The records are primarily comprised of the chapter’s meeting minutes (1898-1919) but also include meeting announcements (1906-1909), membership lists (ca. 1894-1923), financial reports (1901-1908), and resolutions and correspondence from the chapter’s World’s Fair Committee (1900-1901). The earliest document, dated 1893, includes an annual report submitted by Secretary A.F. Rosenheim and an accompanying Treasurer’s Report from Charles K. Ramsay (Folder 2). The Chapter’s general correspondence, dating from 1898 to 1927, is comprised of letters between members concerning service as officers and letters to the national secretary of the AIA informing him of newly-elected chapter officers (Folder 3). Some of the membership lists are dated and some have been assigned dates by comparing them with the dated lists. The lists for some years also include the names of members who served on the chapter’s standing committees (Folders 28-29). The World’s Fair Committee files contain drafts of resolutions and correspondence relating to the design of buildings for the 1904 World’s Fair. In 1898, William J. Seever, secretary of the Missouri Historical Society, requested that the chapter appoint a committee to assist with the centennial celebration of the Louisiana Purchase (Folder 33). The appointed members included: John Lawrence Mauran, chairman; Thomas C. Young, Tom I. Barnett, J.L. Wees, and William B. Ittner. The committee researched the situation in St. Louis and drafted a resolution for the chapter to consider which was then forwarded to David R. Francis, President of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company (Folder 32). In its pursuit of ideas and opinions about the process of designing the World’s Fair, the chapter sent letters to architects and other AIA chapters soliciting their input. Mr. William S. Wicks of Buffalo, New York, sent a lengthy letter and enclosures that their committees had used for the Pan-American Exposition. Letters of suggestions also came from the Kansas City Chapter, from Thomas R. Kimball, and from D.H. Burnham. The only essay in the collection concerns St. Louis’ most well-known, and sometimes most controversial, monument: the Arch. The reader learns how the idea for a monument emerged, how a design was chosen, issues that arose at different phases of the project, and the extent to which local architects were involved in the planning process (Folder 4).