About

Missouri Valley Special Collections

The Missouri Valley Special Collections constitute the non-circulating local history and genealogy resources of the Kansas City Public Library as well as the Library’s archives.

Soon after its creation in 1960, when the Library moved from Ninth and Locust to Twelfth Street, the Missouri Valley Room became the place to find facts and stories about Kansas City history. The two-story windows on the west and north flooded the room with light, and the Daniel MacMorris murals along the east and south walls below the mezzanine/gallery appropriately illustrated the discovery, exploration, settlement, and development of the Missouri Valley region.

In 2004 the Central Library moved into the beautifully renovated First National Bank building at 10th and Baltimore. The new Missouri Valley Room on the fifth floor opened September of that year and continues a tradition of offering a pleasant and comfortable place to study and research. It is dedicated to the memory of Dr. William Stone Woods (1840-1917), chairman of the National Bank of Commerce (present-day Commerce Bank) and a major benefactor to many regional causes including William Woods College in Fulton, Missouri.

The MVSC holdings, though, encompass more than just the history of the region. Other subjects of strength are border warfare and the Civil War, the Native Americans of the area, western history and expansion, outlaws and lawmen, the overland trails, and genealogy. MVSC also acts as stewards over the Ramos collection, which is comprised of books, pamphlets, and clippings on African American history and culture.

Its extensive and rare resources of primary and secondary documents include:

• books
• periodicals
• pamphlets
• dissertations
• manuscripts
• newspaper clippings
• vertical files
• photographs
• postcards
• maps
• microforms
• audiovisual and
• archival materials

Among the most frequently requested items are Kansas City city directories (beginning with 1859), area school yearbooks, and our unique newspaper clippings file.

The Missouri Valley Room
Easily accessible in the reading room is a browsing collection of basic books that offer an introduction to Kansas City history. Many maps, periodicals—some as early as the mid-1800s—and numerous genealogy books are also in the reading room.

A restricted, climate-controlled area houses the majority of the resources. You may request materials from this area by filling out a call slip, and you will need to leave a Kansas City Public Library card or official I.D. with staff while using the material. 

To locate specific titles or items, you can search the Library’s online catalog and our specialized local history database that includes thousands of references to articles from newspapers and magazines and the extensive online digital collections.

The MVR provides free, high-speed WiFi wireless Internet access as well as tables equipped with special outlets that allow you to connect laptops or scanners. Microform readers, computers, audiovisual equipment, and a photocopying machine are also available. Photocopies and materials printed from computers are ten cents a page. Because of the nature of the materials, only pencils may be used in the room.

A small room is set aside for viewing or listening to oral histories, CDs, or videos and DVDs.

Parking
You may park for one hour at no charge in the Library parking garage (entrance on Baltimore) with a validated ticket; after the first hour, it costs $1 for each additional 20 minutes not to exceed the daily maximum of $8. Weekends are free by exchanging the ticket for a parking garage coupon at the Information or Circulation Desk in Kirk Hall.

Reference Assistance
The expert staff of the Missouri Valley Special Collections provides assistance and information to users from all over the world in person, by telephone, postal service, or e-mail. No appointment is necessary.

Tours of the MVSC may also be arranged.

Donations
Help preserve our community’s heritage by volunteering your time or donating materials. We welcome donations of materials that fall within the parameters of our Collection Development policy.

Gifts to Missouri Valley Special Collections can be made in many ways. For more information, call the Kansas City Public Library Foundation at 816.701.3516. Gifts and donations to the Library are tax deductible.

Friends of the Missouri Valley Room
Consider becoming a Friend of the Missouri Valley Room.

Friends

• serve as a forum to bring together persons interested in local history for social and educational events;
• advise on planning lectures and other public programs on local history;
• provide recommendations on the development of Missouri Valley Special Collections acquisitions and services; and
• promote research and interest in local history to enhance regional identity.

Friends of MVR receive advance invitations to all local history programs at the Kansas City Public Library and can meet some of the nation’s finest historians at special “Members Only” receptions.