Thomas Temple Hoopes Collection

Thomas Temple Hoopes was a curator at the St. Louis Art Museum from 1936 to 1964 until his retirement. In 1981, his widow, Catherine S. Hoopes, donated her husband’s collection of various materials on Japanese and Chinese art, history, languages, literature, and Japanese arms and armor to WashU Libraries.

East Asian Library’s special holdings include a part of the Hoopes Collection, mainly about Japanese armors and arms, especially swords, written in Japanese, Chinese, German, and French and published in 1905 and after. There are also several microfilms, artifacts such as casts, and a hand-made card dictionary.

Archival and monographic materials are located in Special Collection Room on Level 2 and searchable on the two finding aids available on ArchivesSpace. Other items from the Hoopes Collection are housed in East Asian Library’s general stacks, Olin Library, and the Art & Architecture Library, which are searchable through the catalog.