American Memory Historical Collections
Search on the terms “Illinois” and “Chicago”
to locate additional information within these American Memory
collections.
Abraham
Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
The complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of
Congress consists of approximately 20,000 documents. Search
the bibliographic records and the full text option to find
items related to Illinois, including a Resolution
recommending enlargement of Illinois and Michigan Canal.
America
from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from
the FSA and OWI, ca. 1935-1945
The images in the Farm Security Administration-Office
of War Information Collection are among the most famous
documentary photographs ever produced. Created by a group
of U.S. government photographers, the images show Americans
in every part of the nation. The collection contains more
than 3,000 images of Illinois during this period.
American
Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920: a Study Collection
from the Harvard Graduate School of Design
The approximately 2,800 lantern slides in this collection
represent an historical view of American buildings and landscapes
built during the period 1850-1920. Browse the State Index
for Illinois to find images of buildings and plans from
thirteen cities throughout the state as well as images of
homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Also of note are 14
images of the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, in Chicago,
Illinois.
American
Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project,
1936-1940
The collection includes 2,900 documents representing the
work of over 300 writers from 24 states. The histories describe
the informant's family education, income, occupation, political
views, religion and mores, medical needs, diet and miscellaneous
observations. Pseudonyms are often substituted for individuals
and places named in the narrative texts. Included in the
collection are 73
titles of mostly first-person accounts of life in Illinois
during the Great Depression.
American
Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920
This collection comprises 253 published narratives by
Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels
in the colonies and the United States and their observations
and opinions about American peoples, places, and society
from about 1750 to 1920.
An
American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other
Printed Ephemera
The collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating
from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses
key events and eras in American history. The collection
includes 212 items printed in Illinois.
Baseball
Cards, 1887-1914
This collection consists of 2,100 early baseball cards
dating from 1887 to 1914. The baseball cards for the Chicago
Cubs, Chicago
Maroons, Chicago
White Sox and Chicago
White Stockings are included in this collection.
Built
in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American
Engineering Record, 1933-Present
The images in this collection document achievements in
architecture, engineering, and design in the United States
and its territories through a comprehensive range of building
types and engineering technologies. The collection contains
more than 900 records relating to buildings throughout the
state of Illinois. More information is added quarterly.
By
the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943
This collection consists of 908 boldly colored and graphically
diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Search on the word
“Illinois” to discover a collection of more
than 100 posters.
A
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional
Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation consists of a
linked set of published congressional records of the United
States of America from the Continental Congress through
the 43rd Congress, 1774-1875. Search
the collection on the word "Illinois" to locate
items related to Illinois.
Chicago
Anarchists on Trial-Evidence from the Haymarket Affair 1886-1887
This collection showcases more than 3,800 images of original
manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts
relating to the Haymarket Affair, the violent confrontation
between Chicago police and labor protesters in 1886. The
cornerstone of this collection is the presentation, as images
and searchable text, of the transcript of the 3,200 pages
of proceedings from the murder trial of State of Illinois
v. August Spies, et al.
Chicago
Daily News Photographs, 1902-1933
This collection comprises over 55,000 images of urban
life captured on glass plate negatives between 1902 and
1933 by photographers employed by the Chicago Daily News,
then one of Chicago's leading newspapers. The photographs
illustrate the enormous variety of topics and events covered
in the newspaper and most of the photographs were taken
in Chicago, Illinois, or in nearby towns, parks, or athletic
fields.
The
Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920
Emergence of Advertising in America presents more than
9,000 images relating to the early history of advertising
in the United States.
Historic
American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
The Historic American Sheet Music collection presents
3,042 pieces of sheet music. This selection offers a perspective
on American history and culture through a variety of music
types including bel canto, minstrel songs, protest songs,
sentimental songs, patriotic and political songs, plantation
songs, spirituals, dance music, songs from vaudeville and
musicals, "Tin pan alley" songs, and songs from
World War I.
Inventing
Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of
the Edison Companies
This collection features 341 motion pictures, 81 disc
sound recordings, and other related materials, such as photographs
and original magazine articles.
Map
Collections: 1500-2004
The Map Collections Web site is organized according to
seven major categories. Because a map will be assigned to
only one category, unless it is part of more than one core
collection, searching Map Collections at this level will
provide the most complete results since the indexes for
all categories are searched simultaneously. The collection
includes maps of Illinois
locales from the late 1700s to 1996.
Music
for the Nation: American Sheet Music 1820-1860 & 1870-1885
Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music contains more
than 62,500 pieces of historical sheet music registered
for copyright: more than 15,000 registered during the years
1820-1860 and more than 47,000 registered during the years
1870-1885.
The
Nineteenth Century in Print: Books
The collection includes primary documents of American
history reflecting the broad domains of social and political
history, education, psychology, sociology, religion, and
science and technology as they developed throughout the
antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction eras (1850-77).
Pioneering
the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin,
ca. 1820-1910
This collection portrays the states of Michigan, Minnesota
and Wisconsin from the seventeenth to the early twentieth
century through first-person accounts, biographies, promotional
literature, local histories, ethnographic and antiquarian
texts, colonial archival documents, and other works drawn
from the Library of Congress's General Collections and Rare
Books and Special Collections Division. The collection includes
the following book which recounts the experiences of a young,
genteel wife adjusting to the military life and frontier
conditions of life at Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin. It includes
a narrative of travel between Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin
and Chicago, Illinois in 1831 and an account of the Chicago
massacre of 1812.
Prosperity
and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
Prosperity and Thrift assembles a wide array of Library
of Congress source materials from the 1920s that document
the widespread prosperity of the Coolidge years, the nation's
transition to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government
in this transition. The collection includes a 1930 pamphlet
which publishes a collection of informal talks given by
farm women at the Household Science Meeting held by the
Illinois Farmers' Institute around 1930, relating women's
successes in founding and maintaining farm-related businesses.
September
11, 2001 Documentary Project
The project captures the heartfelt reactions, eyewitness
accounts, and diverse opinions of Americans and others in
the months that followed the terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center, the Pentagon, and United Airlines Flight 93.
There are 16 interviews in the collection of individuals
from around Illinois.
Taking
the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991
The Panoramic Photograph Collection contains approximately
4,000 images featuring American cityscapes, landscapes,
and group portraits. More than 200 images in this collection
represent rural, small-town and city life throughout Illinois.
Touring
Turn-of-the Century America: Photographs from the Detroit
Publishing Company, 1880-1920
The photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company Collection
include more than 25,000 glass negatives and transparencies
as well as about 300 color photolithograph prints, mostly
of the eastern United States. The Illinois-related photographs
of this collection include various nature views of the Fox
River, Chicago River and Lincoln Park as well as images
of Chicago landmarks such as State Street, Newberry Library,
University of Chicago and more.
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