The St. Louis Artist Files (or “local artist files”) are approximately 2,800 files containing information about visual artists in the St. Louis region dating back to 1843. This enormous trove of files has been meticulously assembled and curated by a cross-generational team of librarians for decades. It contains contemporary and historical artists, from the famous (George Caleb Bingham) to the more obscure (your great-aunt Irma Jean).
The files!
You’ll find the files in the Fine Arts Room on the second floor of Central Library in downtown St. Louis. If you come in the main Olive Street entrance (up the big steps), it’s the first room on the left.
The files are in big, black storage containers, just to the left of the reference desk.
The Fine Arts Room is, in our opinion, the prettiest in the library.
All kinds of treasures! Newspaper and magazine articles and clippings, brochures, flyers, programs from art exhibitions, obituaries, and other ephemera associated with each artist’s life. There are even a few pieces of original art, such as drawings and etchings.
There are currently 14 filing cabinet drawers, totalling approximately 28 cubic feet.
Here are a few examples:
Curt Flood (1938-1997) was an All-Star center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals and a pioneering labor activist in professional sports. Later in life, he was a painter and photographer in St. Louis. Flood's local artist file, shown above, features contemporaneous articles, clippings, and advertisements from the Post-Dispatch, Globe-Democrat, and other publications.
The eclectic mastermind Bob Cassilly (1949-2011) is the subject of one of our most extensive files. Because he was so prolific, his file has to be spread across 5 bulging folders.
Jessie Housley Holliman (1905-1984) was a multi-talented printmaker, muralist, illustrator, and commercial artist. She taught elementary school art at the Divoll School for 39 years.
Absolutely anyone! Researchers, students, curious passers-by. You don’t need a library card - just start poking around!
Cozy sweaters recommended, but not required.
Curious researchers, for both formal and casual purposes. Most notably, the Missouri Remembers public research database, a multi-year collaboration between St. Louis Public Library and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, cites content from the files extensively.
There are a few pieces of original art, yes, such as drawings and photographs. For example, we were so enamored with Roscoe Misselhorn’s illustrations, such as his drawing of the historic Eads Bridge, that we have them on display behind the desk:
Side-eye courtesy of Andrew Carnegie.
For the most part, however, you’ll find photocopies in the files, as they are open to the public. When artists (or their relatives or descendants) submit items for the files, we encourage them to keep anything original, sentimentally significant, or monetarily valuable.
