Browse By Collection Title | Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

This ledger is composed of invoices of goods and services purchased at a general merchandise store, Beardstown, Ill., indicating if and how each account was settled. Included is an entry in the ledger for Thomas Beard, the founder of Beardstown. The ledger also contains a few pages of sales records ...

Arnold Beckman's farm records include papers, abstracts of title, and title insurance data for farms in Sullivan Township, Livingston County, Ill. Dr. Beckman donated the records to the University of Illinois in 1986.

Annis Beerli's letter of Feb. 19, 1932, and her notes, relate to her ancestors, including Col. Joseph Ball (George Washington's mother's grandfather) and the abolitionist John Brown.

The materials in this collection concern the 1860 presidential candidacy of John Bell of Tennessee. Included are correspondence between Bell and Alexander H. H. Stuart, who helped organize the Constitutional Union Party, Jeremiah Clemens, a Unionist from Alabama who attempted to prevent secession, and Washington Hunt, a former governor of ...

James Belote, a member of the 19th Mich. Vol. Inf. during the Civil War, died of dysentery on Apr. 20, 1863. In these letters to his wife, Belote comments on soldiering in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. Other letters discuss in some detail the battle of Thompson's Station near Franklin, Tenn., ...

Natalia M. Belting, a well-known authority on Illinois history, was born in Iowa, but moved to Urbana, Ill., with her father, University of Illinois professor Paul E. Belting. She received her A.B. degree in journalism from the university in 1930, her A.B. in history in 1937, and her doctorate in ...

The Bender collection contains a description of the recovery work Lucy Bender did with Gallatin County records that had previously been missing. There is also a twelve-page typewritten article entitled "A Brief History of Shawneetown, Gallatin County, Illinois."

Clarence Berdahl was born on June 12, 1890, in Baltic, So. Dak. He began teaching at the University of Illinois in 1920, where he served as chairman of the Department of Political Science from 1935 to 1939. In 1961 he became chairman of the Division of Social Science and Professor ...

Octave Besaucon, of Oak Lawn Plantation, New Orleans, La., served in C.S.A. Gen. Braxton Bragg's bodyguard. He later held various public offices in Jefferson Parish, La. The Besaucon collection mainly contains newspaper clippings during the Civil War and Reconstruction. There are also two poems, a letter of honorable discharge for ...

Arthur E. Bestor (1908-94) earned his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Yale. He taught history at Columbia, Stanford, and the University of Wisconsin before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois in 1947. While at Illinois he published his major works, [i]Backwoods Utopias[/i] (1950) and [i]Educational Wastelands[/i] (1953). In ...

Morris Birkbeck was one of the founders of the English Settlement in Edwards County, Ill. The Birkbeck Papers contain an original 1822 deed signed by Morris Birkbeck, selling a parcel of land in Edwards County to James Forest Jackson. Also included is a photocopied 1774 letter from an M. Birkbeck ...

Bishop Hill Colony, founded in 1846, was a fairly self-contained Swedish communitarian society in Henry County Illinois, engaging in agriculture, linen weaving, and the production of woolen goods. The correspondence, copied from originals in the Illinois State Historical Library, is published in Harry E. Pratt, "The Murder of Eric Janson, Leader ...

This collection contains two broadsides advertising events hosted by the Black United Front of Cairo in 1971 and 1972. The Black United Front in Cairo, Illinois, was a coalition of Black activist organizations founded in 1969 by Reverend Charles Koen (1945-2018). Koen had also founded the Black Liberators in St. Louis, ...

John C. Rives (1795-1864) and Francis P. Blair (1791-1876) were publishers of the [i]Congressional Globe[/i]. One letter, dated Dec. 3, 1860, describes the meeting of the last Congress before Secession; the other, dated Apr. 28, 1861, the military situation of Washington, D.C. The letters were photocopied from the originals in the ...

This collection contains the correspondence of four generations of women from the Mills, Hockaday, Price, Blair, and Henrotin families, as well as some family records and photographs. Emily Hockaday (née Blair) Henrotin (1883-1965) was born to Frank Preston and Florence Price Blair in 1883. The Blairs were a prominent Missourian family ...

This collection contains the papers of the Blair, Leverett, Stifler, and other related families. The papers document these families as well as life in Illinois from the nineteenth through the twenty-first century. Materials include correspondence, photographs, personal papers, printed works, newspaper clippings, ephemera, business and legal records, family histories and ...

This ledger was used by Neziah Wright Bliss to record weather statistics at Warsaw, Ill., from Aug. 1854 to Sept. 1856. He also used the book as a diary, including recipes, garden and farm notes, and data on natural phenomena. Bliss's son, Wyllys King Bliss, gave the ledger book to the ...

In this correspondence, Alfred Bloxham, a miller at Nashville, Ill., wrote to members of his family about financial, health, and family matters. The collection also contains a letter, dated Jun 22, 1841, from H. H. Rasin of St. Louis, Mo., certifying Bloxham as a skilled miller.

G. W. Bloxsom of Sydney, Ill., wrote to Joseph Sim on Mar. 10, 1860, regarding lands available for purchase in Champaign County. Sylvia Renner Hadden of Urbana, Ill., donated the letter to the Survey.

This collection consists of four volumes of documents from the Blue family such as correspondence, receipts, promissory notes, bills, land documents, and miscellaneous items. Uriah Blue (1799-1863) and his sister Isabella Blue (1789-1861) were born in Hampshire County, Virginia, in present-day West Virginia. Uriah married Jemima Welton (1813-1871) in 1834. Isabella ...

In "With the Third Iowa Cavalry," a copy of a 21-page account, John R. Boden recorded the Civil War experiences of an anonymous friend, "Len." It relates incidents of army life, campaigns, and plundering in the South.

The five Bodman brothers (Samuel, Lewis, Elam, Luther, and Joseph) and other relatives, including Sereno K. Bodman (son of Samuel Bodman), bought extensive tracts of land in Piatt County, Ill., in the 1850s, where several of the brothers settled to farm. The diaries in the collection include one of S. ...

On June 13, 1865, Sue Bonar, a school teacher in Oak Point, Iowa, wrote to Harry Lawrence, in Lexington, Ohio. Lexington may have once been Bonar's home as she mentions several people there, but she also discusses school, weather, crops, and health. The Survey bought the letter in 1975.

Jehiel Bond (1842-1939) became a minister of the Religious Society of Friends after attending Spiceland Academy, Henry County, Ind. Although he preached in meetings from eastern Illinois to eastern Ohio throughout his long career, he remained a member of the Dover Monthly Meeting, his family's meeting near Webster, Wayne County, ...

This collection consists of the account book of Morgan Bond, a Civil War sutler with the 94[sup]th[/sup] Illinois Infantry. Bond traveled with the regiment selling goods to soldiers. The 94[sup]th[/sup] Illinois Infantry was mustered into service at McClean, Illinois, in August 1862, and campaigned throughout the South. Morgan Bond, a civilian ...

The Born Family collection contains personal records of John, Henry, and Ella Born, including bank books, insurance policies, leases, ledgers, and probate documents. Ann Skagenberg of Monticello, Ill., donated the collection to the Library in 1990.

Henry Borneman collected these 24 letters, typescripts, and clippings relating to Brook Farm and Fourierism. Many of the letters are to John S. Dwight. Also included is "Reminiscences of Brook Farm and its Founder: A Lecture Read at Waltham, Monday, March 26, 1900," written by Frank B. Sanborn of Concord, ...

This collection contains one microfilm reel of the Boston Union of Associationists' record book. The Boston Union of Associationists, an affiliate of the American Union of Associationists, was organized in November 1846. This society was devoted to the propagation of Fourierism and its membership included many participants in the Brook Farm ...

This journal of schoolteacher Alanson Bostwick gives an account of his journey to and from Chicago during the summer of 1839, from his home in Winchester, Ill. There is also an account of a trip, Oct. 19-Dec. 6, 1841, from New York to Springfield, Ill. In addition to topographical descriptions, ...

This collection includes a typescript of a letter of Jan. 24, 1898 from N. C. Boswell of Neponset, Ill., to Dr. W. T. Hall of Toulon, Ill., sketching the lives of Martin and Perry Dukes, pioneers of Osceola Grove, Stark County, Ill. It also includes a typescript of excerpts from ...

This collection consists of two letters belonging to E. M. Bails. It includes a letter written by H. L. Bosworth describing Abraham Lincoln’s attendance of a church service in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War and a letter from Carl Sandburg commenting on the historical value of the first letter. Ellwyn ...

Horatio Nelson Boyd (1844-1930), born in Wilmington, Del., enlisted at Galva, Ill., on Sept. 1, 1861, as a private Co. L, 7th Ill. Cav., re-enlisted in the same unit in 1864, and mustered out on Nov. 4, 1865. After the war, Boyd moved to Belleville, Kans. He was twice elected ...

John Boyle wrote this letter from Tremont, Ill. on February 28, 1848 to Representative D. M. Barringer of North Carolina. Boyle's letter is sewn together with handwritten copies of affidavits written on behalf of the heirs of Maj. George Walls. These affidavits claimed that neither Maj. Walls nor his widow ...

The collection consists of William Bracken's army discharge from Co. A, 12th Ky. Cav., dated Sept. 7, 1865, and a tax receipt dated Jan. 18, 1902. Robert E. Lawson of Villa Grove, Ill., donated these items to the Survey in 1983.

The first notebook in this collection contains pictures (mostly slides but some prints) of Lincoln Hall, Altgeld Hall, Memorial Stadium, Huff Gym, and University High School on the campus of the University of Illinois as well as other nearby landmarks, including the Wesley Foundation, Carle Park, and Allerton Park. The ...

Sidney Breese was a U.S. Senator, 1843-49, and a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, 1857-78. Three of the incoming letters are from William Martin of Alton, Ill., about business matters. Among the outgoing correspondence is a June 14, 1869 letter to Myra Bradwell, who led the movement to open ...

This collection is comprised of political ephemera from Maynard J. Brichford, former University Archivist for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Brichford collected a variety of political ephemera promoting candidates for federal, state, and local elections. The collection includes campaign flyers, newspaper clippings, voters' guides, correspondence, and other materials. The political ...

This collection consists of railroad ephemera from across the United States and dating mostly from the 1950s and 1960s. The ephemera includes time tables, annual reports, guides, and publications related to 29 rail lines across the country, including Illinois Central, Amtrak, Chicago and Eastern, Chesapeake and Ohio, and New York ...

Sereno Bridge of Elgin, Ill., served in Co. G, 15th Ill. Vol. Cav. as a private; he mustered in on Oct. 25, 1861 and mustered out Oct. 31, 1864. The Company was attached to the 52nd Ill. Vol. Inf. during the time of these letters. The three letters were written to ...

This collection contains the papers and diaries of Albert Brisbane, a leading propagandist for Fourierist Socialism in the United States during the 19th century. The bulk of the collection consists of Brisbane's family correspondence and personal papers, but it also include photographs, newspaper clippings, and drafts of publications written by ...