The Shirley L. Seifert Manuscript Collection is comprised of a rough draft, galley proofs, and a makeup copy of Seifert's book, "The Key to St. Louis." Seifert, a native of the St. Louis area, wrote this historical work about the founding and economics of Saint Louis as part of "The Key to the Cities Series" published by the J. B. Lippincott Company in 1963.

Seifert donated a copy of "The Key to St. Louis" to the Pius XII Memorial Library as well as various drafts and manuscripts of the book, with the intention that the material be available to students in order to demonstrate the process of preparing the book for printing and binding.