Skip to navigation Skip to content

Travel and Exploration

Special Collections has a number of materials related to travel and exploration.  The three largest holdings consist of around 400 travelogues and other published accounts of travel throughout Europe, approximately 100 of which focus on travel within Great Britain; around 150 titles related to travel in North and South America, including emigrants’ guides, sea expeditions, and published accounts of western expansion; and a collection of maps and atlases dating from the 16th century to the present.

How to Use the Collection

With a few exceptions, the collections can be accessed and requested through the library catalog. Finding aids for individual collections are linked on this website. Materials are available for use in the Special Collections Reading Room (room 401) during regular hours. Materials do not circulate. 

MU Library Catalog

Finding Aids for Travel and Exploration

Gary E. and Janet J. Venable Antiquarian Atlas & Map Collection

VenableMap04front-crop.jpg

The Venable Collection documents the history of cartography, geography, and exploration from the sixteenth through the early twentieth century.…

John G. Neihardt Collection.

PloughedUnder_01.jpg

Biographical Sketch John Gneisenau Neihardt (1881-1973) accepted a position at the University of Missouri-Columbia's Department of English in 1949…

Martin and Margaret Hiller Collection of Audiovisual Materials on China, 1945-1948.

H9-94.jpg

Scope and Contents The Hiller Collection documents cities, industries, farming, and everyday life in China during the second phase of the Chinese…

Rare Books

The_Square_1.jpg

The Rare Books Collection is the default designation for materials in Special Collections that are acquired as individual items. Like Special…

War Poster Collection.

download-(4).jpg

Scope and Contents The collection consists of posters from both World War I and World War II with tourist and other miscellaneous posters from the…

William Least Heat-Moon Papers.

Scope and Contents Material by Wililam Least Heat-Moon (b. 1939). Manuscripts and additional materials from the following books: PrairyErth (A…

Related Exhibits

Hiller Collection

H9-96.jpg

The Hiller Collection documents cities, industries, farming, and everyday life in China during the second phase of the Chinese Civil...

Leaders and Heroes

Henson Portrait Bust.jpg

Every age, every race, has its leaders and heroes. ~ Ohíye S’a (Charles A. Eastman) Libraries tend to hold those materials that...

Leaders and Heroes 2: The Arts

IMG_20210908_110723621.jpg

This exhibit was born out of a desire to showcase materials within Special Collections at the University of Missouri that...

Places in the World: Treasures from the Venable Collection

VenableMap06front-crop.jpg

Maps tell us where we are. The most obvious way they do this is geographical, but there is also a...

Selected Items

Hiller 09-004 : Nanking Great Hall of the People

H9-04.jpg

Photograph of Nanjing Great Hall of the People. Designed by Fuquan Xi and built in 1936. It was largest and most advanced facilities of the…

Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota.

00000053.jpg

Map is p. [48] from a geography textbook./ On verso: "Questions on the map of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky."/ Northern border of Minnesota is…

Map of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas.

00000051.jpg

Shows cities, railroads, military outposts, areas of Indian habitation, and geographic features for Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and a portion of New…

Hiller 09-072: Ancient Chinese astronomical instrument in Nanking

H9-72.jpg

Photograph of an ancient Chinese astronomical instrument in Nanking.

Digitized from glass slide. Quality of original is good. Scan: Creo iQsmart3.…

Hiller 09-005 : The statue of Sun Yat-sen in Nanking

H9-05.jpg


Photograph of the rusty and bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen in the center of Nanjing. There is a book store and lots of rickshaws around the road.…

Browse More Items