St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records

Note to the sheriff of St. Louis County regarding the Missouri Fur Company, et. al., versus Thomas James Case, October 1814.

Browse the digitized St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records and related collections: 

Project Overview

The St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project was a collaboration between WashU Libraries and the Missouri History Museum, with contributions from many partners. In 2009, the Institute of Museum and Library Services funded it through a National Leadership Grant.

Revised Dred Scott Case Collection

The Revised Dred Scott Case Collection was the first significant digital project undertaken by the WashU Libraries, collaborating with the Missouri State Archives-St. Louis. Originally launched online in 2000, the site was revised and enhanced with additional documents and coding in 2007. The original Revised Dred Scott Collection site may be accessed through the Internet Archive; please be advised that the original site’s search function is not included in the archived version.

Current Status

This is the project’s temporary home after the retirement of the original project infrastructure in 2022. All the documents can be searched and browsed through the WashU digital repository via the links above. Plans are underway to build a new website with advanced search functionality to take full advantage of the legal encoding work.

The original project sites may be accessed through the Internet Archive; please be advised that the archived version does not include the original sites’ search function:

Researchers interested in obtaining the raw XML-TEI legal encoding should contact the Julian Edison Department of Special Collections by phone at (314) 935-5495 or via email (spec@wumail.wustl.edu).