The papers document the fur trade in and around St. Louis, Missouri. Part 1, the Chouteau Collection, is a record of the business and social life of the leading family of St. Louis. Present within the collection are documents pertaining to political, economic, and social history. Important subjects include local and national elections, slavery, immigration, Indian-White relations, and the daily lives of people in the working classes, as well as those who owned businessess, controlled resources, and ran the political and economic machinery of late colonial and early national St. Louis. Part 2 consists of seventy volumes of fur trade account books and company ledgers and contains detailed records of inventories, packing lists, accounts receivable and payable, balances, cash books, and record books containing additional letters and legal agreements not found in Part 1. Part 3 consists of ledgers, copy books of business correspondence, checkbooks, summary business reports, cash account records, and stock i.
