Skip to navigation Skip to content

Travel and Exploration

Special Collections has a number of materials related to travel and exploration.  The three largest holdings consist of around 400 travelogues and other published accounts of travel throughout Europe, approximately 100 of which focus on travel within Great Britain; around 150 titles related to travel in North and South America, including emigrants’ guides, sea expeditions, and published accounts of western expansion; and a collection of maps and atlases dating from the 16th century to the present.

How to Use the Collection

With a few exceptions, the collections can be accessed and requested through the library catalog. Finding aids for individual collections are linked on this website. Materials are available for use in the Special Collections Reading Room (room 401) during regular hours. Materials do not circulate. 

Finding Aids for Travel and Exploration

Gary E. and Janet J. Venable Antiquarian Atlas & Map Collection

VenableMap04front-crop.jpg

The Venable Collection documents the history of cartography, geography, and exploration from the sixteenth through the early twentieth century.…

John G. Neihardt Collection.

PloughedUnder_01.jpg

Biographical Sketch John Gneisenau Neihardt (1881-1973) accepted a position at the University of Missouri-Columbia's Department of English in 1949…

Martin and Margaret Hiller Collection of Audiovisual Materials on China, 1945-1948.

H9-94.jpg

Scope and Contents The Hiller Collection documents cities, industries, farming, and everyday life in China during the second phase of the Chinese…

Poster Collection.

download-(4).jpg

Scope and Contents The collection consists of posters from both World War I and World War II with a tourist and other miscellaneous posters from the…

Rare Books

The_Square_1.jpg

The Rare Books Collection is the default designation for materials in Special Collections that are acquired as individual items. Like Special…

William Least Heat-Moon Papers.

Scope and Contents Material by Wililam Least Heat-Moon (b. 1939). Manuscripts and additional materials from the following books: PrairyErth (A…

Related Exhibits

Commercial Art: Travel Posters in Special Collections

THHTheLandoftheMidnightSun.jpg

This exhibit focuses on nine European travel posters from Spain, France, Italy, Britain, Germany, and Norway. In a century of...

Hiller Collection

H9-96.jpg

The Hiller Collection documents cities, industries, farming, and everyday life in China during the second phase of the Chinese Civil...

Leaders and Heroes

Henson Portrait Bust.jpg

Every age, every race, has its leaders and heroes. ~ Ohíye S’a (Charles A. Eastman) Libraries tend to hold those materials that...

Leaders and Heroes 2: The Arts

IMG_20210908_110723621.jpg

This exhibit was born out of a desire to showcase materials within Special Collections at the University of Missouri that...

Places in the World: Treasures from the Venable Collection

VenableMap06front-crop.jpg

Maps tell us where we are. The most obvious way they do this is geographical, but there is also a...

The Art of Cartography: Cartes-à-figures

Aqua.jpg

Cartography is the art and science of map-making. During the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Cartography was experiencing a peak of...

Selected Items

Hiller 09-040: Overlooking Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum

H9-40.jpg

Photograph of overlooking the Sun Yatsen Mausoleum. Not too many people and looks like they are leaving right now. The photo looks…

Hiller 09-102 : A stone arch bridge

H9-102.jpg

Photograph of a stone arch bridge in Soochow.

Digitized from glass slide. Quality of original is good. Scan: Creo iQsmart3. Image is 600 dpi,…

Hiller 09-004 : Nanking Great Hall of the People

H9-04.jpg

Photograph of Nanjing Great Hall of the People. Designed by Fuquan Xi and built in 1936. It was largest and most advanced facilities of the…

Hiller 09-096 : A man in a field

H9-96.jpg

Photograph of a man with sunglasses sitting on a curved tree trunk in a field in Soochow.

Notes: According to the Mr. Hiller's son-in-law's…

Hiller 09-071: Armillary sphere in Nanking 1

H9-71.jpg

Photograph of the Armillary sphere in Nanking.

Digitized from glass slide. Quality of original is good. Scan: Creo iQsmart3. Image is 600 dpi,…

The United States of America confirmed by treaty 1783.

00000039.jpg

Lists the original territorial divisions of New England, New York, Virginia, Carolina and the states and territories created from them. Shows…

Browse More Items