RH. Regional History Collections

Books, pamphlets, photographs and reports on flooding in the United States, particularly in the areas of Cape Girardeau and New Madrid [Mo], Cairo, [Il], Paducah, [Ky], and northern Arkansas. Also includes general information on the development of the nation’s railroads.

Ink jet manuscript (135p) entitled “The Story of the Major Case Squad: A History of the Cape Girardeau/Bollinger County Major Case Squad,” by Swingle, Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney, October 2001.

Photocopied typescript (3p) entitled “The Civil War Forts in Cape Girardeau” by Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney and author Morley Swingle, briefly relating the history of Forts A, B, C, and D.

Financial ledger of Swob, of De Soto, [Mo], who worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. In the ledger, Swob records the jobs he performed for the railroad, the amounts of pay he received, information on his war bonds, unemployment insurance, his income and expenditures, and the names of his family members and their dates of birth.

Four color postcards depicting scenes of Southeast Missouri, including the Bollinger Mill and covered bridge, the lime stone quarries south of Cape Girardeau, and the Mississippi River from Cape Rock and at the Mississippi River traffic bridge in Cape Girardeau.

Primarily personal correspondence to and from members of a Cape Girardeau pioneer family, the most notable member of whom was Honorable William C. Ranney, who served on the Common Pleas Circuit Court from 1851 to circa 1861 and was elected State Senator in 1871.

Ten handwritten recipes for (primarily desserts) from Cape Girardeau women, including Alma Schrader and Irene Pierce. Recipes include date pudding, crumb cake, fruitcake, and corn bread.

Scrapbook (20p) compiled by Reed, a Cape Girardeau county realtor and former court judge, of his published newspaper political cartoons, letters to the editor, with hand-drawn illustrations.

Prints illustrated by St. Louis, Missouri artist Siegfried Reinhardt for the 1984 book the Man who Fenced the West, by Glen Coleman, about barbed wired inventor and entrepreneur William Edenborn. The collection has twelve of the prints from the book, not all illustrations. The prints include images of Edenborn, his family, and residences, and of his business partner John W. Gates.

DVD copies of live panel discussions sponsored by the Greater Cape Girardeau Historical Association, Inc., in conjunction with the Bicentennial Celebration for the City of Cape Girardeau, featuring long-time Cape Girardeau residents and writers reflecting on people, places, events, and significant changes in the community over its history.