The John F. Bannon Manuscript Collection documents the research, writing, and teaching of a prominent Jesuit professor who was associated with the Department of History at Saint Louis University for 34 years (1939-1973), with 28 of them as chairman. Bannon's writings and memoirs comment on his life as a priest, his academic community, the local Jesuit community, SLU's Department of History, and the history of the University. As a scholar, his research focused on the trans-Mississippi West and Latin America, especially on the geographical regions of the Southwest and Spanish borderlands. Many of his notes, manuscripts, and published works emphasized the role of Jesuits as frontiersmen and pioneers in American westward expansion. As an educator, he was heavily involved in public outreach and education; he broadcast several television programs on the American West and also led a television series on local St. Louis history called "This was St. Louis" (1958-1959).