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Bookplate used about 1915. |
For almost as long as there has been a University of Missouri, there has been a University Library. Use the tabs on the left to see its evolution.
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This book plate was engraved by Joseph Winfred Spenceley of Boston in 1899. Doctor William George Brown described it thus:
"The book plate is of a most beautiful and elaborate design. In the center are the Arms of Missouri, surrounded by the Garter of which are the words United We Stand Divided We Fall, supported by grizzly bears, beneath the Arms a ribbon with the motto, Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto, (Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law) and beneath the later MDCCCXL, the date of the foundation of the University. Surmounting and resting on the Arms is a full faced barred royal helmet, denoting the Sovereignty of the State, with a crest of a cloud through which twenty-four stars have burst; one larger and brighter than the others in the constellation, represents the State of Missouri blazing forth through the occidental darkness and taking its place with the other states, making the twenty-fourth in the order of admission to the Union."
from History of the Library University of Missouri by Henry Ormal Severance.
