks
http://books.google.com/books
In her place : a guide to St. Louis women's history by Call Number: HQ1439.S87 C67 1999Great context for local history - copies in Olin and Archives, and read full text on GoogleBooks
Where we live : a guide to St. Louis communities by Call Number: F474 S23 W48 1995 (Olin & Archives)- Down By the Gravois: Photography of Richard Gruss, South St. Louis 1900 through the 1920s byCall Number: F474 S2 G85Publication Date: 1976From original glass negatives; includes people, houses, neighborhoods, World War I, funerals and cemeteries from the Bevo Mill neighborhood.
- The homeless woman : [a study of dependency among unattached women] by Call Number: LD5791.8 PhD32 H316 (West C)Publication Date: 1932A study of women in St. Louis during the Greta Depression, including interviews and surveys of black women and while women. Includes maps and population charts.
- History of Grace Hill House, St. Louis, Missouri, 1917-1944. byCall Number: ArchivesCovering the history of a local Settlement House on the North side of St. Louis. The archival records for Grace Hill House are at UMSL, see http://www.umsl.edu/~whmc/guides/whm0554.htm
for more details. - Who's who in North St. Louis byCall Number: F474 S2 W6 40 (Archives Reference)
- The history and growth of St. Louis County, Missouri byCall Number: F472 S3 C62 (multiple years)Publication Date: 1965, 1968, 1969, 1974Includes statistics, municipality data, and maps.
Bookshelf: St. Louis Chinese-American Community
Chinese St. Louis: from enclave to cultural community by Call Number: F474.S29 C55 2004 (Olin3)
Chinese in St. Louis, 1857-2007 (Pictoral history) by Call Number: Request via MOBIUS system
Asian American children : a historical handbook and guide by Call Number: E184.A75 A8256 2004 (Olin3)Includes "Growing up in "hop alley" : Chinese American youth in St. Louis during the early twentieth century" by Huping Ling
Chinatown : place and memory : a case study of St. Louis' Chinatown by Call Number: LD5791.8 MArch&UD91 A92 (West Campus GenStacks)Thesis --Washington University, 1991. School of Architecture
Where we live : a guide to St. Louis communities by Call Number: F474 S23 W48 1995 (Archives & Art Library)See page 13 for entry about Chinatown
East St. Louis History
Made in USA : East St. Louis : the rise and fall of an industrial river town by ISBN: 189144221XPublication Date: 2003Includes useful references to sources on pages 225 - 230. Includes area surrounding East St. Louis, including Monsanto, Illinois.- Made in USA [videorecording] : the East St. Louis storyPublication Date: 2003"This chronicle of East St. Louis' colorful and controversial past provides a key to understanding the challenges and the hope that can still be found in today's community"
- Vice Squad by Publication Date: 1973-01-01Written by a former resident and police officer, the first chapter includes recollections about East St. Louis and Monsanto, Illinois.
More Resources
Need Citation help?
Some information is on-line for citing in Chicago Manual format:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
Or, try this handy guide book:
A pocket guide to writing in history by Call Number: D13 .R295 2004 (Olin Level 3)