St. Louis Mercantile Library

Don't forget to vote daily for the Wallace H. Smith Gallery of Art to win Best Art Gallery in the St. Louis American Reader's Choice Awards! The voting window is open through May 31st.
https://www.stlamerican.com/readerschoice/

The St. Louis American Reader’s Choice Awards 2026 Let’s go, St. Louis! Vote for The Best Local Businesses and Services Step 1: Go to the categories of your choice and vote for your favorites below Step 2: Verify your email (to make sure your vote is counted) Vote for as many different businesses as you like, but you can only vote for that […]

⏳ Please note that our hours have changed until further notice:

St. Louis Mercantile Library:
Monday-Friday: 8am-5pm
Saturday-Sunday: CLOSED

The Wallace Herndon Smith Gallery of Art*:
Monday: Noon-4pm
Tuesday-Friday: 10am-4pm
Saturday-Sunday: CLOSED
*Selected weekday evenings are available by appointment for private visits and tours. Please call (314) 516-5920 for more information.

To view more hours, please visit https://libguides.umsl.edu/hours.

📣 Check out the Mercantile's cover story in the latest issue of Town & Style Magazine!
https://townandstyle.com/explore-art-history-st-louis-mercantile-library-at-umsl/

🎤 In this interview with Emerita Curator of Fine Art Collections, Julie Dunn-Morton, she discusses Sylvester's impact on his fellow St. Louis artists --a few of which made the front cover! Clockwise from lower-left: Fred Greene Carpenter (1882-1965), "Cape Girardeau," 1941, oil on canvas; Kathryn Bard Cherry (1880-1931), "Down the Road, Elsah," n.d., oil on canvas; Dawson Dawson-Watson (1864-1939), "River Birches," c. 1904, oil on canvas.

👀 See these works up close and learn more by scheduling a free docent tour! Details are in the cover story.

🎫 Tickets for the June 12 Coffee in the Gallery closing reception are still available but selling fast! Call 314-516-7248 to register today.

📚 We still have plenty of "Sylvester & His Circle" exhibition catalogues in stock. Treat yourself to a gift and take the exhibition with you in this beautiful hardcover book! $40 ($36 for Mercantile Members!)

The Mercantile's Wallace H. Smith Gallery of Art is officially on the Reader’s Choice “Best of St. Louis” ballot for Best Art Gallery! Help us win by voting daily here:

The St. Louis American Reader’s Choice Awards 2026 Let’s go, St. Louis! Vote for The Best Local Businesses and Services Step 1: Go to the categories of your choice and vote for your favorites below Step 2: Verify your email (to make sure your vote is counted) Vote for as many different businesses as you like, but you can only vote for that […]

On Saturday, April 4, the Mercantile Library had the pleasure of welcoming Dan Biscan and his family, descendants of Frederick Oakes Sylvester, to the gallery.

Seeing the family gathered in front of Sylvester’s work was a powerful reminder that these paintings are part of a living legacy—one that continues to resonate today.

This visit offered a meaningful opportunity to connect the artist’s legacy with the present and to share his work with those who carry his history forward.

Thank you to Dan and his family for taking the time to connect with us and with Sylvester's enduring legacy.

Today we celebrate the birthday of St. Louis artist James Godwin Scott (1931–2015), a nationally recognized watercolorist known for his vivid portrayals of life along the Mississippi River.

After arriving in St. Louis at age 21, Scott found lasting inspiration in the riverfront—famously recalling his first view beneath the Eads Bridge as a turning point in his artistic vision. From that moment forward, the river became a central subject in his work.

Scott’s paintings capture both the beauty and industry of the Mississippi, from steamboats and working vessels to bridges, docks, and shifting shorelines. His work reflects a deep engagement with place, documenting not only the physical landscape but also the cultural and economic rhythms of the region.

The Mercantile Library holds a significant collection of Scott’s watercolors, offering a rich record of his artistic engagement with the St. Louis riverfront. Through works like these, his legacy continues to provide a compelling portrait of the city and the river that shaped it.

"Dawn, Eads Bridge," "Big River, Bonne Terre, Missouri," and "Bermuda," by Scott are on view in our exhibition "Casting a Long Shadow: Frederick Oakes Sylvester & His Circle",
on display through July 31 in our newly renovated Wallace H. Smith Gallery of Art.

📍 St. Louis Mercantile Library Art Collection

This Women Artist Wednesday we highlight the work of sculptor Elizabeth Phelan (1896-1987). Phelan studied drawing and clay modeling at Washington University, but was largely self-taught as a sculptor. Her works were exhibited widely in St. Louis at the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, the City Art Museum (now the Saint Louis Art Museum), and at several galleries, as well as in galleries and museums across the country. Phelan worked in a variety of materials including stone, wood, and copper, and created murals that paired traditional and creative materials like mosaic tile and gravel.

When interviewed for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about works exhibited in 1953, Phelan stated that her initial inspiration comes from the texture, color, shape and history of the piece of material she’s chosen. As she explores the material her concept may change based on cracks or other faults uncovered as she carves. Phelan noted that the final influence is the viewer’s imagination. In 1964, Post-Dispatch art critic Mary King praised Phelan’s work on display at the Sculptor’s Gallery saying “she exploits the family similarity between trees, wood and the human form with poetic and psychological sensitivity.” King also described two works in the exhibition as “examples of the roughly columnar form which has a hollowed-out pocket with a crawl-in feeling” that could also be a description of the untitled piece in the Mercantile collection.

We invite you to view Phelan’s artwork on display in the Hosmer Sculpture Hall, Level 2 of the St. Louis Mercantile Library. Sculpture Hall is open Monday – Wednesday 8am – 9pm; Thursday, Friday 8am – 5pm; Saturday 8am – 4pm.