The Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia comprises manuscript holdings of both the University of Missouri and the State Historical Society of Missouri. It is part of a four-campus (Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla, St. Louis) operation. The Columbia collection has a wide-ranging scope with materials of state, regional, and national significance. Its holdings span Missouri's pre-statehood days to the present, and chronicle aspects of the state and the trans-Mississippi West. In addition to onsite finding aids, access to collection descriptions related to the history of medicine can be found on the WHMC-Columbia's web page. Reference archivists are available to assist in-house researchers and to answer email, mail, and telephone inquiries. Photocopy services are available. The collection is open to the public from 8:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays.

The collection includes papers and records of physicians, dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians, and other medical practitioners; records of professional and advocacy organizations; and general material concerning health and medical care. WHMC-Columbia has the papers of John Sappington (1776-1856), pioneer doctor who successfully treated malaria in the Mississippi and Missouri River Valleys with anti-fever medicine (quinine); Charles Claude Guthrie, Sr., (1880-1963) professor of physiology and early researcher in the field of vascular surgery with Alexis Carrel; Daniel L. Mumpower (1802-1969), Methodist medical missionary to the Belgian Congo in the 1910s and 1920s; R.P.C. Wilson II (1876-1953), specialist in mental health research and treatments for epileptics in the Missouri state health system; Lee D. Cady (1896-1987), physician who advocated legislation for premarital and prenatal medical examinations; Howard Rusk (1901-1989), pioneer in physical medicine and rehabilitation; Katherine Bain (1897-1999), pediatrician with the U.S. Children's Bureau and U.S. delegate to UNICEF; John W. Connaway (1859-1947), recognized for researching livestock diseases, including brucellosis and Texas fever; Thomas D. Luckey (1919- ), biochemist whose research fields included animal nutrition and metabolism; records of the Missouri Nurses Association (1930s-1990s); the Missouri League for Nursing (1920s-1990s); the University of Missouri, Department of Anatomy (1908-1950); and the John H. Walters Hospice of Central Missouri (1975-1990). Finding aids for these collections and others are available on request or on the collection's website.