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Edit in/Save to Microsoft WordDivision of Special Collections, Archives, and Rare Books, University of Missouri - Columbia Libraries
Columbia, Missouri 65201
United States
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The Division of Special Collections, Archives, and Rare Books (SCARaB) is comprised of two departments responsible for collections of primary source materials: rare books, manuscripts, documents, and the administrative records of the University of Missouri. The collections are diverse, containing materials of local and national importance. The majority of materials date from the sixteenth century through the present.
Finding aids, collection descriptions, and information about hours and other services may be accessed through either of the departmental websites. Photocopying, digital scanning, and interlibrary loan are available in many cases. Reference archivists and librarians may be contacted through email, telephone, or mail. The collections are open to all users.
Please note that the Archives is located at a different location on campus:
University Archives
703 Lewis Hall
Columbia, MO 65211-4320
The University Archives contain administrative records of the University of Missouri School of Medicine (1865-present), the first public medical school west of the Mississippi River, and the College of Veterinary Medicine (1885-1996, bulk 1914-1940). The University of Missouri Collection in the Special Collections department also contains numerous internal and faculty publications that supplement this documentation.
The Rare Book Collection contains many early landmarks in the history of medicine. The collection is particularly strong in the history of anatomy, including a 1555 edition of Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica, a 1664 edition of Descartes’ L’homme, and a collection of the Dance of Death which dates from the sixteenth century through the twentieth. The department also contains a number of important early works on medical botany, including a hand-colored first edition of Fuchs’ Historia Stirpium (1542) and a 1517 edition of Hortus Sanitatis. Numerous other early texts document the history of medicine and the life sciences from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries.