Established in 1846 by civic leaders and philanthropists, the Mercantile exists today as a vibrant community, cultural asset. It is the oldest library west of the Mississippi and the grandparent of all cultural institutions in St. Louis.
Synopsis: The collections may be grouped into six major divisions:
The General (Core) Collection, containing 210,000 books 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-especially history, world travel, and exploration-the social sciences, and the history of the natural sciences and the history of technology.
The Barriger Collection, focusing on American Railroad history and currently distinguished as one of the largest in the United States, containing 40,000 books plus primary manuscript documents and photographs
The Pott Waterways Collection, which focuses on United States river and inland waterways history, containing 11,000 books and a large archival collection estimated at over 75,000 individual items. The Pott Collection also contains periodicals and current newspapers, with a current list of subscriptions numbering 75 popular and scholarly magazines and journals.
The Art Collection, the Mercantile Library continues to collect, preserve and exhibit the work of artists who have made Missouri their home, from the early artist-explorers for whom St. Louis was a hub for access to the unexplored West to today’s artists who continue to capture the life and beauty of the American Midwest.
Reference collections, containing approximately 2,000 "ready reference" volumes of general, local and historical materials, which is supported by the Core general collections outlined above, access to numerous on-line bibliographic resources and microfilmed materials.
Special library collections include various research 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 books.
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.
