The IDHH has continued to grow, with new collections added each quarterly harvest!
Want to learn about the history of Aurora, Illinois, and its surrounding area? In addition to a previous collection, you can explore the new collection from the Aurora Public Library District, which includes over 200 images from photographs and postcards in their Community History Collection, including images of libraries, the downtown area, and historic buildings:
Want to learn more about the history of Marshall, Illinois, and its surrounding area? In addition to two previous collections, you can explore the new collection from the Marshall Public Library, which includes over 350 historic photographs, letters, and maps contributed by library users and digitized by the Illinois Heartland Library System’s Mobile Memory Lab:
Here are a few of our favorite items from these two new collections:
Aurora Public Library Main Floor circa 1904. circa 1904. Aurora Public Library District. Aurora Historic Photographs. Courtesy of the Aurora Public Library District.Vandalia R.R. Depot. Marshall Public Library. Mobile Memory Lab: Marshall Public Library. Courtesy of the Marshall Public Library.Fox Street Postcard 1910s. circa 1910. Aurora Public Library District. Aurora Historic Photographs. Courtesy of the Aurora Public Library District.Letter from P. F. May 22, 1864. Thornburgh to Daughter [page 1]. Marshall Public Library. Mobile Memory Lab: Marshall Public Library. Courtesy of the Marshall Public Library.
With Memorial Day and military march concerts around in the corner in the United States, the IDHH is featuring a collection related to the “American March King”: the Sousa Archives Music Instrument Digital Image and 3D Model Collection from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library.
John Philip Sousa (1854–1932), known as the “American March King,” was a conductor and composer best known for his military marches. Some of his well-known marches are “The Stars and Stripes Forever” (the National March of the United States of America) and “The Liberty Bell” (used as the theme for the television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus). In addition to his music, Sousa helped to develop the sousaphone, a brass instrument related to the tuba that is easier to perform while marching.
The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music (SACAM) seeks to document America’s diverse music heritage through the acquisition and preservation of archival records and historical artifacts in multiple formats. Their Sousa Archives Music Instrument Digital Image and 3D Model Collection is a collection of images of photographs taken from multiple viewpoints of musical instruments in the Center’s physicalcollections, ranging from flutes to trumpets to guitars; some of the instruments also have a 3D digital model constructed that can be viewed online as well.
Here are a few of our favorite instruments:
Clarinet [front side view]. [undated] University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library. Sousa Archives Music Instrument Digital Image and 3D Model Collection. Courtesy of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library.Heckelphone [front side view]. 1926. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library. Sousa Archives Music Instrument Digital Image and 3D Model Collection. Courtesy of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library.Cornet [right side view]. 1880. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library. Sousa Archives Music Instrument Digital Image and 3D Model Collection. Courtesy of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library.Saxophone (soprano) [right side view]. 1947. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library. Sousa Archives Music Instrument Digital Image and 3D Model Collection. Courtesy of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library.
The IDHH has continued to grow with new collections and contributors added each quarterly harvest!
Want to learn about the history of instrumental music education? Explore three new collections from the VanderCook College of Music, which contain images, sheet music, documents, and narratives about the founders Hale A. VanderCook and Hubert E. Nutt and the students who have passed through the halls of VanderCook College:
Want to learn about the history of the Alton, Illinois, and its neighbor cities, villages, and townships? Explore the new collection from the Hayner Public Library District, which includes over 5,000 images from photographs and postcards, including images originally taken for the Alton Telegraph newspaper:
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.
In recognition of Women’s History Month, the IDHH would like to highlight several collections from our contributors and curated searches of IDHH items that tell different stories about the history of women in Illinois:
Jane Addams: explore photographs and documents related to Jane Addams, social reformer, and settlement and women’s suffrage activist, who co-founded Chicago-settlement Hull House in 1889 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.
Gwendolyn Brooks: explore photographs related to Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet Laureate of Illinois and the first African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize.
The Creative Woman (Governors State University): a collection containing issues of GSU’s quarterly feminist journal The Creative Woman, which featured articles, essays, and creative writings on the lives and experiences of women.
The Woman’s Study Club of Joliet (Lewis University): a collection containing documents and records of the Women’s Study Club of Joliet, a club with the goal of educating women members which grew from the Columbian Clubs and The Woman’s Building organized by Bertha Palmer for the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition.
You can also visit the IDHH’s Digital Exhibits to learn about the life and career of two turn-of-the-twentieth-century Illinois women: Rachel Crothers, a playwright from Bloomington, Illinois, and Fanny Butcher, Literary Editor at the Chicago Tribune.
You can also view the IDHH’s previous posts with topics related to Women’s History Month:
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.
In recognition of Black History Month, the IDHH would like to highlight several collections from our contributors and curated searches of IDHH items that tell different stories about the history of Black people in Illinois:
Gwendolyn Brooks: explore photographs related to Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet Laureate of Illinois and the first African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize.
EBR African American Cultural Life (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville): a collection containing photographs, posters, and pamphlets centered around Eugene B. Redmond, Poet Laureate of East St. Louis whose work is connected to the Black Arts Movement and Professor Emeritus at SIUE.
EBR Million Man March (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville): a collection containing photographs about the Million Man March, a demonstration by Black men marching to Washington on October 16, 1995, and its second Anniversary celebration.
Timuel D. Black, Jr., Digital Collection (Chicago Public Library): a collection containing handwritten and typed letters and speeches by Timuel D. Black, Jr., civil rights activist, educator, and historian of Black life and politics in Chicago.
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
