Scope and Contents:
The microfilm in this collection, obtained from the Newberry Library, document the activities of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, 1858-70. The first reel contains correspondence and reports concerning day-to-day business, including descriptions of the countryside and a letter from the Midland Railway of Derby, England, detailing the procedures necessary in switching from coke to coal. The second reel includes selections from the letterbooks of J. C. Clarke, George B. McClellan, J. M. Douglas, and W. H. Osborn, as well as selected records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1861-66. The collection also contains an original 1865 travel pass issued to C. C. Jones, a foreman in the Illinois Central Railroad Engine House, by W. H. Purdy, the company's Assistant Superintendent of Machinery.
Robert M. Sutton donated the microfilm to the Library in 1971.