Rare Book Monthly

Articles - July - 2021 Issue

A Nation: A City, & Its First Library: the St. Louis Mercantile Library

Libraries represent bundles of ambitions, many initially modest, always beginning with the hope to make a difference in people’s lives.  This is why tens of thousands of volunteers commit their time and imaginations to make their community institutions significant.  While there are over 200,000 libraries worldwide their scale of ambitions range from simply providing tables and chairs, and books on the shelves, all the way to building and preserving historic collections that convey the deeper stories that connect the past to the future we experience today.

 

There is no one best way to do this but, given the United States’ regions and complex history, significant perspectives can best be elaborated by major regional collecting institutions.  St. Louis is fortunate to have one:  the St. Louis Mercantile Library.

 

This year the Mercantile is celebrating 175 years of service to their community and region and recently released a large quarto [9” x 12”] 255 page full color history of the St. Louis region providing both the story of the library as well as a tour through the collections they have built over these many years.  It turns out the Mercantile has been on a tear over 17 decades, determined to be a major repository of the primary sources and documents for the deep Midwest.

 

Collectors can particularly appreciate this story because they regularly experience the complex decision making involved in pursing material for their own collections and can only imagine the thousands of decisions that were necessary to build a major collecting institution.  Collectors’ ambitions, more often than not, flame out after a decade or two.  For an institution to collect over parts of 3 centuries has meant to stay committed through the Civil War, social upheaval, though World Wars, not to mention structural changes.

 

Beyond gifts, the principal sources were initially local offers from dealers and opportunities at auctions that in time opened into broader possibilities as regional communications and access increased.  Success as a collecting institution then required higher standards of cataloguing leading into the modern structuring of library records.

 

Today they live in the emerging world of the 5G internet we experience that merges what we see, saw, heard and read into an information blur we absorb at the speed of light.  To succeed over 175 years the potential to fail has been constant, even unrelenting.  Such success is rare and must be appreciated.  Congratulations!  The future will be in your debt.

 

For the progress over the past 3 decades a significant share of the credit must accrue to John Neal Hoover, their Executive Director, as leader of the library during the current period as the very definition and  concept of what an uber important collecting library can and should become has been transforming in the embrace of social media as Internet connectivity has broadened access and personalized the experience. Thirty years ago the gold standard for collecting libraries was to accumulate and secure the important rare materials.  To that obligation today the leading libraries embrace the goals of sharing and interpreting in imaginative ways.  If twenty years ago, the college major as librarian was a declining specialty, the possibilities of innovative librarianship today suggest the careers of innovative programmers for the leading libraries beckon.

 

To those trying to understand what the Mercantile provides it’s necessary to experience the many forms they provide; rare books, maps, newspapers, photographs, manuscripts, archives, oral histories and motion pictures to name some.  To appreciate their range, their anniversary volume captures both the scale and spirit of the enterprise.

 

To experience this range the time-honored way has always been to come in person and, given that their collections are partially accessible electronically, you can approach the institution with a click.  But that said, to feel the depth of the collections page by page the volume effectively provides sequenced examples that make the clear statement this library is in the full embrace of the newest technologies.

 

Whether a collector or a St. Louis partisan or simply interested to see what the future of the past looks like consider adding a copy of “A Nation, A City, & Its First Library” to your own library.  It will alter your view.

 

If you would like to purchase one of the 500 copies of this remarkable story here’s a link –

 

https://www.umsl.edu/mercantile/membership-and-giving/gift-shop.html

Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Books & Collectors’ Sale
    April 30th & May 1st
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Taylor (Geo.) & Skinner (A.) Maps of the Roads of Ireland, Surveyed 1777. Lond. & Dublin 1778. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Messingham (Thos.) Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum seu Vitae et Acta Sanctorum Hibernia, Paris 1624. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus). The Haw Lantern, L. (Faber & Faber) 1987, First Edn., Signed and dated. €225 to €350.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Valencey (Lt. Col. Chas.) Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Vols. I-IV, 4 vols. Dublin 1786. €400 to €600.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Powerscourt (Viscount). A Description and History of Powerscourt, Lond. 1903. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Moryson (Fynes). An Itinerary ... Containing His Ten Yeeres Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohermerland, Sweitzerland…, Lond. (John Beale) 1617. €700 to €1,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: After Buffon, Birds of Europe, c. 1820. Approx. 120 fine hd. cold. plts., mor. backed boards. €125 to €250.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Dunlevy (Andrew). An Teagasg Criosduidhe De Reir Ceasda agus Freagartha... The Catechism or Christian Doctrine by Way of Question and Answer, Paris (James Guerin) 1742. €400 to €700.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: The Georgian Society Records of Eighteen-Century Domestic Architecture in Dublin, 5 vols. Complete, Dublin 1909-1913. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Scale (Bernard). An Hibernian Atlas or General Description of the Kingdom of Ireland, L. (Robert Sayer & John Bennet) 1776. €625 to €850.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: [Johnson (Rev. Samuel)]. Julian the Apostate Being a Short Account of his Life, together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism,L. (Langley Curtis) 1682. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Nichlson (Wm.) Illustrator. An Almanac of Twelve Sports, Lond. 1898. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) trans. The Light of the Leaves, 2 vols., Mexico (Imprenta de los Tropicos/Bunholt) 1999. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Fleming (Ian). Moonraker, L. (Jonathan Cape) 1955. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) & Egan (Felim) artist. Squarings, Twelve Poems, D. (Hieroglyph Editions Ltd.) 1991. €1,750 to €2,250.
  • Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: ANDERSEN'S EXTREMELY RARE FIRST APPEARANCE IN PRINT. "Scene af: Røverne i Vissenberg i Fyen." in Harpen, 1822.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST ISSUE OF THE FIRST THREE FAIRY TALE PAMPHLETS, WITH ALL INDICES AND TITLE PAGES. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: THE FIRST FAIRY TALES WITH A SIGNED CARTE DE VISITE OF ANDERSEN AS FRONTIS. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: KARL LAGERFELD. Original pastel and ink drawing in gold, red and black for Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes (1992), "La cassette de l'Empereur."
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY OF THE SIXTH PAMPHLET FOR PETER KOCH. Eventyr, Fortalte For Børn, Second Series, Third Pamphlet. 1841. Publisher's wrappers, complete with all pre- and post-matter.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN RARE AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED IN ENGLISH from "The Ugly Duckling," c.1860s.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HEINRICH LEFLER, ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR FOR ANDERSEN'S SNOW QUEEN, "Die Schneekönigin," 1910.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST EDITION OF ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES IN ENGLISH. Wonderful Stories for Children. London, 1846.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: ANDERSEN ON MEETING CHARLES DICKENS. Autograph Letter Signed ("H.C. Andersen") in English to William Jerdan, July 20, 1847.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR EDGAR COLLIN. Nye Eventyr og Historier. Anden Raekke. 1861.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: DOLL HOUSE FURNITURE BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON, DECORATED WITH FANTASTICAL CUT-OUTS, for the children of Jonna Stampe (née Drewsen), his godchildren.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR GEORG BRANDES. Dryaden. Et Eventyr fra Udstillingstiden i Paris 1867. 1868.
  • ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    May 1-3
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    May 1-3
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    May 1-3
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    May 1-3
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    May 1-3
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  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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