Lives on the Mississippi

    Through early maps of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; through French, Dutch and other travel accounts; through records of politicians, engineers, and designers of boats and bridges; through early humorous sketches and comic almanacs; and through drawings, paintings and historical artifacts, “Lives on the Mississippi” presents a broad picture of the varied aspects of this unique environment. The exhibition features original works by Thomas Hart Benton and Joe Jones, among others, and it will showcase one of only three existing signed presentation sets of Audubon’s double elephant folio Birds of America, originally a reserve copy of the artist, and  passed down through the Audubon family until its acquisition by the Mercantile Library in the 1850s. Other highlights include an eleven-foot “ribbon map” of the Mississippi from the collections of Washington University, one of the very few intact copies known; and rare steamboat artifacts, such as gambling pieces from the Grand Republic, and a lead-tipped line like those thrown by Samuel L. Clemens in his steamboat days to gauge river depth (his pen name, “Mark Twain,” was the waterman’s cry indicating a depth of two fathoms), along with the only known photograph of that famous activity.
     
    “Lives on the Mississippi” is rich in rare maps, including important, seminal “mother maps” of the Mississippi, from that of De Lisle in the sixteenth century to the engineering charts made by the young  Lieutenant  Robert E. Lee in the 1830s to defend St. Louis harbor; rich in prints and paintings, including works of the poetic American impressionist, Frederick Oakes Sylvester; rich in historic photographs, including an unrecorded image of James Eads first Civil War-era “ironclad” vessel; and rich in rare printed books, representing eras and themes from the age of discovery­Hennepin, Jolliet and other classics of Americana­to the modern “Rivers of America,” series, and the works of Eifert, Bissell, Burman and Frederick Way. Original elements from early steamboats, including a floating river fisherman’s “license,” as well as detailed models of keelboats and steamboats selected from the Mercantlle’s world-class collections, round out this superb and detailed portrait of the Mississippi.
     
    “Lives on the Mississippi” showcases the collections of the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association, one of the nation’s oldest libraries, and the oldest library in continuous existence west of the Mississippi itself.  Founded in 1846 by philanthropic business and industrial leaders of the day­including owners and captains of steamboats, engineers, and financial backers of many river related interests  in the city­the collections were intended from the first to document the frontier as it swept over the old French territories of Missouri, Illinois and Louisiana before receding to the West. In its wake the Mercantile Library, founded at a crossroads for so many American pioneers, found much to collect and preserve.
     
    The Library’s collecting spirit has grown and developed over time. Located today on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, it continues to build in the twenty first century a comprehensive collection not only on river history for historical researchers­the Herman T. Pott Inland Waterway Library, named for the industrialist who founded the St. Louis Ship Corporation­but also complementary historical collections of other modes of transportation.  For instance, the Library currently holds one of the largest collections of railroad history in the world, the Barriger Railroad Library, as well as the photographic archives of Trans World Airlines­all stemming from an impulse to collect the heritage of this great river landscape.
     
    LOCATION AND TIMES: “Lives on the Mississippi; Literature and Culture along the Great River” will be on exhibition at the Grolier Club of New York from February 24-May 1, 2010, Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm. A complimentary, illustrated color checklist of the exhibition is available. Also accompanying the exhibition, and available for sale to visitors on-site at the Grolier Club, are two related publications, 160 Years of Art at the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association, a handbook documenting the early river town from its beginnings through the collections of the Mercantile Library; and St. Louis and the Mighty Mississippi in the Steamboat Age; the Collected Writing of Ruth Ferris, whose collections on the river came to the Mercantile in 1990.  A limited number of full color reproductions of the American Art Union’s print after Bingham’s famous Jolly Flat Boat Men will also be available for purchase, as well as a limited slip-cased edition of the checklist to Lives on the Mississippi with a portfolio of original steamboat era postcards, travel brochures and other river ephemera.