University of Illinois Library, Office of Advancement

I was in grade school the first time I was taken into the Library, by a family friend. I remember that we discovered the first issue of 'Life' magazine, which seemed to me of incalculable antiquitiy. For many months in the mid-60s, I returned to the archives for a University Centennial project, paging through a century of back issues of the 'Daily Illini' to compile 'An Illini Century,' a centennial memory of undergraduate life. It was an exciting time; I had the feeling that I might find most anything in those pages, and I did —from Lorado Taft's farewell to Urbana to Red Grange selling his car in the classified ads.”