Important Note: Please consult our reference room staff regarding collections access and scheduling a visit. 

Special Collections Directory

Library Catalog Guest Access

 

Established in 1846 by civic leaders and philanthropists, the Mercantile exists today as a vibrant community and cultural asset. It is the oldest library west of the Mississippi and the grandparent of all cultural institutions in St. Louis.

Everyone is welcome to use the Mercantile Library collections. Some of our patrons include historians and other academic scholars, marketing and public relations firms, film producers and photographs, exhibits specialists, news media, textbook publishers, waterways industry, museum staff, attorney's development personnel, government and law enforcement agencies, railroad industry, librarians, genealogists, secondary school students, college students, educators, authors, and accountants.

 

Collecting Mission: The task of the Mercantile Library as a research library is to make its collections, which have come to concentrate on Western Expansion and the history, development, and growth of the St. Louis region and of the American rail and river transportation experiences, available to the widest number of local and national users.

 

Scope of Collections: The Mercantile Library possesses broad primary and secondary research collections of material related to various American studies subjects. Some subjects, particularly Western Americana, have been collected in extensive depth. The collection also contains broadly developed subjects related to the general humanities, including history, world travel, and exploration, the social sciences, and the history of the natural sciences and technology

 

Synopsis: The collections may be grouped into six major divisions.

  • The General (Core) Collection contains 210,000 books on the subjects outlined above.

  • The Barriger Collection focuses on American Railroad history and is currently distinguished as one of the largest railroad libraries in the United States, with 40,000 books plus primary manuscript documents and photographs.

  • The Pott Waterways Collection focuses on United States river and inland waterways history, and contains over 2,500 books and a large pictorial/photographic collection.

  • Periodicals, journals, and newspapers, including ongoing subscriptions.

  • The reference collection contains approximately 2,000 volumes of general, local, and historical materials, and is supported by the Core general collections and numerous online bibliographic resources and microfilmed materials.

  • Special library collections, including original manuscript sources, the archives of the Mercantile Library, the clipping and photo files (morgue) of the St. Louis Globe Democrat, historical newspapers, and rare book and art collections.


Formats:

  • Rare Books

  • Early Prints and Photographs

  • Manuscripts and Archival Documents

  • Paintings and Sculptures

  • Rare Historical Newspapers

  • Engravings and Original Drawings

  • Oral History Tapes and Motion Pictures

  • Maps and Atlases

 

Collections Highlights:

  • Americana: travel narratives, early atlases, exploration, transportation history, Westward Expansion and Western Americana, the fur trade, and St. Louis histories and biographies.

  • General American Studies: cultural and social history, slavery and abolition, and natural history.

  • Native American history: archaeology, illustrations, and textual resources, including captivity narratives.

 

Needs of the Collection:

  • Book funds for collection development.

  • Preservation and Conservation of rare and fragile materials.

  • Equipment and facility enhancement to assure continued growth.

  • Automation of the Library's catalog for intellectual access.

 

Collections Directories:

John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library

The Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library

The St. Louis Mercantile Library Art Museum

The Dr. Allen B. and Helen S. Shopmaker American Political Collection