The story of our country is told in many different ways. The work of Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham, for example, reveals more about frontier life, commerce and politics along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers than any textbook. And atlases and illustrated view books, popular during the late 1860s and ’70s, say more about the farmers who nourished our young nation than any classroom lecture. To see for yourself, visit St. Louis Mercantile Library and its impressive collections of historical materials.
George Caleb Bingham & His Prints of American Frontier Life: A Mirror of National Growth & Change, is on exhibit now through June 30 at the Mercantile, located at University of Missouri-St. Louis. The 12-print exhibition, which includes famous works such as Emigration of Daniel Boone (1852) and Martial Law or Order No. 11 (1872), is the inaugural event at the Dr. Allen B. and Helen S. Shopmaker Political Print Gallery.
“Thanks to the ongoing generosity of local philanthropist Helen Shopmaker, the Mercantile will have on continual view a selection of visual arts addressing political issues through time,” says library executive director John Hoover. The print gallery complements the library’s Shopmaker American Political Collection Gallery, which features 3,000-plus items of presidential campaign materials and changing exhibitions on presidential themes. “Shopmaker and her late husband, staunch supporters of education, established the Shopmaker Endowed Professor of Education and International Studies at UMSL in 2002,” Hoover says. The print gallery officially opens with a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. June 14. The event is free and open to the public.
The Bingham exhibition is just one of many at the Mercantile highlighting the history of America’s Midwest. Proud Pastures, Country Chronicles & Rural Rhapsodies: America’s 19th-Century Illustrated Farm Atlases and Viewbooks, runs now through July 1 at the library’s Level Two entrance. “These rare books, created by traveling surveyors and artists, provide vivid histories of the newly settled states from New England through the Midwest,” Hoover says.
Mercantile Library, the oldest general library west of the Mississippi River, was founded in 1846 by civic leaders and philanthropists. It became affiliated with UMSL in 1998. “Our mission is to document the development of our city, state and nation, with a focus on Westward Expansion and the American rail and river transportation experiences,” Hoover explains. “As a membership research library and art museum, we make these great books, manuscripts and artworks available to local and national scholars, but our reading room and exhibitions are open to the public.”
In addition to more than 250,000 books, the library’s special collections include presidential and Civil War-era letters, travel diaries, rare manuscripts, fur trade records, and the print morgue of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. “We’re committed to collecting and preserving these works,” Hoover says. “We want to share the story of this great nation, and the life and beauty of the American Midwest, with as many people as possible.”
[An opening reception for the Dr. Allen B. and Helen S. Shopmaker Political Print Gallery at St. Louis Mercantile Library, located at University of Missouri-St. Louis, takes place from 2 to 4 p.m. June 14. The event is free and open to the public. To RSVP, or for more information about the exhibitions, call 314. 516.7248 or visit umsl.edu/mercantile.]
Pictured: From the collection of St . Louis Mercantile Library at UMSL