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From the mid-1950s to 1989, the St. Louis Room in Pius Memorial Library, guardian of the
Rare Books and Archives Collections, benefited from the talents and energy of two dedicated
professionals who shared a low of the American West and of the books that tell its story.
Thanks to their efforts, the Westward Expansion Collection offers students of the shifting
American frontier a contemporary picture of the phenomenon that ranges from the scholarly
to the satirical.
Catherine Weidle, Rare Books Librarian from 1957 until her retirement in 1989, wrote her
Saint Louis University master's thesis in history about Cahokia Parish in Illinois, tracing
its development from a bastion of the French American frontier of 1699 to a heartland haven
of the United States in 1949. Miss Weidle retained her interest in St. Louis and
Mississippi Valley history all her life, and extended her professional collecting endeavors
to the rest of the American West. She believed that rare, scarce, and fragile books
on these subjects of vital importance to the American experience should be removed from the
Library's regular stacks and placed together for safekeeping in the St. Louis Room.
In this way she built up a collection centered around the country's Western expansion.
Over the years she was able to accumulate several shelves worth of such valuable material.
Father Edward Vollmar, Associate Director of University Libraries from 1948 to 1951 and again
from 1955 to 1970, probably encouraged Miss Weidle and aided her in her collecting scheme.
This professor of history, dubbed "AB Vollmar" after his penchant for bestowing high
grades on his students, risked not always being taken seriously because of the "cowboys
and Indians" courses he enjoyed teaching. A glance at the University catalogues
reveals his focus: "The Westward Movement," "The Indian Frontier,"
"The Cattlemen's Frontier," "The West: Fact and Fiction." All
of these topics and more can be explored through the items in the Westward Expansion Collection.
Mention should also be made of longtime History Department Chairman John Francis Bannon,
S.J., whose research revolved around the Southwest borderlands and the old Spanish
territories in North America. With Vollmar and Weidle, Bannon formed a triumvirate
of advocates for the study of the Westward movement at Saint Louis University.
The Westward Expansion Collection in the St. Louis Room is one of varied riches.
Honest personal narratives of pioneer experiences on the plains and in the mountains,
wildly exaggerated adventures of the Buffalo Bill "Great White Hunter" stamp,
scholarly disquisitions on the right of possession, emigrant guidebooks mixing practical
travel tips with rosy visions of peace and prosperity, humorous tall tales that Mark Twain
would have appreciated--all have been preserved for the enlightenment of future
scholars. The collection is a fitting memorial to the devoted labors of Catherine
Weidle and Father Edward Vollmar, and a fascinating treasure trove awaiting the student's
discovery.
Christine Froechtenigt Harper
March 2000
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