Become a Member of the City's Oldest Cultural Treasure-Trove!
Don't miss your chance to make a difference:
Envision a glass pyramid rising above a brilliant collection of Western Americana. The location is not the Louvre in Paris, but on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The collection is that of the St. Louis Mercantile Library, now in its 160th year an thus the oldest cultural institution in continuous operation in St. Louis, serving, literally, the world, and you.
Part library and part museum, the Mercantile offers something for everyone. Early documents written in French describe the beginning of our city. The rich history of the west is appropriately enshrined her in the city which developed this great part of America. The Barriger Collection serves railroad buffs and serious railroad historical scholarship with its broad-based holdings, the largest in the United States. The Pott Library holds the treasured resources of the American waterways for those studying our great river history. The Woodcock Collection, a "mini museum" of Western art with its own website, adds luster to the Mercantile's holding of art, the first collected for public viewing in Missouri.
The
Mercantile houses the St. Louis Globe-Democrat clipping and photo morgue
and all of the first runs and official file copies of the Post Dispatch.
Copies of these newpapers' predecessors are also in the collection, making
the Mercantile a veritable time machine for St. Louis' past heritage.
We house the photo and film archives of Trans World Airlines, as well
as many other corporate and private papers. The wonderful paintings and
sculpture, as well as maps, prints, and historic charts, all seem to pale
beside perhaps the Mercantile's greatest single work of art, the complete
first edition double elephant folio of John James Audubon's The Birds
of America, the only copy signed by the artist, with hand colored prints
selected for binding by the great woodsman himself. New collections such
as that of the Feldacker Labor Art holdings frequently come our way and
are presented in fresh programs for our members and the public at large.
Perhaps you remember when the Mercantile Library when it was located in the old downtown business district. As you may know we affiliated with the University just a few years ago and our splendid facility in a park like setting is located just twelve minutes from Clayton via the Innerbelt or Hanley Road to Natural Bridge. Our Board of Direction has become an auxiliary board with the challenging and proud responsibility and trust supporting the Mercantile Library and its collections. We hope to raise awareness of, and friends and funds for our beloved institution.
That is where you come in! Won't you please join us; come visit us; attend our Lunch and Lecture series; and come to the opening of our frequent exhibitions and other special events, often specially designed for our supporters. We have plans for reception for new members in conjunction with events at the fabulous new Touhill Performing Arts Center, a stone's throw from the Mercantile, during the coming academic year. We'd love to see you there as well.
The Mercantile Library represents the best of the old and the new. Of late we may be better known and appreciated nationally and even internationally, but the Mercantile has never forgotten its proud local roots and heritage and seeks St. Louisans who want to be part of this tradition. Let's support a part of the city's greatest intellectual and cultural legacy in the process of helping the Mercantile become better known, once again, locally. So, please support the library with your membership.
MEMBERSHIPS
Anyone can become a member of the St. Louis Mercantile Library. All members and their immediate families receive the General Membership benefits. Each membership level receives other special benefits.
Friends of the Mercantile Library (General Membership) ($45)
General members and their immediate families receive:
- Subscriptions to the annual New Books and the Library's newsletter, the Mercantile Library News
- Discounts on research and photoduplication services.
- Discounts on most programs including the Library's popular Lunch & Lecture series.
- Full privileges to borrow books both from the Mercantile and the University of Missouri's Thomas Jefferson Library. Members may also utilize our interlibrary loan services.
Benefactors of Art ($75)
Bixby Book Club ($125)
The Library created this special club for both book lovers and collectors alike. Each year the Bixby Book Club sponsors events focusing on book collecting, book and manuscript preservation, and reading. Named after one of St. Louis' most noted bibliophiles, William K. Bixby, the Bixby Book Club offers members exclusive invitations to private events and special "bookish" gatherings.
Yeatman Society ($250)
Yeatman Society members will also receive recognition on the Library's List of Distinguished Donors, displayed in the foyer of the Mercantile Library.
Pillars($500)
Pillars also will be invited to special breakfast discussions with selected Lunch & Lecture speakers. These breakfasts at the Library will provide a special opportunity to meet and talk with some of the finest speakers we have to offer to St. Louis audiences during the calendar year.
Pierre Laclede Society ($1000.00)
Pierre Laclede Society members also receive special name recognition in the Mercantile Library, and special University benefits and additional recognition.
John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library
The Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library