With our most recent harvest, the IDHH welcomes a new contributor, Chicago Theological Seminary! Established in 1855, Chicago Theological Seminary is a multi-faith seminary affiliated with the United Church of Christ and committed to “racial and social justice, to gender equality and LGBTQ rights, and to deep interreligious engagement.”¹ This new contributor shares with the IDHH two new collections: Triennial Conventions and Challenge and Response.
Triennial Conventions features the minutes and proceedings of the Triennial Conventions, a convention of the Ministers and Delegates of the Congregational Churches in the Midwest held every three years in association with the Chicago Theological Seminary. The collection contains the Triennial Conventions from 1858 through 1930.
1st Triennial Convention, October 1858 [page 2]. 1858. Chicago Theological Seminary. Triennial Conventions. Courtesy of Chicago Theological Seminary.1st Triennial Convention, October 1858 [page 4]. 1858. Chicago Theological Seminary. Triennial Conventions. Courtesy of Chicago Theological Seminary.Challenge and Response features the flagship magazine, Challenge & Response, published by the CTS Office of Advancement beginning in 2012. The magazine publishes news from the seminary faculty and staff, as well as students and alums.
Challenge & Response Fall 2012 [page 1]. 2012. Chicago Theological Seminary. Challenge and Response. Courtesy of Chicago Theological Seminary.¹ From Chicago Theological Seminary’s Statement of Mission & Commitments.
With our most recent harvest, the IDHH has added nine new collections! Today we’re highlighting two collections from the Des Plaines Public Library: City of Destiny and Greetings from Des Plaines.
City of Destiny features items that tell the story of Des Plaines’s governmental growth from a nineteenth-century village to a modern city. These items include governmental and public buildings, portraits of elected officials, newspaper clippings, events such as planting trees for Arbor Day, and even sheet music with fifty reasons that “You Will Like Des Plaines!”
Revised Ordinances of the Village of Des Plaines [page 2]. 1886. Des Plaines Public Library. City of Destiny. Courtesy of the Des Plaines Public Library.You Will Like Des Plaines, Sheet Music [page 2]. 1924. Des Plaines Public Library. City of Destiny. Courtesy of the Des Plaines Public Library.Greetings from Des Plaines is a collection of postcards, featuring buildings and scenic views in Des Plaines as well as Chicago. Though some postcards are unsent and blank, many are postmarked with stories of the people who sent and received them.
Main Street W. from Pearson Street. c. 1900. Des Plaines Public Library. Greetings from Des Plaines. Courtesy of the Des Plaines Public Library.
Des Plaines Public Library, 1916 [front]. March 31, 1916. Des Plaines Public Library. Greetings from Des Plaines. Courtesy of the Des Plaines Public Library.Des Plaines Public Library, 1916 [back]. March 31, 1916. Des Plaines Public Library. Greetings from Des Plaines. Courtesy of the Des Plaines Public Library. The postcard sender hopes to see the recipient soon, to share some “pretty useful” crochet patterns.
The IDHH contains some content that may be harmful or difficult to view. Our cultural heritage partners collect materials from history, as well as artifacts from many cultures and time periods, to preserve and make available the historical record. Please view the Digital Public Library of America’s (DPLA) Statement on Potentially Harmful Content for further information.
With our most recent harvest, the IDHH has added nine new collections! Today we’re highlighting two of them: North American Enslavement Documents from the Chicago History Museum and Yearbooks from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
The Chicago History Museum’s North American Enslavement Documents collection contains late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century items related to enslavement in primarily the United States. These include bills of sale for enslaved people and letters between slave owners as well as deeds of emancipation and letters regarding the activities of antislavery groups and underground railways.
Interested in transcribing? The Chicago History Museum, in partnership with the Smithsonian’s Robert Frederick Smith internship program, are working to transcribe materials relating primarily to chattel slavery in the United States. You can visit their transcription site to help transcribe these documents.
William Garnett deed of emancipation, 1845 October 17. October 17, 1845. Chicago Historical Society. North American Enslavement Documents. Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum.
Underground Railway letter, circa 1842 [page 1]. c. 1842. Chicago Historical Society. North American Enslavement Documents. Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum.The Illinois Institute of Technology’s Yearbooks collection features yearbooks of the Armour Institute of Technology (AIT) published from 1898 until 1940, when AIT merged with the Lewis Institute to form the Illinois Institute of Technology. These yearbooks document the academic and social life of AIT and offers a view into the history of AIT and its founder as well as academic institutions during times of national hardship and war.
The Yearbooks collection complements the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Lewis Annual collection, which features the yearbooks of the Lewis Institute published between 1903 and 1940.
Integral, 1898 [page 32]. 1898. Illinois Institute of Technology. Yearbooks. Courtesy of the Illinois Institute of Technology.The Cycle, 1918 [page 117]. 1918. Illinois Institute of Technology. Yearbooks. Courtesy of the Illinois Institute of Technology.Integral, 1909 [page 29]. 1909. Illinois Institute of Technology. Yearbooks. Courtesy of the Illinois Institute of Technology.
In response to book bans across the United States, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has launched The Banned Book Club. Through the Palace e-reader app, The Banned Book Club uses GPS-based geo-targeting to make available free e-book versions of banned books to readers in US locations where the titles have been banned.
To download the app, follow these instructions from the DPLA News release:
To access The Banned Book Club now, download the Palace app and choose “Banned Book Club” as your library, then follow the prompts to sign up for a free virtual library card. For more specific instructions, click here.
Books for Everybody. 1918. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. McLean County Museum of History. American Library Association Archives Digital Collections. Courtesy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library.
Library Services for every Man, Woman and Child. 1918. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. McLean County Museum of History. American Library Association Archives Digital Collections. Courtesy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library.
If you forget to update your bookmarks or old relinks, don’t worry! The old URL redirects, so you can still find the IDHH Highlights blog and learn about our collections and items that are relevant to Illinois and national history, world events, and interesting topics.
Interested in other ways to explore the collections and items in the IDHH? You can:
Visit the IDHH Exhibits site to see digital exhibits curated from items in the IDHH and covering topics important to Illinois History and relevant to current and historical events
Browse our IDHH Primary Source Sets for primary source collections curated from items in the IDHH, which cover topics relevant to Illinois educational standard and include teaching guides for in-class use
Visit the IDHH site to search or browse all items in the IDHH, or click on one of the curated searches on the home page for examples of the breadth of items within the IDHH
With our latest harvest, the IDHH now has 510,614 items from 548 collections. Thanks to our 150 Illinois partners and contributing institutions for making this possible!
Some of our newest collections and contributors include:
Keep checking back here at Illinois Highlights as we promote new collections, highlight older ones, and feature materials relevant to Illinois and national history.
The Illinois Digital Heritage Hub is proud to announce the launch of a new Digital Exhibits site! Curated from items in the IDHH collections, these digital exhibits highlight and contextualize the unique collections in the IDHH and provide insight into topics relevant to Illinois and national history.
IDHH Exhibits Landing Page. Screen capture taken May 2022.
We invite viewers to explore these exhibits and learn more about the materials and topics in the IDHH collections. Viewers can use the navigation links at the bottom of the Exhibit pages to read through the narration, as well as click on the images within the Exhibits to see a larger version and learn more about the item.
IDHH Exhibits: Mayor Harold Washington Exhibit Landing Page. Screen capture taken May 2022.
A special thanks to our providers, whose contributions make the IDHH possible; to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, for hosting the Omeka S platform for the Exhibits site; and to the IDHH Graduate Students Holly Peterson and Caleb Britton, whose work on the exhibits is fantastic and essential!
With our harvest earlier this month, the IDHH now has 417,946 items from 483 collections. Thanks to our 150 Illinois partners and contributing institutions for making this possible!
Keep checking back here at Illinois Highlights as we promote new collections, highlight older ones, and feature materials relevant to Illinois and national history.
Healthcare providers play a critical role in caring for patients and saving lives, especially during a pandemic. For roughly a year now, these front-line workers have continued the dedication and sacrifice of the healthcare profession, putting themselves at risk for COVID-19 while taking care of their patients in hospitals, nursing homes, and other facilities around the world.
To celebrate these healthcare providers, the IDHH welcomes our new contributor Methodist College and their History of Methodist College collection. Now a four-year, private, not-for-profit college, Methodist College was established in 1900 as a nurse training program by the deaconesses of the Methodist Episcopal church in Peoria. The History of Methodist College collection reflects the growth of this nurse training program into a four-year college, with over 1,200 items that include class groups, study sessions, diplomas, student bulletins, and patient care throughout the last century.
Here are a few of our favorite items from the collection:
Student Nurses in Nurses Library. April 1, 1953. Methodist College. History of Methodist College. Courtesy of Methodist College.A Day in Nurses Training. June 1, 1950. Methodist College. History of Methodist College. Courtesy of Methodist College.Unknown Group. [n. d.]. Methodist College. History of Methodist College. Courtesy of Methodist College.Bedside Demonstration. 1943. Methodist College. History of Methodist College. Courtesy of Methodist College.
Class Photo 1902. 1902. Methodist College. History of Methodist College. Courtesy of Methodist College.
Class Group Photo. [n. d.]. Methodist College. History of Methodist College. Courtesy of Methodist College.
To celebrate Black History Month, the IDHH is featuring the Daily Egyptian Diversity News Archive collection from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC). This collection includes select articles from the 1930s to the 1970s relating to the African American populations at SIUC, digitized from the microfilm archives of SIUC’s award-winning student-run newspaper the Daily Egyptian. Begun in 2006, this digitization project was a collaboration between SIUC’s Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Morris Library Special Collections Research Center.
Topics covered include the activities of the local chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha and Alpha Phi Alpha (the first intercollegiate historically African American Greek-lettered sorority and fraternity, respectively); African American performers visiting the campus; athletics, courses, and faculty; and the struggles of African Americans living in the racially-segregated United States.
Here are a few articles from the full collection:
Bond viewed as standout college player. April 10, 1969. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Daily Egyptian Diversity News Archive. Courtesy of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.Black history honored next week. February 6, 1971. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Daily Egyptian Diversity News Archive. Courtesy of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.Dick Gregory, Dizzy Gillespie Here Thursday. May 2, 1961. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Daily Egyptian Diversity News Archive. Courtesy of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.Black life brought into focus. November 24, 1970. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Daily Egyptian Diversity News Archive. Courtesy of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
