Digital Resources
The materials featured here are only a small selection of the items we've made available online. Digitized materials in Special Collections are available at the HathiTrust Digital Library, University of Missouri Digital Library, the MoSpace Institutional Repository, the Digital Scriptorium, and Missouri Digital Heritage.
Collections with Digital Content
The following collections have been fully or partially digitized.
Council of National Defense Collection
The Council of National Defense was created in 1916 to coordinate the U.S. war effort during World War I. Members consisted of the Secretary of War,…
Cuneiform Tablets
Special Collections holds eight cuneiform tablets whose exact provenance is unknown. Seven of the tablets were donated to MU Libraries by the…
Daniel Webster Speeches Collection, 1806-1932
The Daniel Webster Speeches Collection contains pamphlets of speeches made by and about Daniel Webster, for the most part published during or shortly…
Fourth of July Orations Collection
The Fourth of July Orations Collection contains published pamphlets of addresses made on Independence Day from 1791-1925. The speeches explore topics…
Fragmenta Manuscripta
Fragmenta Manuscripta is a collection of over 200 manuscript leaves and fragments dating from the eighth to the seventeenth century. Originally…
Gary E. and Janet J. Venable Antiquarian Atlas & Map Collection
The Venable Collection documents the history of cartography, geography, and exploration from the sixteenth through the early twentieth century.…
John Tinney McCutcheon Collection of Editorial Cartoons
Biographical Sketch John Tinney McCutcheon (1870-1949) is often referred to as “the Dean of Cartoonists” and is best known for his political and…
Martin and Margaret Hiller Collection of Audiovisual Materials on China, 1945-1948
Biographical Sketch Martin Hiller was a captain in the Army Air Corps, the predecessor to the Air Force, and later retired as an Air…
Mary Lago Collection
Biographical Sketch Mary McClelland Lago (1919-2001) was on the University of Missouri Department of English faculty from 1977 to 1991. From 1989…
Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts
The collection is available to all researchers. Request materialsfor use in the Special Collections reading room. These materials have been collected…
Modern Manuscripts and Correspondence, ca. 1700-1992
Special Collections holds modern manuscript materials in the form of books, correspondence, and personal papers. These materials were collected at…
Pages from the Past Collection
Pages from the Past is a collection of manuscript and rare book leaves compiled and sold by a New York book dealer Alfred W. Stites from 1964 to 1967.…
Plat Books of Missouri Counties Collection
In 1930 W.W. Hickson and Co. of Rockford, Illinois published plat books of townships in counties throughout Missouri. Documenting the ownership and…
Poster Collection
Scope and Contents The collection consists of posters from both World War I and World War II with a few tourist and other miscellaneous posters from…
Rare Book Collection
The Rare Book Collection is the default designation for materials in Special Collections that are acquired as individual items. Like Special…
Sanborn Maps of Missouri Collection
History The Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company, established in 1867, compiled and published maps of U.S. cities and towns for the fire…
Featured Exhibits
In-Flew-Enza: Spanish Flu in Columbia
In fall, 1918, an outbreak of epidemic influenza spread across the entire world. Erroneously dubbed "the Spanish Flu," the pandemic...
Children’s Literature of the Harlem Renaissance by African American Women
The twenty-one books in the exhibit represent how invaluable the Harlem Renaissance was for African American children’s literature.
Fragmenta Manuscripta
Fragmenta Manuscripta is a collection of manuscript fragments that date from the eighth through the seventeenth centuries.
Incunables in Special Collections
Printing with moveable type began in Europe in the 1450s in the German city of Mainz with the Gutenberg Bible...
Featured Items
The Square
"Egyptian uprising called for democratic reform. Tahrir Square in Cairo became the focal point and the most effective symbol of the protests in…