The “Cactus” Charlie Menees Collection was donated to the UMKC Miller Nichols Library by his family in 1994. The collection, focusing on big band and traditional jazz between 1917 and 1980, consists of personal and professional material, awards, news clippings, books, periodicals, sheet music, posters and graphics, memorabilia, several hundred photographs, over 25,000 sound recordings on LP, 78 and 45 formats, as well as additional audio/visual material. The manuscript collection is housed in LaBudde Special Collections; sound recordings and other audio/visual material are housed in the Marr Sound Archives.

The audiovisual materials contain radio broadcasts of Charles ("Cactus" Charlie) Menees, internationally recognized critic, radio producer, and jazz educator. The collection also consists of jazz recordings collected by Menees. Some material related to Don Wolff (St. Louis radio DJ) in this collection was transferred to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Vinyl LPs from the collection are searchable in the UMKC Libraries catalog. Cataloged Sound Recordings from the Charlie Menees Collection