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.
Finding Aids for Travel and Exploration
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 G. Neihardt Collection.
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.
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 Rare Books Collection is the default designation for materials in Special Collections that are acquired as individual items. Like Special…
War Poster Collection.
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
Commercial Art: Travel Posters in Special Collections
This exhibit focuses on nine European travel posters from Spain, France, Italy, Britain, Germany, and Norway. In a century of...
Hiller Collection
The Hiller Collection documents cities, industries, farming, and everyday life in China during the second phase of the Chinese Civil...
Leaders and Heroes
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
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
Maps tell us where we are. The most obvious way they do this is geographical, but there is also a...
The Art of Cartography: Cartes-à-figures
Cartography is the art and science of map-making. During the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Cartography was experiencing a peak of...
Selected Items
The United States gazetteer : containing an authentic description of the several states their situation, extent, boundaries, soil, produce, climate, population, trade and manufactures : together with the extent, boundaries and population of their respective counties ; also, an exact account of the cities, towns, harbours, rivers, bays, lakes, mountains, etc. ; illustrated with nineteen maps / by Joseph Scott.
vi, 4 unnumbered pages, 288 unnumbered pages : maps (folded) ; 18 cm (12mo)
Notes : "Published according to Act of Congress."
Map of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas.
Shows cities, railroads, military outposts, areas of Indian habitation, and geographic features for Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and a portion of New…
