Program
Tours
Tours and open houses of the some of the tremendous resources in the St. Louis
area will be offered during the 2005 preconference. Restrictions and fees apply
to some tours. Please see the descriptions below for more information. Please see
the Sign-Up Tours, Open Houses
and Drop-In Tours descriptions below for dates and times.
Note: ACRL will refund money for cancelled tours soon after ALA.
Sign-Up Tours
Registration for these sign-up tours is limited and will be on a first-come first-serve
basis. Each of these tours will be offered only once during the week. Please see
the descriptions below for dates and times.
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Lincoln Sites Tour
(Cancelled due to low enrollment)
Board bus at Hyatt Regency Union Station
One St. Louis Union Station
Tuesday, June 21
8:15 a.m. board bus - 4:30 p.m.
This tour will consist of a bus trip to Springfield, Illinois (90 miles from St. Louis),
for a guided tour of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.
After the tour, group members will have lunch on their own, and choose from one of
several other Lincoln sites to tour independently in the afternoon. Options include
the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum,
the Lincoln Home, the
Old State Capitol,
and several other sites (visit the Historic Sites link at www.visit-springfieldillinois.com/home.htm.
The bus will depart Springfield at 2:45 and should return to St. Louis by 4:30.
Registration is limited to 45. There is a fee of $21 for this tour. Attendees will pay for lunch
and any afternoon admission fees on their own. Many of the historic sites are free
of charge, but the Lincoln Museum will require an admission fee. Our current understanding
is that it will be $7, but check the museum website for the latest information (the museum will open this spring).
Anheuser-Busch Headquarters
(Cancelled due to low enrollment)
Board bus at Hyatt Regency Union Station
One St. Louis Union Station
Tuesday, June 21
In a special inside look at the library and archives of the world's largest brewery
you will see rare books on brewing, company records, vintage advertising and perhaps
some historic bottles of brew. Then go on the brewery tour, which includes visits
to the Bevo packaging plant, beechwood aging cellars, historic brewhouse, Clydesdale
stables and hospitality room. The vast Anheuser-Busch 100-acre baronial complex
dating to the mid-19th century is a National Historic Landmark. Registration is
limited to 28. There is a fee of $13 for this tour.
Washington University's Department of Special Collections
Scheduled tours of Washington University's Department of Special Collections will be offered.
Sign-up sheets will be available at registration.
Missouri Botanical Garden Library and Washington University School of
Medicine Archives and Rare Books
Board bus at Hyatt Regency Union Station
One St. Louis Union Station
Thursday, June 23
2:15 p.m. board bus - 5:30 p.m.
Here is your chance to have a personal tour of the Missouri Botanical Garden's
library and herbarium, one of the largest collections of botanical information in
the world. The tour will begin with a general introduction of the library and
will include a visit to the Sturtevant Pre-Linnean Collection of rare botanical
and natural history books, dating from 1474 to 1753. Your tour continues in the
herbarium, a collection of over five million pressed and dried plant specimens from
all over the world. You will come away with a better understanding of the important
roles the library and herbarium play in plant research and conservation at the Garden
and their global scope. From the Garden you will proceed to a tour of the
Washington University School of Medicine Archives and Rare Books department. Registration
is limited to 40. There is a fee of $13 for this tour.
Missouri Historical Society and Forest Park
(Cancelled due to low enrollment)
Board bus at Hyatt Regency Union Station
One St. Louis Union Station
Thursday, June 23
2:15 p.m. board bus - 5:30 p.m.
This tour starts with a visit to the Missouri History Museum,
where attendees can view the current exhibits (for an additional $10 paid on site,
individuals can view the traveling exhibition American Presidency: A Glorious Burden).
Following the museum, the group will get a narrated tour of historic Forest Park,
one of the largest urban parks in the country. Home to the St. Louis Zoo, the
Missouri History Museum, the St. Louis Science Center, the St. Louis Art Museum,
and numerous other attractions, the park was the site of the 1904 World's Fair.
The narrated tour will point out many of the highlights of this beautiful park.
Registration is limited to 45. There is a fee of $15 for this tour.
St. Louis Headquarters, U.S. Courts Library, 8th Circuit
Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse, Room 22.300
111 South 10th Street
St. Louis, MO 63102
314/ 244-2665
www.ca8.uscourts.gov/library/library.html
Tuesday June 21
2 p.m.
The tour of the U.S. Courts Library on the twenty-second floor of the new Thomas
F. Eagleton Courthouse affords a spectacular view of downtown St. Louis and the
Mississippi River. The Limbaugh Rare Book Collection in the library (named for
its original owner, the late Rush Hudson Limbaugh, not the radio commentator)
includes classic 18th and 19th century legal treatises. Visitors must be prepared
to show photo ID and go through security. Limited to 20. Sign-up sheet will be
available at the registration table.
St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project
710 North Tucker Room 213 (Historic Globe-Democrat building)
St. Louis, MO 63101
stlcourtrecords.wustl.edu/index.php
Tuesday June 21
3 p.m.
Archivist Mike Everman will speak about the project to preserve, microfilm and
digitize the case files of the St. Louis Circuit Court, 1804-1875. Case files and
record books contain many thousands of pages related to the early fur trade, steamboats,
western travel, territorial militia, Indian relations, divorce, immigration, business,
commerce, and the Civil War and Reconstruction. Historical figures featured in these
records include Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Moses, Stephen F. Austin, U.S.
Senator Thomas Hart Benton, St. Louis founder Auguste Chouteau and fur trader Manuel
Lisa. The original Dred Scott case is just one of over 280 freedom suits. The project
is a collaborative effort of the Circuit Clerk, the Missouri State Archives, Washington
University, University of Missouri-St. Louis and several other partners. Limited to 20.
Sign-up sheet will be available at the registration table.
St. Louis Public Library - Central Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
314/241-2288 or Special Collections 314/539-0381
www.slpl.lib.mo.us/
Tuesday, June 21
1 p.m and 3 p.m.
St. Louis Public Library's Central Library was featured in the 2005 Renaissance
Library Calendar as one of the most beautiful and historic libraries in the world.
Designed by architect Cass Gilbert in a beaux-arts neo-Italian Renaissance style,
the library, which opened in 1912, houses the library's research and special collections.
Included in the tour are visits the Special Collections department and the Steedman
Library of rare books on architecture. Limited to 25. Sign-up sheet will be
available at the registration table.
You can also visit Central Library on your own. Hours are Monday, 10 a.m.-9p.m.;
Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Open Houses and Drop-In Tours
Saint Louis University
Thursday afternoon, June 23, 2005
The following sites at Saint Louis University will be open and ready to welcome
visitors from the Preconference on Thursday afternoon, June 23, 2005. (Note:
closing times vary for the different sites)
The Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library, located in Pius XII Memorial Library,
is a unique collection for research into ancient, medieval, and Renaissance manuscripts;
it contains microform reproductions of some 37,000 manuscript codices, comprising
approximately half of the manuscript holdings of the Vatican Library. It also houses
an outstanding collection of reference works for scholars of codicology, paleaography,
and illumination, and is an important center for manuscript cataloging. Curator of
the Vatican Film Library is Dr. Gregory Pass. The Vatican Film Library open house
will be from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. For directions and more information:
www.slu.edu/libraries/vfl/
Cupples House, located next door to Pius Library, is a Romanesque brownstone
mansion, built in 1888 by the famous architect Henry Hobson Richardson for the
wealthy St. Louis businessman Samuel Cupples. The house has been restored to its
original glory and offers a fascinating look at the domestic culture of America's
Gilded Age; it contains a collection of fine and decorative arts spanning five
centuries. Cupples House is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission to Cupples House
is free when you show your conference badge at the door. For more information:
www.slu.edu/the_arts/cupples/index.html
The Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA), located a few hundred yards
from Pius Library, is the world's first museum of interfaith contemporary art. It
opened in 1993 and is dedicated to the ongoing dialogue between contemporary artists
and the world's faith traditions. The current exhibition is dedicated to the works
of Junko Chodos. Admission is free. The Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information: mocra.slu.edu/
Saint Louis University Art Museum, located across Lindell Boulevard from Pius
Library, is housed in a four-story, historic French revival mansion. It contains
a wide variety of works by nationally-known and local artists. Of particular interest
is the collection of art and artifacts documenting the history of the Jesuit Missions
in the American West in the 17th and 18th centuries. Admission is free; the Museum
is open from 1 to 4 p.m. For more information: sluma.slu.edu/
Saint Louis University is accessible via the MetroLink system to the Grand Station
stop. For directions and campus maps, see
www.slu.edu/campus_life_maps_directions_transportation.html
The St. Louis Mercantile Library
Open for drop-in visits throughout the Preconference, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The St. Louis Mercantile Library
(www.umsl.edu/mercantile;
www.umsl.edu/barriger;
www.umsl.edu/pott;
woodcockmuseum.umsl.edu)
was founded in 1846 out of even older public book collections from the frontier days
of the early 19th century, such as The St. Louis Library Association, and the St.
Louis Lyceum). It remains the oldest library, historical archives and art museum
in continuous service in St. Louis and thus for a broad national region west of
the Mississippi River. Rich in humanities resources, it possesses deep collections
of Americana, prints, maps, photographs, manuscripts and art. Recently relocated
to only the third building in its nearly 160 year history, on the campus of the
University of Missouri in St. Louis, its special collections are growing and reaching
broader numbers of students through teaching and research programs, reminiscent,
in turn, of the institution's deep heritage, rooted in the education of young
apprentices and families of the merchants and trades-people who settled Missouri
and the West.
Tours will be available throughout the RBMS Preconference. Everyone is welcome
to visit and view two new exhibitions, "The Bard as Muse: the Boydell Shakespeare
Prints", and "A Snail, a Peacock, and a Tiger's Eye; Historical Marbled Papers in
the Collections of the Mercantile Library" as well as the permanent art collection.
The St. Louis Mercantile Library is accessible via the MetroLink system to the
UMSL North station. See
www.umsl.edu/services/library/about_libraries/north_campus_directions.html.
The St. Louis Mercantile Library is accessed through the Thomas Jefferson Library.
The Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri-St. Louis
(www.umsl.edu/~whmc)
Open for drop-in visits anytime M-F, 8:00 am to 4:45 pm.
Open Wednesday evening during the reception at the Mercantile Library, which is right next door.
The Western Historical Manuscript Collection has four offices at the four University
of Missouri campuses in St. Louis, Columbia, Kansas City and Rolla. The collection is
Missouri's most comprehensive repository of primary historical documents with over 42,650
linear feet of records, containing over 127,900,000 pages; 5,385,000 photographic images;
22,250 audio and video recordings; 350,000 architectural drawings; and 21,000 volumes
of books, scrapbooks, and ledgers. Its holdings span pre-statehood to the present and
chronicle all aspects of the state's history. The St. Louis branch collects material
from the St. Louis area.
WHMC welcomes conference attendees to visit anytime during their stay in St. Louis
and take a tour of our repository. Current exhibits are "Gaslight Square: Photographs
and memorabilia", "The Forest Park Highlands Amusement Park: Photographs by Arthur
Witman", and "Brewing in St. Louis": Photographs and artifacts from the Henry Tobias
Brewers and Maltsters Union #6 collection.
As mentioned above, WHMC is next door to the Mercantile Library in the Thomas Jefferson
Library on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus.
WHMC is accessible via the MerroLink System at the UMSL North Station. See
umsl.edu/services/library/about_libraries/north_campus_directions.html
last updated on: 6/17/05
© 2004 Copyright American Library Association
