Typescript copies of manuscripts in the LaBarge Collection at the St. Charles County Historical Society, including the following: incomplete letter to the editor of the Missouri Republican containing an account of a trip up the Missouri River in 1843 on the steamboat Omega accompanied by John Audubon; Joseph LaBarge’s account of a trip up the Missouri River on the steamboat Martha in 1848, in which they were attacked by the Yankton Indians; journal entries dated July 1873 regarding the seizure of Capt. LaBarge’s steamer DeSmet by Deputy U.S. Marshal C.D. Hard at Fort Benton, Montana Territory; commercial agreement between Robert H. Lemon, agent for LaBarge, Harkness & Co., and Andrew Dawson, agent for P. Chouteau, Jr. & Co., dated August 31, 1863; Joseph LaBarge’s undated reminiscences of a voyage up the Missouri River in 1863 on the steamboat Robert Campbell, in which they were attacked by Indians at the Tobacco Garden; Joseph LaBarge’s undated reminiscences of a voyage up the Missouri River in 1867 with a government commission to meet with the Indians; and business correspondence of John M. Lee with LaBarge, Harkness & Co., 1862. (22 pages) (accession number 62-0103), 1843-1873
Scope and Contents
The Steamboats and River History Collection is an artificial, or subject-based, collection comprising a variety of documents that have been placed in this collection over the years due to their common subject matter. The bulk of the collection relates to river travel and commerce primarily in the vicinity of St. Louis and on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The collection includes more than 60 receipts and bills of lading, mostly dated pre-1900, for merchandise shipped on the rivers; letters, reminiscences, and journals, many of which contain accounts of nineteenth-century steamboat travel; brochures, booklets and other printed advertising material for tourist excursion boats, including the popular twentieth-century St. Louis steamboats Admiral, President, and Delta Queen; several twentieth-century newspaper clippings reflecting on the steamboat era in the West; menus; tickets; and licenses for steamboat officers. Of particular note is a letter and petition of Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton to the governor of Upper Louisiana, dated 1810, requesting a monopoly to operate steamboats on the Upper Mississippi River.
Dates
- 1843-1873
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Extent
From the Collection: 2.2 Cubic Feet ( (3 boxes; 3 volumes; 4 oversize folders))
Language of Materials
English
Repository Details
Part of the Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center Repository