Lewis Eldon Atherton

• The Pioneer Merchant in Mid-America - first published in 1939.[6]
• The Frontier Merchant in Mid-America[7]
• The Southern Store, 1800–1860 - first published in 1949. [8]
• Main Street on the Middle Border - first published in 1954.[9][10]
• The Cattle Kings - first published in 1961. [11][12][13][14][15]

Atherton was also the author of many articles on frontier history in the Missouri Historical Review. One fine example of his research is Vol. 30, no. 1 1935, page 3, on the frontier Missouri Mercantile Firm “James and Robert Aull”. [16] He also published an article in the Kansas Historical Quarterly. One article by him titled “Disorganizing Effects on the Mexican War”, published in May 1937 (vol. 6, no. 2 1937, pages 115 to 123) has been digitized with permission of the Kansas State Historical Society.[17]

Atherton also contributed to the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, the Pacific Historical Review; as well as the Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, placing an emphasis on Agricultural History.[18][19]

He is also credited for his advisory role in the tv production of “Daniel Boone in America’s Story”. 16 minutes in color aired on September 3, 1968. See List of Coronet Films.

Atherton was a distinguished historian of the South and the American West. He actively acquired manuscripts for the Western Historical Manuscript Collection, where he served twice as director in the 1950s.[20]

Prior to 2011, the Western Historical Manuscript Collection was jointly held by the State Historical Society of Missouri and the University of Missouri.[21] The Western Historical Manuscript Collection (WHMC) is accessible at various locations throughout the state. Each of the four locations offer different historical material; the WHMC in Kansas City, specializes in the history and culture of Kansas City;[22] the WHMC collection located at the Missouri University of Science and Technology features material concerning the Ozark highland and southern Missouri;[23] and likewise, the WHMC office in St. Louis focuses on collecting material relating to the history of St. Louis and its surrounding region.[24] The WHMC location in Columbia, Missouri, specializes on the history of the state from prior its establishment to the present, as well as, "the trans-Mississippi West: social and cultural, religious and educational, military and political, economic and legal, business and labor, urban and rural, ethnic, environmental, and many others."[25] The Columbia collection consists in part of diaries, letters, photographs, and other material, of Missourians ranging from farmers, bankers, and frontier pioneers.[25]

However, during 2011, the Western Historical Manuscript Collection was absorbed into the State Historical Society and ceased to exist. The manuscripts and collection of the Western Historical Manuscript Collection can be accessed at the Society's Research Center located in Ellis Library and at Society research centers in Kansas City, St. Louis, Rolla, Cape Girardeau, and Springfield.