-Most Notable Properties

-Architectural/Historic Surveys of areas such as West Broadway, Garth’s Addition, East Campus

-Economic Impact of Historic Preservation Report

-National Register for Historic Places (Boone County)

-Architectural Surveys such as 1978 of Downtown Columbia

-CoMo Preservation: A CommunityMade List

-Community History Archive. You can browse by decade, subject, etc.

Items available onsite for research include:

-Columbia City Directories (cross references people and businesses by name/address), Columbia Telephone Books, Our Town publications, Columbia Obituaries 1938-1965, Illustrated Historical Atlas, 1853 land entry atlas, cemetery records of Boone County

City Directories. In this collection you can learn not just where a building was but what it was used for, what was next to it and who worked there.

Plat maps: https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/plat/id/386

Maps: https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/Maps/search

Digital newspapers: https://shsmo.org/collections/newspapers/mdnp

Photographs: https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/imc/search

-Sanborn Maps

-University Archives

Photos: https://boonehistory.org/digital-collections/

Research Library open: Thursday, Friday, Saturday  12-5 pm.

Make an appointment at: ResearchLibrary@boonehistory.org or 573-443-8936

-Recorder of Deeds

To research property ownership history and transfers in person, go to the Boone County Recorder of Deeds office in the Boone County Government Building (801 E Walnut St #132, Columbia, MO 65201). Check in at the desk and let them know the specific address you are researching. They will escort you to the records room and give you a specific book and page number to search. From that book, you can research backwards in time to find transfers of title for that particular property. 

To research online visit https://www.showmeboone.com/recorder/online-services

-Assessor

Map Viewers including Plat Maps

-Videos on How to Research Genealogy: SHSMO's Bill Eddleman presents a multi-part series on genealogy techniques and strategies. https://shsmo.org/on-demand/basic-genealogy

-FamilySearch: https://www.familysearch.org/en/united-states/

-Genealogical Society of Boone County and Central Missouri

https://boonecomogen.org/

Cemetery records available.

Research Library located inside the "Boone County History & Culture Center” at 3801 Ponderosa St, Columbia, MO 65201   

Thursday, Friday, Saturday 12-4pm

Make an appointment at: 573-268-6052 or info@BooneCoMoGen.org

-Local Architectural Historian Deb Sheals' Presentation on Researching Historic Properties.

-University of Missouri’s Brick & Mortar

-Secretary of State’s Missouri Digital Heritage https://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/

-Library of Congress, Sanborn Maps.

-PICRYL is a public domain media source database to find images, documents, and references.

-Newspapers.com has Columbia’s newspapers including an African American newspaper (1903-1909). This site requires a subscription. However, SHSMO hosts a digital collection of newspapers and database at the Center for Missouri Studies, 605 Elm Street, Columbia, MO 65201.

-University of Maryland Library's Guide to Researching Historic Homes

-National Trust for Historic Preservation's "10 Ways to Research Your Home's History"

-US Department of the Interior and the National Park Service's Guide to Researching a Historic Property

Local historian Matt Fetterly’s list of recommended reading for local and state history.

Columbia and Boone County

General

-Stephens, E. W. (1875) "History of Boone County." An Illustrated Historical Atlas of Boone County, Missouri. Philadelphia: Edwards Brothers

-Switzler, William F. (1882). History of Boone County. St. Louis, Missouri: Western Historical Company. OCLC 2881554.

-Gentry, North Todd (1916). The Bench and Bar of Boone County: Including the History of Judges, Lawyers, and Courts, and an Account of Noted Cases, Slavery Litigation, Lawyers in War Times, Public Addresses, Political Notes, Etc. E.W. Stephens Publishing Company. OCLC 205808.

-Havig, Alan R. (1984). From southern village to Midwestern city : an illustrated history of Columbia. Woodland Hills, California: Windsor Publications. ISBN 9780897811385.

-Crighton, John C. (1987). A History of Columbia and Boone County. Columbia, Missouri: Computer Color-Graphics. OCLC 16960014.

-Sapp, David (2000) "Boone County Chronicles" Columbia: Boone County Historical Society

-Brownlee, Richard S. 1956 The Big Moniteau Bluff Pictographs in Boone County, MO. Missouri Archaeologist 18(4): 49-54

-Paten, Marty (2012). The Columbia Branch Railroad: A Chronological History of the Short Line Railroad from Centralia, Missouri to Columbia, Missouri. Columbia, Missouri: HAGR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-615-52810-6.

-Daniels, Francis Potter (1907). The Flora of Columbia, Missouri and Vicinity: An Ecological and Systematic Study of a Local Flora. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri. OCLC 69404603.

-O’Brien, Dianna Borsi (2021). Historic Movie Theaters of Columbia Missouri. Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press (Arcadia Publishing). ISBN 9781467146401.

Black history

-Hunt, Doug (2010). The Lynching of James Scott and the Trial of George Barkwell. ISBN 9781453611852.

-Hunt, Doug (2010). Black and White Justice in Little Dixie. ISBN 9781460911037.

-Batterson, Jack A. (1998). Blind Boone, Missouri's Ragtime Pioneer. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0826211984.

-Elwang, William (1904). The Negros of Columbia, Missouri: A Concrete study of the Race Problem. Columbia, Missouri: Department of Sociology, University of Missouri.

-Herrmance, J. Noel (1988). The History of St. Paul A.M.E. Church Columbia, Missouri 1867-1900. Columbia, Missouri: Unicorn Press. OCLC 623229147.

-The African-American Experience at the University of Missouri 1950-1994. Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth Publishing Company. 1994.

Churches

-Stephens, Frank F. (1965). History of the Missouri Methodist Church. Columbia, Missouri: Missouri United Methodist Church. OCLC 1144689380.

-Dains, Mary K. (1996). Guided by the Hand of God: The History of First Christian Church Columbia, MIssouri 1832-1996. Columbia, Missouri: First Christian Church.

Centralia

-Rodemyre, Edgar T. (1936). History of Centralia Missouri. Press of the Centralia Fireside Guard.

Columbia College

-Batterson, Paulina A. (2001). Columbia College: 150 Years of Courage, Commitment, and Change. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 9780826213242.

-Hale, Allean Lemmon (1956). Petticoat Pioneer: The Christian College Story 1851-1951. Columbia, Missouri: Artcraft Press.

Stephens College

-Crighton, John Clarke (1970). Stephens: A Story of Educational Innovation. Columbia, Missouri: American Press.

University of Missouri

-Stephens, Frank Fletcher (1962). A History of the University of Missouri. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 9781258386566.

-Olson, James and Vera (1988). The University of Missouri An Illustrated History. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 9780826206787.

-Viles, Jonas The University of Missouri, 1839–1939, E.W. Stephens Publishing Company

-Budds, Michael (2018). 100 Years of Music-Making at Mizzou. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri School of Music. ISBN 9780692987322.

-Ellis, Elmer (1989). My Road to Emeritus. Columbia, Missouri: State Historical Society of Missouri. ISBN 0962289116.

-Quarles, James Thomas (1924). University of Missouri Songs (1 ed.). Columbia, Missouri: Curators of the University of Missouri. OCLC 19229550.

-Serving the University of Missouri: A Memoir of Campus and System Administration (1993) ISBN 0-8262-0924-6

Other

-Osmund, Overby; Marshall, Howard; Debbie, Sheals; Brassieur, Ray (February 1994), Final Report of A Survey of the East Campus Neighborhood, Columbia, Missouri Phase One (PDF), Columbia, Missouri: Department of Art History and Archaeology University of Missouri

-Havig, Alan R. (1998). A centennial history of the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1898-1998. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 9780826211699.

Missouri

-Lawrence O. Christensen; William E. Foley; Gary Kremer (1999). Dictionary of Missouri Biography. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-6016-1.

-Lockmiller, David A. (1955). Enoch H. Crowder Soldier, Lawyer Statesman. Columbia, Missouri: Curators of the University of Missouri. OCLC 2460257.

-Eurich, Alvin C. Looking Ahead To Better Education In Missouri, A Report On Organization, Structure, And Financing Of Schools And Junior Colleges. (Academy for Educational Development: 1966). online, 119pp

-Houck, Louis. History of Missouri, Vol. 1.: From the Earliest Explorations and Settlements until the Admission of the State into the Union (3 vol 1908) online v 1; online v2; online v 3

-Kirkendall, Richard S. (2004). A History of Missouri: 1919 to 1953. Vol. V. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0826204945.

-Kremer, Gary R. Race and Meaning: The African American Experience in Missouri (University of Missouri Press, 2014). xiv, 269 pp. online

-Larsen, Lawrence H. (2004). A History of Missouri: 1953 to 2003. Vol. VI. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0826215467.

-Meyer, Duane G. (1982). The Heritage of Missouri (3 ed.). Springfield, Missouri: Emden Press. short textbook

-Parrish, William E. (1973). A History of Missouri: 1860 to 1875. Vol. III. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0826201482.

-Parrish, William Earl; Jones, Charles T.; Christensen, Lawrence O. (2004). Missouri, the Heart of the Nation (3 ed.). H. Davidson. ISBN 9780882958873.; university textbook

-Phillips, Claude Anderson. A history of education in Missouri (1911) online

-Budds, Michael (2021). 200 Memorable Missouri Musical Moments: Commentary, Historical Photographs, & Video Clips: In Honor of the Missouri State Bicentennial In 2021. Columbia, Missouri: The Mizzou Store. ISBN 9781616004095.