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- 14. [Snapshot Archive of St. Louis City Taverns]
14. [Snapshot Archive of St. Louis City Taverns]
14. [Snapshot Archive of St. Louis City Taverns]
[Vernacular Photography] : [Taverns] : [St. Louis, Missouri]: [ca. 1940's-1980]. Approximately 400 photographs. Various dimensions, the majority 3 1/2" square snapshots about evenly split between color and black and white prints. With a few newspaper clippings. Approximately 50 of the prints trimmed (presumably to fit in a previous mounting). Acquired by us as a loose collection and now housed in mylar sleeves and clear archival album pages, all tidily stored in a dust-proof binder.
A wonderful archive of St. Louis vernacular photography endearingly capturing scenes from the interiors of City bars and the family life of those who lived above them.
Piecing together dates and names infrequently written to print borders and versos has us confident in naming their source as a Mildred "Millie' Collier, nee Pinchback (1916-1982). Originally of Pocahontas, Arkansas, she came to St. Louis sometime after 1940 and seems to have begun working in bars shortly thereafter. Very little of this is identified, though signage repeating in the earlier black and white images appears to identify a place called the "Silver Star" and we note contemporary newspaper ads for a tavern of the same name located in the 4000 block of West Florissant Ave. in North City.
The color prints date to the 1960's and 1970's and we believe they capture a place Mildred owned and lived above called Millie's Clique Lounge. We can find no explicit reference to the bar’s precise location, though archived issues of the Post Dispatch note 1961 property tax information for a Mildred Collier who owned a building at 2758 Wyoming St. and a series of 1957 classified ads offering for sale a tavern at the same address. The space, home to a yoga studio today, is a long narrow one, matching the images seen here and located at the corner of California Ave,. just a few blocks west of Benton Park.
Many of the approximately 400 photographs capture more typical and banal family views, though in all, more than 200 snapshots explicitly capture bar interiors, producing a substantial and unfiltered glimpse into St. Louis neighborhood taverns at mid-20th Century.
[Vernacular Photography] : [Taverns] : [St. Louis, Missouri]: [ca. 1940's-1980]. Approximately 400 photographs. Various dimensions, the majority 3 1/2" square snapshots about evenly split between color and black and white prints. With a few newspaper clippings. Approximately 50 of the prints trimmed (presumably to fit in a previous mounting). Acquired by us as a loose collection and now housed in mylar sleeves and clear archival album pages, all tidily stored in a dust-proof binder.
A wonderful archive of St. Louis vernacular photography endearingly capturing scenes from the interiors of City bars and the family life of those who lived above them.
Piecing together dates and names infrequently written to print borders and versos has us confident in naming their source as a Mildred "Millie' Collier, nee Pinchback (1916-1982). Originally of Pocahontas, Arkansas, she came to St. Louis sometime after 1940 and seems to have begun working in bars shortly thereafter. Very little of this is identified, though signage repeating in the earlier black and white images appears to identify a place called the "Silver Star" and we note contemporary newspaper ads for a tavern of the same name located in the 4000 block of West Florissant Ave. in North City.
The color prints date to the 1960's and 1970's and we believe they capture a place Mildred owned and lived above called Millie's Clique Lounge. We can find no explicit reference to the bar’s precise location, though archived issues of the Post Dispatch note 1961 property tax information for a Mildred Collier who owned a building at 2758 Wyoming St. and a series of 1957 classified ads offering for sale a tavern at the same address. The space, home to a yoga studio today, is a long narrow one, matching the images seen here and located at the corner of California Ave,. just a few blocks west of Benton Park.
Many of the approximately 400 photographs capture more typical and banal family views, though in all, more than 200 snapshots explicitly capture bar interiors, producing a substantial and unfiltered glimpse into St. Louis neighborhood taverns at mid-20th Century.