Browse By Collection Title | Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

This collection consists of photocopies, transcripts, and microfilm of correspondence and other documents found in various British Archives and Depositories. The bulk of these materials were collected by the Illinois History Survey under the leadership of Clarence W. Alvord and Theodore C. Pease in the early twentieth century. The Survey ...

This collection consists of originals, photocopies, and transcriptions of correspondence sent to and from U.S. Representative Henry Pelham Holmes Bromwell during the Civil War. Henry Pelham Holmes Bromwell (1823-1903) was a lawyer and politician from Illinois. He was friends with Abraham Lincoln and was a presidential elector for him in 1860. ...

Material in the Brook Farm Community record book concerns the formation and government of the Brook Farm Phalanx. The minutes from meetings and Board of Directors conferences discuss the establishment of the Community and weekly business issues. Interspersed throughout the notes are drafts of the Constitution of the Community, with ...

Francis J. Brooks was a motion picture projectionist and local historian in Monticello, Ill. This collection consists of Brooks's personal papers, including materials related to the motion picture industry, photographs of people and places taken in the period 1880-1910, and film of Arizona and Illinois. The Piatt County Historical and Genealogical ...

This collection consists of a record book kept by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Auxiliary, Division 14, of Springfield, Illinois, from 1896-1898 and 1902-1903. Prior to 1897, the organization was known as the Grand International Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. The Grand International Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Locomotive ...

This collection consists of the research papers and correspondence of Bob Brown, a writer and publisher, for his exploration of communitarian colonies in the United States conducted in the 1930s. Bob Brown (1886-1959), born Robert Carlton Brown II, was a writer and publisher from Oak Park, Illinois.  He was known for ...

Paul Brown, a radical pamphleteer, was a member of the New Harmony Community about which he had published an extensive account. The microfilm contains "The Woodcutter or a Glimpse of the 19th Century at the West," a manuscript, evidently designed for publication, that contains 43 essays advocating social reform on ...

William Brown was a businessman in Heyworth, McLean County, Ill., during the late nineteenth century. The collection includes Brown's ledger of individual business accounts, 1882-1901, primarily recording the sale of beef; other business records; and several letters. The collection was purchased by the Library in 1974.

This collection consists of personal papers from Orville Hickman Browning. Materials include copies and transcripts of correspondence, notes, speeches, and photographs. An early leader in the national Republican Party, Orville Hickman Browning helped Abraham Lincoln secure the 1860 presidential nomination. Browning served in the U.S. Senate from 1860 to 1863, and ...

This collection consists primarily of microfilmed business records and correspondence of the firm of Bryan and Morrison. Guy Bryan, the firm's senior partner, was a Philadelphia Quaker who had connections with a number of prominent Philadelphia merchants including George Logan, Peter Muhlenberg, and Chandler Price. By 1790, Bryan operated a ...

Arthur Bryant, writing to his brother John Howard Bryant from Jacksonville, Illinois, on December 30, 1830, describes the agricultural conditions in Southern and Central Illinois. Having just arrived in the region to farm, he elaborates upon the types of soil, crops, weather conditions, and prices for agricultural goods. This typescript of ...

Solon J. Buck was a member of the staff of the Illinois Historical Survey and a research associate in the University of Illinois History Department from 1910 to 1914. After leaving Illinois, he held the position of Superintendent of the Minnesota Historical Society (1914-1931) and later, Professor of History at ...

This collection consists of a letter written by John Buckley to Samuel Allen in 1838 describing life in Tremont, Illinois. John Buckley was a man from Gorham, New York who travelled west to Illinois around 1838 to purchase land and start a farm with his family. He settled in Tremont, Illinois, ...

This photo album contains images of Martin Lozelle Bullard's time at a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp in Macomb, Illinois, as well as some recreational images of family and friends. Martin Lozelle Bullard (1917-1982) was born in Mount Sterling, Illinois, as the oldest of nine children. He worked in a Civilian Conservation ...

Jacob Bunn was a merchant and banker in Springfield, Ill. This collection includes three ledgers relating to his general store business. Two volumes document daily sales of coffee, sugar, butter, cheese, candles, whiskey, and the like, June 1, 1843-Feb. 13, 1847 (609 pages), and Aug. 24, 1848-Mar. 27, 1849 (535 ...

The clippings of the Burnham family mainly concern the deaths of Julia F. and A. C. Burnham, and the public institutions they supported--Burnham Hospital and the Burnham Athenaeum. See also the Champaign Public Library and Burnham Athenaeum Collection.

This collection contains photographs of the Burnham and Burnham/Harris family in carte-de-visite and cabinet card format and three handwritten family trees. The Burnham and Harris families were both notable Champaign families. Albert C. Burnham was a Champaign banker and philanthropist. In 1894, he donated $50,000 for the creation of a public ...

Amos Shelton Burr was born in Bridgeport, Conn. in 1848, and came to Bement, Ill., in 1880 as a representative of the Bodmans of Massachusetts. Although he was trained as a lawyer and banker, Burr purchased Thornton Farm, in Piatt County, and developed it into one of central Illinois' show ...

Alvina Busch was a school teacher in Champaign County in the late nineteenth century. This volume is her notebook from an art history class she took as a student in Pennsylvania. The fly page shows her address as Ogontz, Pa., but little else is known about her. The notebook contains her ...

This collection consists of Joseph C. Blair's copy of an unbound booklet titled "Beauty Spots of Illinois," compiled by J. K. Busey in 1924. J.K. Busey may have been Josephine Kathryn Busey (1897-1976), the daughter of prominent Urbana banker James Buchanan Busey (1856-1935). She graduated from the University of Illinois at ...

The Busey-Yntema collection mainly contains the papers of Garreta Helen Busey (1893-1976), but it also includes papers of her sister, Margaret Jeannette (Jean) Busey Yntema (1898-2002), and publications of her husband, Leonard F. Yntema (1892-1976). In addition, the collection includes correspondence from William Maxwell (1908-2000) to Garreta Busey, Jean Yntema, and ...

A photocopy of a letter from Justin Butterfield to Indiana Representative Caleb Smith. Butterfield served as commissioner of the General Land Office of the United States from 1849 to 1852. The letter is dated June 1, 1849, and it documents Butterfield's position as a Zachary Taylor supporter. The Illinois Historical Survey ...

Leather goods, agricultural and practical implements, and livestock are the main categories of goods included in this account book of a store, the location of which is perhaps Bloomington, Ill. The accounts are for customers, most of whom lived in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

This collection contains business records from C.C. Daniels and Co., a corner store in Chicago, Illinois. The records include invoices and price lists from a variety of goods manufacturers and distributors in Chicago, printed advertisements, and handwritten inventories with notes from Daniels from 1871 to 1879. The store C.C. Daniels and ...

This letter, written by the residents of Cahokia, Ill., was a rebuttal to accusations made by Father Pierre Huet de la Valiniere against Father Paul de St. Pierre. The letter, of which the Survey has an early translation, was read orally to Cahokia residents after high Mass on Apr. 22, ...

This collection contains records for the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society. Records include meeting minutes, advertisements, event fliers, newspaper clippings, newsletters in relation to the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society and other materials. According to their website in 2016, the Society was founded in 1976 to "promote both the educational and scientific aspects ...

This collection contains records for the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society. Records include meeting minutes, advertisements, event fliers, newspaper clippings, newsletters in relation to the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society and other materials. According to their website in 2016, the Society was founded in 1976 to "promote both the educational and scientific aspects ...

This collection contains materials relating to the effort of London entrepreneurs and their agents in Illinois to develop the site of Cairo. It includes a report about the site, sent from William Strickland and Richard C. Taylor in Philadelphia to John Wright in London on Dec. 13, 1838. Also included ...

This collection contains research copies of magazine and newspaper articles, books, reports, documents, photographs, and name indexes in both paper and digital formats related to the Cherry Mine disaster. The St. Paul Coal Company opened a mine located in Cherry, Illinois, in 1905. On November 13, 1909, a fire erupted and ...

This collection contains research copies of magazine and newspaper articles, books, reports, documents, photographs, and name indexes in both paper and digital formats related to the Cherry Mine disaster. The St. Paul Coal Company opened a mine located in Cherry, Illinois, in 1905. On November 13, 1909, a fire erupted and ...

This collection consists of one letter dated May 4, 1864, from a Civil War sutler named Sam to a "dear friend." Sam wrote from Camp Butler, a training camp located outside Springfield, Illinois. Sutlers were civilian merchants, either permanently stationed at camps or traveling with a campaigning regiment, who sold goods ...

The hospital at Camp Stotsenberg, Manila Province, Philippines, was built and furnished in 1900. The collection includes an 82-page journal, Mar.1900-July 1901, containing hospital reports, inventories, and correspondence of Asst. Surg. L. K. Graves. There are references to alcoholism and intestinal colic in camp as well as an isolated case ...

Lewis Campbell left Springfield, Ill., for the gold mines of California in 1849. His "Memorandum of my travels to California" provides a brief record for most days of his journey west between Mar. 26 and Sept. 18. He took note of the conditions of the route, the miles covered, and ...

Orin Shepherd Campbell was a practicing physician in Pike County, Ill. This collection contains three volumes of his business records (1836-1839, 1840-1844, and 1853-1857), and also several loose receipts and statements (1860-1865). The account books list the patient, the date of visit, the service rendered, and the fee charged. Of ...

This collection consists of photocopies and transcripts of correspondence and other documents found in various Canadian Archives and Depositories. Many of these materials were collected by the Illinois History Survey under the leadership of Clarence W. Alvord and Theodore C. Pease in the early twentieth century. The Survey collected the ...

Joseph Gurney ("Uncle Joe") Cannon was a leading figure in U.S. politics during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives for a total of 46 years, between 1873 and 1923, and served as Speaker of the House from 1903 to 1911. This ...

Ida Levin Canter was a Jewish resident of Danville, Illinois. This collection contains her diaries and address books, as well as advertisements, visiting cards, and photographs. Ida Levin Canter was born in Boston’s North End on September 20, 1888, to Harris Jacob Levin (1850-1936)—also known as Hirsch Yankel Levin—and Esther Dora ...

Ida Levin Canter was a Jewish resident of Danville, Illinois. This collection contains her diaries and address books, as well as advertisements, visiting cards, and photographs. Ida Levin Canter was born in Boston’s North End on September 20, 1888, to Harris Jacob Levin (1850-1936)—also known as Hirsch Yankel Levin—and Esther Dora ...

This collection contains copied and original materials related to David Dudley Carlton, a Union soldier from Ohio. It includes materials relating to Carlton's Civil War service and his family life. David Dudley Carlton was born near Mantua, Ohio, in 1841 and joined the 42nd Ohio Vol. Inf. as a teamster in ...

In 1850, James Carmichael (1849-1934) moved to Philadelphia, Penn., from Ireland with his family. Carmichael attempted to enlist in the Union Army in 1864, but was turned down by recruiting officers because of his obvious age. Carmichael later moved to Rochelle, Ogle County, Ill., where he farmed for much of his ...