Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

01/12/2024

Welcome back, UIUC! The IHLC is open Monday through Friday, 9am-12pm and 1pm-5pm. Come visit us in Rm. 324 of the Main Library! Questions? Email us at [email protected] or check out our website (http://library.illinois.edu/ihx).

12/18/2023

Happy winter break, UIUC! The IHLC is open Monday through Friday, 1pm-5pm on Dec. 18-21 and Jan. 2-12. Walk-ins welcome--come say hi and check out our collection materials! Questions? Email us at [email protected] or check out our website (http://library.illinois.edu/ihx).

11/16/2023

“Solidarity Forever: Decatur and the A.E. Staley Lockout, 1993-1996” is on display now at IHLC! This exhibit explores the lived experiences and protest strategies of locked out workers in Decatur, Illinois.

Visit our exhibit to learn why and how A.E. Staley workers weathered a nearly 3-year lockout, using creative protest strategies and maintaining solidarity to put pressure on a powerful multinational corporation.

The exhibit is on display in the IHLC reading room in Main Library room 324!

11/02/2023

How did the 19th-century communitarianism movement seek to create perfect societies while challenging contemporary American ideals of individualism and industrialization? Learn more in IHLC’s new digital exhibit, Constructing Utopias: Examining Communitarianism Efforts in America, 1825-1940! https://bit.ly/3QlvLmu

11/02/2023

Explore how small-town Jewish Illinoisans used identity-based organizations to participate politically and socially in the mid to late 1900s! “Pulling It All Together”: Jewish Community Advocacy, Activism, & Fellowship in Central Illinois, 1959-1984 is now a digital exhibit: https://bit.ly/3FGnMLB

05/08/2023

Check out our newest blog post with photos from the Joseph Gurney Cannon Album! Recently digitized, the collection chronicles the first years of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Danville, Illinois, from 1898-1909. To learn more about the history of the Old Soldier's Home, visit: https://buff.ly/3NOOSp5.

03/21/2023

90 years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed Congress to propose the work relief program the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), saying:

"I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work, not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control and similar projects. I call your attention to the fact that this type of work is of definite, practical value, not only through the prevention of great present financial loss, but also as a means of creating future national wealth."

Illinois had 33 CCC camps that employed over 6,000 men working on state parks, erosion and flood control, and forest preserves. In one Illinois camp near Macomb, a young man from Mount Sterling named Martin Lozelle Bullard photographed he and his friends working, relaxing at camp, and taking trips around the area. These images were later made into a photo album which is now preserved at IHLC.

This photograph, taken around 1937, shows three young men on the back of a work truck. Many of the photographs in Bullard's album include captions with full names, but this image simply says, "Seed Detail."

You can read more about the Bullard Album (MS 1097) here: https://archon.library.illinois.edu/ihlc/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=8174, or come view it in person at IHLC!

02/10/2023

Our open house is this afternoon from 2:30-4:30pm. Please join us!

SAVE THE DATE: Next Friday, February 10, from 2:30-4:30pm, IHLC is hosting an open house to celebrate the 214th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. In our reading room (Main Library 324), we will have IHLC collection items on display, including several new acquisitions, most notably a letter written by Abraham Lincoln in 1857 (more here: https://go.library.illinois.edu/ihlc-fa-ms1094). Refreshments and Lincoln-themed valentines to color will be available in the hallway just outside IHLC. Please stop by at your leisure!

02/03/2023

SAVE THE DATE: Next Friday, February 10, from 2:30-4:30pm, IHLC is hosting an open house to celebrate the 214th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. In our reading room (Main Library 324), we will have IHLC collection items on display, including several new acquisitions, most notably a letter written by Abraham Lincoln in 1857 (more here: https://go.library.illinois.edu/ihlc-fa-ms1094). Refreshments and Lincoln-themed valentines to color will be available in the hallway just outside IHLC. Please stop by at your leisure!

01/20/2023

A new exhibit, featuring items from the Central Illinois Jewish Communities Archives, is now on display at IHLC! “Pulling It All Together”: Jewish Community Advocacy, Activism, & Fellowship in Central Illinois, 1959-1984 explores how small-town Jewish Illinoisans used identity-based organizations to participate politically and socially in the mid to late 1900s. This exhibit will be on display in the Main Library, Room 324, from January-May 2023. Come check it out!

01/07/2023

Happy 2023! To celebrate the new year, IHLC is bringing back ! For our first return to this blog series, we are looking at the history of Princeton, Illinois. Check out the blog post here: http://bit.ly/3Gqjwjv

12/23/2022

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This Christmas card was pasted into a scrapbook of Helen (Nellie) Walker in the late 1800s. Walker was a teacher in Geneseo, Illinois. Her students gave her this scrapbook for Christmas in 1880, and she filled it with newspaper clippings, maps, her high school reunion program, and cards like the one pictured here over the next few decades.