The St.
Louis Mercantile Library celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2021.
According to its website: “Founded in 1846 and chartered by the State of Missouri in that year, the
St. Louis Mercantile Library is the oldest general library in continuous
existence West of the Mississippi River.”
The library is now located on the campus of the University of Missouri –
St. Louis. Mercantile
libraries are one of the major types of membership libraries. They were started
by businessmen in behalf of young merchants’ clerks embarking on their careers.
They began in Boston and New York in 1820 but were eventually established in
most major cities in America including St. Louis. I have a philatelic exhibit
featuring America’s membership libraries and mercantile libraries constitute a
major component of the exhibit. I have a number of artifacts in the exhibit
relating to the St. Louis Mercantile Library, some of which are shown
below. I have a previous blog post which
discusses the bookplates of the Mercantile Library. I also have a blog post about my visit to the
library in 2015.
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Life membership certificate for William E. Ware dated 1855.
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| 1895 postal card listing services and membership terms. |
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Stampless mourning cover sent to the St. Louis Mercantile Library on Sept. 7, 1850.
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