The materials in this collection, dating from 1917-1919, document the participation of the students, alumni, faculty and staff of Illinois State Normal University in World War I. During the war, Illinois State Normal University Librarian Ange Milner corresponded with women in service. After the war, she sent a survey to all who could be located. The bulk of the material in this collection consists of the responses to this survey as well as letters and photographs sent to Miss Milner and others at the University. These materials were gathered in War Service Records for each individual. It also includes documentation of on-campus activities, including a reunion for everyone that served in World War I, hosted by the University in June 1919...... more

This collection, from the Illinois State Library, contains books and documents about Abraham Lincoln's life, political career, and assassination.

This collection consists of approximately 4,500 photographs documenting natural environments, ecologies, and plant communities in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Produced between 1891 and 1936 by a group of American botanists generally regarded as one of the most influential in the development of modern ecological studies, these photographs provide an overview of important representative natural landscapes across the nation. The photographs were taken by Henry Chandler Cowles (1869-1939), George Damon Fuller (1869-1961), and other Chicago ecologists on field trips across the North American continent...... more

This collection contains samples from the ALA archives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Items in this collection are drawn from two smaller collections: 1) The F. W. Faxon Photographs Collection, which consists mainly of group pictures of librarians attending the ALA conferences in U.S. and Canada, covering the period of 1894-1932, with the exception of 1896. The collection includes the Two War-Time Conferences photographs. All photographs in this collection were taken by F. W. Faxon. This photographs collection is part of a larger collection of Conference Photographs; and 2) The Library Building Photographs Collection contains pictures of library buildings in photographic papers and postcards. Some of the pictures are in the form of paintings and other kinds of artist-rendering arts. Some postcards were from F. W. Faxon collection. Each postcard is comprised of two images, the front and back...... more

The first series of the University of Chicago Library’s Archival Photofiles series. Most of the photographs in this series depict University of Chicago buildings, campus plans, landscaping, and maintenance. There are also some photos of the contiguous neighborhoods of Hyde Park, Kenwood, and Woodlawn, particularly for the turn-of-the-century years and the urban renewal period of the 1950s-1960s. Likewise, nearby parks--Jackson, Washington, and the South Parks system--are represented, primarily for the early part of the twentieth century...... more

Archivision Architecture Images is an image source for educators and visual resource professionals. The collection contains a rich archive of images of architectural monuments, landscape architecture, and public art.

The Argus is the Illinois Wesleyan University's student-run newspaper. This collection provides an access to online version of the newspaper from 2004. The volumes published before 2004 are available at http://www2.iwu.edu/library/services/argus_digital.shtml.

The photographs in this collection depict everyday sights of Arthur, Illinois, from the early 1900's to the midle of the century. Many of the photograohs in this collection are made available through the generosity of Mr. Noel C. Dicks. Mr. Dicks, a local pharmacist and owner of Dick's Pharmacy from 1960 to 1995, began collecting photographs of pharmacists and physicians who had practiced in Arthur. This collection sparked his interest in the history of the town. Due to the contributions of many local people his collection now consists of thousands of photographs, glass negatives, and other items of local interest...... more

This collection is drawn from the Newberry Library's Edward E. Ayer Collection. The Edward E. Ayer Collection is known as “the finest gathering of materials on American Indians in the world" that consists of 130,000 volumes, over 1 million manuscript pages, 2000 maps, 500 atlases, 11,000 photographs and 3500 drawings and paintings on the subject. This collection contains 318 color and pencil drawings that show early history of American Indians...... more

The Bentley Image Bank includes images from the holdings of the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. The collection includes history of the Michigan State and the University Michigan.

The Bloomington-Normal Black History Project was founded in 1982 and its collections span the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection contains photographs, portraits, booklets, articles, and photocopies related to club organizations and churches of the local Black community. In 1989, the Black History Project was affiliated with the McLean County Historical Society, which now serves as a repository for the project's collections. ..... more

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is committed to building and sustaining collections for the use of students, faculty, visiting scholars, and the public. Unfortunately, the physical and chemical composition of many of these items actively works against this commitment. The Brittle Books project is one of the UIUC library's preservation projects that scans and reproduces digital images of the physically damaged books to provide access to users...... more

Campus Archival Documents includes documents pertaining to the history of Sangamon State University (1970-1995) and its successor, the University of Illinois at Springfield (1995-present). The collection contains documents from the formative years of SSU, including the memo "Considerations on hiring new faculty" written by the founding president Robert C. Spencer (popularly known as the "Blue Memo,") the first course catalog, and a photograph album and scrapbook documenting the campus groundbreaking in 1970. Also included are a collection of Commencement programs, and other documents and presentations on the mission and history of the campus...... more

Campus News Archives collection includes two newsletters, SSU Journal (1973-1982) and SSU/UIS Weekly (1984-2002), and the SSU Alumni Association magazine Sangamon (1973-1976). The newsletters often illustrated and included campus news regarding faculty, staff and student activities and accomplishments, notices of academic, sports, recreational and entertainment events, news of visiting speakers, calendars of events, and cafeteria menus. Sangamon State University opened in 1970 and became the University of Illinois at Springfield in 1995. ..... more

This digital collection, made available by the Polo Public Library, consists of cemetery records dating to the 1850's. Volunteer members of the Polo Historical Society walked through each of the individual cemeteries and recorded information from stones and markers.

The Champaign-Urbana Historic Built Environment Photograph Collection offers a selection from the holdings of the Champaign County Historical Archives, which was established as a department of The Urbana Free Library in 1956. Among its holdings of books, manuscripts, and maps, the archives has preserved over 50,000 photographs of local people and locations. This collection provides a sampling of the rich visual history of Champaign-Urbana's historic built environment in the 19th and 20th century, including images of residential, commercial, governmental, educational, medical, and religious structures, and thus reflects the notion that historic buildings serve as an entryway into the community's collective memory.The Champaign-Urbana Historic Built Environment Photograph Collection is a joint project of the Champaign County Historical Archives at Urbana Free Library and the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...... more

Charles Weever Cushman, amateur photographer and Indiana University alumnus, bequeathed approximately 14,500 Kodachrome color slides to his alma mater. The photographs in this collection bridge a thirty-two year span from 1938 to 1969, during which time Mr. Cushman extensively documented the United States as well as other countries...... more

The Charles Babbage Institute is home to the historical archives of the Burroughs Corporation, once the nation's largest manufacturer of adding machines and, later, a major computer company. The collection includes over 100,000 photographs depicting the entire visual history of Burroughs from its origin as the American Arithmometer Corporation in 1886 to its merger with the Sperry Corporation to form the Unisys Corporation in 1986...... more

Charles Overstreet is a long-time citizen of Flora, Illinois with a passion for photography. During most of his eighty years, Mr. Overstreet has used his camera to record images of history. During World War II, as a member of the U. S. Army, 252nd Field Artillery Battalion, he captured over 700 images of life as a soldier and unique snapshots of events of the war...... more

The history of Cherry Valley in many ways typifies that of a small, mid-nineteenth century Illinois town. Its establishment in 1835, its mill on the Kishwaukee River, the coming of the railroad in 1852, its schools, businesses, civic organizations, and pioneer families - all the strands weave a fabric of heritage that provides the present foundation and civic character of Cherry Valley. Included in this collection is a document created by the Cherry Valley Bicentennial Committee, "Cherry Valley: Our Memories are Warm". This committee collected photographs, written histories and oral histories from village and area residents. ..... more

Chuck Olin Digital Film Archive collection consists of production elements from two PBS-broadcast documentaries, "In Our Own Hands: The Hidden Story of the Jewish Brigade in World War II," and "Is Jerusalem Burning? Myth, Memory and the Battle of Latrun." Both films, relying primarily on first-person accounts, tell the story of critical episodes in the formation of the nation-state of Israel...... more

Strip mining was a major source of employment and very important to the Wilmington Coal Field towns of Coal City, Braidwood, and Wilmington during the 1930's through the 1950's. The Wilmington Coal Field is located sixty miles south of Chicago. The growth of the city and its need for energy prompted the search for coal in this area. In the late 1800's and very early 1900's many of the small villages in the area were built. Due to the proximity of coal to the ground surface, shaft mining was dangerous and expensive. Strip mining was first introduced in the Danville, Illinois area in the mid 1800's and it was tried in the early 1900's in the Wilmington Coal Fields but it wasn't until the end of the 1920's that strip mining became commercially successful in this area. This collection includes information on the mining process, how strip mining affected the communities and how they have recovered and continue to progress today...... more

This collection consists of cartoons drawn primarily from the Weekly Freeman and National Press and United Ireland newspapers. They address the subject of Irish politics of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and in particular Ireland’s relationship with England.

Photographers working for the U.S. government's Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) between 1939 and 1944 made approximately 1,600 color photographs that depict life in the United States, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The pictures focus on rural areas and farm labor, as well as aspects of World War II mobilization, including factories, railroads, aviation training, and women working. The original images are color transparencies ranging in size from 35 mm. to 4x5 inches. They complement the better-known black-and-white FSA/OWI photographs, made during the same period..... more

The historic images in this collection come from all corners of the WIU Archives and Special Collections sixteen county collection area, with a special emphasis placed upon Western Illinois University, the City of Macomb, and McDonough County.

Digital Past is a local history digitization program undertaken by libraries, historical societies, museums, and other cultural venues in Illinois in partnership with the North Suburban Library System in Wheeling, Illinois. It began in 1998 with a grant from the Illinois State Library and has become a popular resource for researchers of all ages and interests including schoolchildren, genealogists, historians, authors, producers, and special interest groups. Digital Past contains collections from 30 institutions of varying topics and formats including 44,000+ records in nearly 100 collections...... more

C. William "Doc" Horrell operated a photographic studio in Anna, Illinois and was a key figure in the establishment of both Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) Photographic Services and the Department of Cinema and Photography. Horrell’s images of "the land between the rivers" helped strengthen and preserve the regional identity of Southern Illinois. As a freelance photographer, he recorded the life and work of coal miners and provided important documentation of the coal industry in Southern Illinois. This collection contains 768 images of his work...... more

Published yearly since 1919, and well illustrated, the Warbler conveys information on students and faculty, chronicles important cultural and sporting events, describes organizational activities, and depicts changes in the campus layout and physical plant. This collection includes every page on the first 11 volumes...... more

This collection consists of French World War I posters drawn from the University of Illinois Archives. These “graphically charged, lushly colored” lithographic posters from depict many aspects of "the Great War," including the place of women in the war effort, the need for personal sacrifice on the home front, and even the entrance of the United States in 1917. ..... more

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Rare Book and Special Collections Library holds an internationally renowned collection of emblem books that is among the most highly utilized primary source materials of its type worldwide. The German emblem books in this digital collection were selected due to the strength of the University Library collection in this area, the overall physical condition of the books, the on-site faculty expertise and interest in both German and Library and Information Science, and the strong potential for further collaboration with an already actively engaged international community of scholars...... more

This collection depicts 17th century history of the Great Lakes region. The collection includes historical maps, portraits and lithographs of Indians. The images are from History of the Indian Tribes of North America, with biographical sketches and anecdotes of the principal chiefs by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall as well as other collections in New Berry Library...... more

The Museum contains collections in frontier life, the development of an emerging agricultural economy, one-room prairie schoolhouses, the impact of both World Wars on rural Illinois, and the westward migration of the American population during the 19th century. The collection of early 20th century home, school and working life includes a complete blacksmithing shop and one-room schoolhouse...... more

The Historic Maps Aurora collection represents a unique historical image and shows the physical changes and growth of Aurora, Illinois. They also show changes in the city's political boundaries such as ward changes, street names, and, in some cases, building and business locations. Maps in this collection include: 1860 map of Kane County - this map is one of the earliest owned by the Aurora Historical Society and may be the earliest extant map of Kane County. Aurora city maps dated 1859, 1868, 1872, 1876, 1884, and 1891. ..... more

The Historical Maps Online digital collection contains images of maps charting the last 400 years of historical development in Illinois and the Northwest Territory, as well as topographic maps of Illinois. Designed to appeal both to map aficionados and to educational institutions, the project aims to provide a broad spectrum of content, from expert scholarship of mapmakers and mapmaking to general knowledge about cartography and history...... more

Images in this collection are from photographs located in the University Archives and illustrate some of the growth and changes to Illinois Wesleyan University since its founding in 1850. Background information for many of the photographs (approximate dates, people's names, etc.) is missing. If you have comments about them; please contact us at archives@titan.iwu.edu...... more

IDEALS is a digital repository for the University of Illinois community, developed by the University Library and CITES. The digital repository serves as a permanent and secure online home for work produced by University of Illinois faculty and scholars. The IDEALS holds the scholarly output, especially conference papers, pre-prints, datasets, and other forms of scholarship that don't usually see formal publication...... more

The Illinois Air Photo Imagebase collection, held by the University of Illinois Library, provides a dynamic history of the geographic features of Illinois in this century when both geographic and social features were rapidly changing. The collection includes 1024 historic aerial photos of Champaign, Cook, Fulton, Mason, Peoria and Will counties from 1930 to 1959...... more

The Illinois Blue Book is one of the most comprehensive sources of state government information. It is a nationally recognized source for information about Illinois' executive, judicial and legislative branches of government. Originating in 1861 as a privately published roster of legislators, the Blue Book has evolved into a historical publication complete with biographies, articles, illustrative photographs and helpful information for Illinois citizens. Recent issues of the Blue Book also include lists of toll-free state telephone numbers and updated listings for Illinois news media - including contact information. ..... more

This collection of full-text materials, from the Illinois State Library, includes the text of all proposed and adopted Illinois constitutions.

This publication of the Illinois General Assembly is the working document that Illinois legislators use to track what bills have been introduced, which Illinois laws they amend, what subject they are about, and who introduced them. The digitized volumes are available from 1985 to 2006...... more

Immediately following the capture of Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln, on April 15, 1861, issued a call for 75,000 militia - thus putting an end to all speculation about whether there would be civil war. At this time, Illinois had neither arms nor an effective militia force. Governor Richard Yates called a special session of the General Assembly to provide for the organization of six regiments - the Illinois quota under the President's order. By October of that year Illinois had forty-three regiments in service. From April 17, 1861 to April 30, 1865 Illinois furnished 256,297 men who served during the war. By the end of the war, 35,000 Illinois men died fighting to preserve the Union...... more

This collection includes digitized books in numerous subject areas, some of which contain searchable full-text.

In 1994 the Friends of North Suburban Library formed a local history committee. Since that time they have collected scrapbooks, photographs, maps, yearbooks, diaries, letters and other memorabilia documenting the history of the communities that surround Rockford, Illinois: Loves Park, Machesney Park and Roscoe. Included in the collection presented here are images from the Harlem School District, Harlem Village in the late 19th century, and the Lusk collection of buildings. Photographs of farms and businesses that represent important developments in the community are also featured. The minutes of the Roscoe Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Roscoe Literary Club, in the late 19th century, afford a sense of the community at the time. ..... more

The Immigration History Research Center in University of Minnesota promotes research on migration with a special emphasis on immigration to the U.S. The IHRC has built one of the largest and most important collections of materials on U.S. immigration and refugee life to be found anywhere in the world. This website provides immediate access to information for those who want to do research on immigration, for those interested in migration-related events, and for those seeking scholarly and expert perspectives on the headlines of the day...... more

The Cullom-Davis Library at Bradley University holds over 1,000 images in Special Collections which were donated by Jack Bradley, a retired photographer for the Peoria Journal Star. The images in this online collection are a representative sample of those already digitized. The images are predominantly black and white, residing on prints and 35mm slides as well as negatives in several formats up to 4x5. The collection spans a period from 1955 to 1977 and deal mostly with people, places, and events in central Illinois. The emphasis is on human interest with subjects such as: small town life, architecture, farming, sports and recreation, religion, cemeteries, politics, the homeless, the Illinois River, and country scenes...... more

James Barrett "Scotty" Reston (1909-95) papers include correspondence, publications, manuscripts, memoranda, reports, speeches, interview transcripts, and photographs relating to Reston's career with the Associated Press (1934-39) and with The New York Times (1939-89) as a reporter (1939-89), chief Washington correspondent (1953-64), associate editor (1964-68), executive editor (1968-69), vice president (1969-74), and columnist (1974-89). Reston won the Pulitzer Prize twice, in 1945 and in 1957, and several times served as a juror who helped select Pulitzer Prize recipients. Reston's papers contain information regarding World War II; the development of American journalism in the post-World War II period; the Pulitzer Prizes; the origins and growth of the United Nations; post-World War II U. S. presidential administrations and elections; U. S. Cold War diplomacy and relations with the Soviet Union and China, especially the decision to recognize mainland China in 1971; the Vietnam War, especially press coverage of and student demonstrations against; and the history, administration, design and labor relations of The New York Times. Notable correspondents and interviewees include Dean Acheson, Joseph Alsop, Russell Baker, Chester Bowles, George Bush, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Wallace Carroll, Jimmy Carter, Turner Catledge, E. Clifton Daniel, Orville Dryfoos, Max Frankel, Henry Kissinger, Aleksei Kosygin, Anthony Lewis, Miguel de la Madrid, Lester Markel, Francois Mitterand, Jean Monnet, A. M. Rosenthal, Anwar Sadat, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, I. F. Stone, Lewis Strauss, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, Pierre Trudeau, George Wallace, and Tom Wicker...... more

The John Starr Stewart Ex Libris Collection comprises some 1500 plates, each mounted on an individual card. Each card has a specially designed printed form mounted on the verso upon which Mr. Stewart inserted notes about the owner, designer, or subject of the plate. Besides bookplates, the collection contains book stamps and spine labels, especially from institutional libraries. The collection was made between 1903 and 1906 and is rich in contemporary bookplates, many in the art nouveau style, although older plates are also included. While mid-Western and other American plates predominate, a substantial number of English and continental plates are present. ..... more

The records of the YMCA of the USA, founded in 1851, and its various committees, programs, and constituent bodies, form the core of the Kautz Family YMCA Archives. In addition to personal papers of over 300 YMCA leaders, the collection has more than 75,000 photos dating from the American Civil War to the present. Other materials include a complete set of Association Press publications, rare books and pamphlets, meeting minutes, research studies, scrapbooks, and artifacts such as flags from countries where foreign secretaries worked. ..... more

The Law Library Microform Consortium (LLMC) is a non-profit cooperative serving member libraries᾽ needs for preservation, space recovery, and collection development on film and on-line. In its first 27 years of operation, it filmed over 7,500 titles, some 90,000 volumes, of interest to researchers in law and history. Its backfile comprises the world᾽s largest collection of legal literature and government documents in microform. That backfile, and future filming of some 10,000 volumes per year, are being made available for on-line access...... more

The Transportation History Collection of the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan contains the archive of the original Lincoln Highway Association (1913-1927). The archive consists of materials from the central office in Detroit dating from 1912 up through the late 1930s. There are letters, manuscript trip logs, minutes of meetings of the Board of Directors, reports, contracts, membership sales and subscriptions records, planning documents, financial statements, press releases, publications, guides, including the 1928 logbook of Lincoln Highway markers made by local Boy Scouts, and strip maps. The collection includes images of the Lincoln Highway (construction, views, bridges, etc.)...... more

This collection features selected resources relating to the history of Springfield and central Illinois drawn from Archives/Special Collections in Norris L Brookens Library at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Included are books and monographs, Clayville Rural Life Center research reports and bibliographies, original letters and official government documents, and photographic collections...... more

Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history primarily from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The book collection currently contains approximately 10,000 books with 19th century imprints...... more

Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history primarily from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The journal collection contains ten journals with imprints primarily between 1850-1877...... more

The Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress holds more than 4.5 million items, of which this collection represents only a small fraction, those that have been converted to digital form. The focus of the collection is Americana and Cartographic Treasures of the Library of Congress. These images were created from maps and atlases and, in general, are restricted to items that are not covered by copyright protection...... more

The Mathematical Models Books Collection consists of 12 books of 11 titles published in the University of Illinois and in Europe between 1880 and the 1920's. The mathematical models in these books represent certain features of mathematical instructions and research by adequate models, mechanisms, or graphs, which were not available in the market at that time. This collection is part of the Altgeld Mathematical Model Collection in University of Illinois that is the second greatest of its kind in the world, after the Smithsonian's. Currently there are about 380 mathematical models displayed in Altgeld Hall...... more

This collection, from the Mount Olive Public Library, includes photographs of mines and mine workers from Mount Olive as well as some Mother Jones memorabilia - including the letter she wrote to the miners of Mount Olive. She died on November 30, 1930 and is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery at Mount Olive, Illinois. Her grave is near that of "those brave boys" she referred to - the victims of the Virden mine riot of 1898...... more

The Motley Collection of Theatre and Costume Design is a valuable source of documentation on the history of theatre and is housed in the Rare Book and Manuscripts Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is a rare collection of original materials on the theatre comprising over 5000 items from more than 150 productions in England and the United States. These materials include costume and set designs, sketches, notes, photographs, prop lists, storyboards, and swatches of fabric. A sample of sketches from some of the productions were digitized from slides made of the images and then indexed to create a database for scholars and others interested in theatre history...... more

The McLean County Museum of History offers access to a wide range of Native American objects. The collection includes pre-historic lithics and pottery fragments found in Central Illinois used in farming, hunting, and food processing. The collection also contains objects obtained through trade with early European settlers and made by Kickapoo and other Native Americans for use in daily life. Collection highlights include artifacts gathered from archeological excavations at the Grand Village of the Kickapoo and Kickapoo Stockade, photographs taken at the Kickapoo Reservation in Horton Kansas in 1906, and manuscripts and documents relating to the Kickapoo People collected by Milo Custer...... more

The collection contains shop drawings in ink on linen, paper and prints from the American, Indianapolis, Midland, and Winkle Terra Cotta Companies plus hundreds of photographs (prints and negatives), office indexes, order books, and advertising brochures. The bulk of the records are those of the American Terra Cotta Company and consist largely of shop drawings and photographs from the firm. The shop drawings in all cases show very few details of the buildings' designs with only a rough outline of the terra cotta design sketched in. What they do show, however, is the exact location and method of placement of the individual terra cotta pieces on the exterior or interior of each building, thus facilitating replacement and restoration of existing terra cotta ornamentation...... more

William Gray Purcell (1880-1965) and George Grant Elmslie's (1871-1952) highly successful partnership produced some of the finest Prairie School buildings in America. This collection presents drawings and other documents for almost every commission, plus those designed by both men before and after the period of their partnership. Also included are drawings from the firm of Louis H. Sullivan (1856-1924) as well as correspondence and other papers of Purcell's grandfather, William C. Gray , a prominent 19th century Chicago newspaper editor...... more

Established in 1856, Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, is the largest cemetery in Illinois in land area (365 acres). More than seventy thousand people are interred in this historic cemetery. With more than 2.5 million visitors each year, it is the second most-visited cemetery in the United States. Each entry includes the name of the deceased; the date of death; age at death; cause of death; a designation of the grave location, through a combination of block, lot, range, and grave numbers; place of birth; and remarks. These records were made available through the collaborative efforts of the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library, Oak Ridge Cemetery, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, and the Papers of Abraham Lincoln. ..... more

The Bensenville Community Public Library has collected a substantial amount of material dealing with the transformation of Douglas Field from a World War II aircraft manufacturing facility into O'Hare International Airport. Contained within this collection are letters, press releases, governmental resolutions, photographs and other historic documents. These materials may help the researcher understand O'Hare’s development into a national transportation center, its impact on the ecology of northern Illinois, and the consequences of various expansion plans on the quality of life in Chicago's western suburbs. ..... more

In 1975 a project to commemorate the American Revolution Bicentennial was undertaken by the Centralia Public Library. The result is this collection of oral histories created by local residents who talk about their personal experiences and their family histories. Topics covered include: Education, railroading, oil industry, mining (including the story of the Number 5 mine disaster), agriculture, businesses, churches, and ethnic groups...... more

The Oral History Collection at UIS consists of material collected by the Sangamon State University Oral History Office from 1971 to 1991. Some oral history memoirs have been added in recent years by volunteers and UIS graduate history students. The collection includes the memoirs of a wide array of people including: coal miners; members of the African-American, Italian-American, Jewish, and other ethnic communities in central Illinois; Illinois legislators and politicians; farm families; WWII conscientious objectors and prisoners of war; members of Springfield churches and clubs; teachers in rural one room schools; and many others. The collection is a vital record of life in Illinois and beyond from the late 19th century to the present, and preserves the memories of many individuals whose experiences would not otherwise be recorded. ..... more

The Panoramic Photograph Collection contains approximately four thousand images featuring American cityscapes, landscapes, and group portraits. These panoramas offer an overview of the nation, its enterprises and its interests, with a focus on the start of the twentieth century when the panoramic photo format was at the height of its popularity. Subject strengths include: agricultural life; beauty contests; disasters; engineering work such as bridges, canals and dams; fairs and expositions; military and naval activities, especially during World War I; the oil industry; schools and college campuses, sports, and transportation. The images date from 1851 to 1991 and depict scenes in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. More than twenty foreign countries and a few U.S. territories are also represented...... more

Park Forest began in 1946 as a dream held by Carroll F. Sweet, Sr., to build a "G.I. Town" for returning veterans. Due to the lack of building during the Depression and World War II, the returning veterans and their young families faced a severe housing shortage. Carroll F. Sweet, Sr., introduced Nathan Manilow, a Chicago builder to Philip M. Klutznick, who was working in Washington D.C. as head of the Federal Public Housing Authority. The result was the first post-World War II planned community to include a shopping center and all of the amenities of modern life built in to the original plan. The collection includes newspaper clippings, brochures, photographs, maps, and legal documents of the Park Forest Plan...... more

Portraits of Actors, 1720-1920, includes almost 3500 pictures of actors-studio portraits and actors posing in costume for a particular role or performing a scene from a play. Dramatists, theatrical managers, singers and musicians are also included, but the majority are British and American actors who worked between about 1770 and 1893. Among the hundreds of actors included are: Sarah Siddons, Edmund Kean, John Philip Kemble, Edwin Booth, Edwin Forrest, William Henry West Betty, Charles Mathews, Dorothy Jordan, Frances Abington, and Ada Rehan. The images were digitized from etchings, engravings, lithographs, mezzotints, aquatints, wood engravings, photographs, and photomechanically-reproduced prints, all from the University of Illinois Theatrical Print Collection...... more

The Printed Ephemera collection at the Library of Congress is a rich repository of Americana. In total, the collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. Roughly 10,000 items are currently online. While the broadside format represents the bulk of the collection, there are a significant number of leaflets and some pamphlets. Rich in variety, the collection includes proclamations, advertisements, blank forms, programs, election tickets, catalogs, clippings, timetables, and menus. They capture the everyday activities of ordinary people who participated in the events of nation-building and experienced the growth of the nation from the American Revolution through the Industrial Revolution up to present day...... more

Project Unica is an initiative of The Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to produce high quality digital facsimiles of printed books that exist in only one copy. The concept of a "unicum" is difficult for the average library user to understand, since printed books, by their very nature, exist in more than one copy—that's the genius of Gutenberg's invention, after all. But fate and circumstance has sometime led to the destruction of every copy, save one, of a printed book. And the University of Illinois has quite a number of absolutely unique printed books. The aim of Project Unica is to digitize these supremely rare items and to provide a simple and efficient way of getting this valuable and unique information to scholars when and where they need it. The records of the books and the digital facsimiles are also available from institution's online catalog, Illinois Harvest, and OCLC...... more

Linen drawings and paper blueprints of sleeping and other railroad cars built and operated by the Pullman Company and dating mainly from the era of heavyweight and lightweight cars. Includes floor plans, duct layouts, heating pipe diagrams, side elevations, and underneath equipment layouts. Also includes floor plans of cars produced by the Palace Car Company, absorbed by Pullman in 1899...... more

Remembering the Houses of Western Springs is a collection of photographs of 19th century houses, with dates and some background information on each house. The Western Springs Historical Society took the photographs in 1977, and Thomas Ford Memorial Library in Western Springs digitized them in 2005. Western Springs is a suburb of Chicago located on the western edge of Cook County. The community was first settled in 1870s, and the village was incorporated in 1886. Being located along the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, the village became an affordable location for the homes of Chicago-bound commuters. The village was in many ways typical of Chicago suburbs that developed in the late 19th and early 20th century. Remarkably, many houses built in that era survive...... more

As the governing body of the University, the Board of Trustees exercises jurisdiction in all matters except those for which it has delegated authority to the President of the University, other officers, or agencies of the University. This collection contains the biannual reports of the Board of Trustees since 1922. Some of the volumes accompanies by supplements with title "Supplement to the minutes of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois: Internal operating budget." The reports published before 1992 are available through University of Illinois Archives (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/archives/Electronic%20Records/index.php?dir=University%20Archives/0101802_Trustees_Reports/)...... more

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the settlement houses of Chicago led the nation in addressing problems of urbanization, immigration, and industrialization. While many people are familiar with Chicago's most famous settlement house, Hull-House, few are aware of the creative efforts of the other settlement houses located in Illinois. This online image database features a selection of photographs and documents from the Hull-House Collection and from six other rich collections of settlement house materials housed in the Special Collections Department, University of Illinois at Chicago Library...... more

Social Justice and Activism at Elmhurst College includes photographs, excerpts from Elm Bark, the Elmhurst College newspaper, and other supporting papers from the Elmhurst College archives. The largest part of the collection focuses on the social movements of the 1960's – civil rights, student activism, the Vietnam War -- but materials from other eras, including the 1920's and World War II are included...... more

The Springfield Aviation Company Collection, 1927-1955, was donated to the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library in May 1995 by Craig Isbell, former co-manager of the company. Isbell formed a partnership with Gelder Lockwood in the late 1920s and operated this company at Springfield's Southwest Airport. This airport was first called Commercial Airport and later Municipal Airport. It continued as a private airfield after the opening of Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in 1947. The physical collection is comprised of several hundred photographs, publications and newspaper clippings related to the company and aviation in Springfield...... more

Materials in this collection of digitized historical items about St. Charles, Illinois span the 1800s through current times. Materials include militia records, old photographs, diaries, newspaper articles, and biographies, all on the engaging history of this community.

A diverse set of materials from up to 10 museums and libraries digitized to correspond to lesson plans from 15 K-12 school teachers. Lesson plans are mapped to the Illinois State Board of Education Learning Standards.

In 1953, the Abraham Lincoln Association published The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, a multi-volume set of Lincoln᾽s correspondence, speeches, and other writings. Roy P. Basler and his editorial staff, with the continued support of the association, spent five years transcribing and annotating Lincoln᾽s papers. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln represented the first major scholarly effort to collect and publish the complete writings of Abraham Lincoln, and the edition has remained an invaluable resource to Lincoln scholars...... more

The Living Museum has for decades been a rich source of information on Illinois art, natural history, anthropology, and history. This online project does not replace the print version of The Living Museum but makes this popular educational resource also accessible electronically to students, teachers, researchers, and others throughout the world. The Living Museum, a quarterly journal of the Illinois State Museum, is available without charge...... more

The United States and its Territories, drawn from the University of Michigan Library's Southeast Asia collection, comprises the full text of monographs and government documents published in the United States, Spain, and the Philippines between 1870 and 1925. The primary focus of the material is the Spanish-American war and subsequent American governance (approximately 1898-1910). The text collection is complemented by digitized images from key photograph collections drawn from the Special Collections Library...... more

The digital collection Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century comprises 7,949 publicity brochures, promotional advertisements and flyers for 4,545 lecturers, teachers, preachers, statesmen and politicians, actors, singers and opera stars, glee clubs and concert companies, magicians, whistlers and other performers who traveled the circuits at the beginning of the 20th century. The brochures are drawn from the Redpath Chautauqua Collection, which is housed at the University of Iowa Libraries...... more

This collection contains books from the collections of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that have been digitized as part of the large-scale digitization initiative, including texts (http://www.archive.org/details/university_of_illinois_urbana-champaign) digitized as part of our collaboration with the Open Content Alliance (http://www.opencontentalliance.org/)...... more

Project Unica is an initiative of The Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to produce high quality digital facsimiles of printed books that exist in only one copy. The concept of a "unicum" is difficult for the average library user to understand, since printed books, by their very nature, exist in more than one copy—that's the genius of Gutenberg's invention, after all. But fate and circumstance has sometime led to the destruction of every copy, save one, of a printed book. And the University of Illinois has quite a number of absolutely unique printed books. The aim of Project Unica is to digitize these supremely rare items and to provide a simple and efficient way of getting this valuable and unique information to scholars when and where they need it. The records of the books and the digital facsimiles are also available from institution's online catalog, Illinois Harvest, and OCLC...... more

The University of Illinois began the tradition of inscribing the Bronze Tablets with the names of students receiving University Honors in 1925. A new tablet is hung in the Main Library each year. Inscription on the Bronze Tablets recognizes sustained academic achievement by undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. According to the Student Code, students must have at least a 3.5 cumulative grade point-average through the academic term prior to graduation, and rank in the top three percent of the students in their graduating class...... more

The Illinois Built Environment collection provides to the public for the first time, a first-hand view of selected original documents used to shape the Campus. Among others, items include hand sketches of campus plans, original trace and linen drawings of many of the Central Quadrangle buildings, four separate proposed sketches for the original Library, now known as Altgeld Hall, and watercolor renderings for the display of the Alma Mater and many buildings. Many of the documents are common elevation architectural drawings. Some provide information that can inform the educated eye about building materials and the use of various construction techniques. Many are reflective of design trends of the times and some show comments and notes of the architect. Unique to a collection such is this is the dual role the document plays...... more

The USF Library is pleased to provide this collection of digital materials produced from the USF Archives. This collection contains digital images of photographs, letters, newspaper articles, pamphlets and brochures pertaining to the evolution of the USF Library and the construction of the current building. Artifacts in the collection are dated 1940 to 1978...... more

The digital images in this collection, made available by the Sangamon Valley Collection at the Lincoln Library in Springfield, Illinois are drawn from the larger physical collection and show Vachel Lindsay, his family, Elizabeth Graham, the Lindsay Verse Speaking Choir (1940) and his tombstone...... more

The William Hayes Papers are primarily family letters written from 1830-1857, years in which Hayes and his wife Anna moved from Galway, New York to Cleveland, Ohio, then to Fort Clark, Illinois (present-day Peoria) and finally to Randolph County, Illinois. However, they also include legal documents, business letters, and copies of "Andrew Borders vs. William Hayes," his 1844 civil trial at Picnkneyville for helping five Borders slaves escape to northern Illinois and the Illinois State Supreme Court trial which followed...... more

This collection, from the Illinois State Library, contains monographs and pamphlets on such subjects as Illinois’ participation in the war effort, the role of women, and educational challenges during what was called “the Great War.”

This collection, from the Illinois State Library, contains United States government documents on subjects such as rationing and conservation, women's work, civil defense, the Japanese interment, the development of the United Nations, and more.

During World War II the United States government issued posters on topics such as national security, rationing and conservation, investing in war bonds, military recruitment, civil defense, and industrial production. These posters were part of an aggressive propaganda campaign designed to encourage and mobilize the home front war effort. Artists such as James Montgomery Flagg, Otto Fischer, Ben Shahn, and Norman Rockwell contributed their talents to create some of these posters...... more

A collection of letters written by former IWU faculty member Fred "Bud" Brian to members of his family during his time in the Army Air Corps: 1943-1945. Many of these letters contain drawings and some have photographs and telegrams associated with them.

As the planned outcome of Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, The Field Museum may well be called "the Fair that never ended."