My Latest Discovery…

…is probably not new to you. It’s the Mercantile Library at UMSL. What a bizarre place. Everything from furs to model boats and trains to then-and-now photographs of Union Station, as well as a stacked closed reading area and a deep vault of rare Missouriana. Throw in some Notgeld displays, framed historical documents, and a wonderful staff and you’ve got yourself a library (or museum or something)! I’ve been going there lately because it's the only place in the region that has a rare pulp novel from the fifties I need to read--it’s in their Utopia collection (now there’s something more libraries need to have!). But most folks come through to purchase the rights to historic photographs, images, etc. for books, journal articles, and the like. Just the other day a retired St. Louis police officer was in procuring vintage police photos for a book he’s writing on the history of crime in St. Louis (goodness knows there’s never enough attention placed on crime here). Anyway, if you need to read any utopian novels, look at model boats, or buy the rights to any photographs of historic St. Louis politicians or buildings, I suggest you head out to UMSL. And make sure you ask for Charlie Brown; he’s incredibly helpful and knows St. Louis history backwards and forwards.