University News
WIU Librarians' Project Makes Western Illinois Historical Newsletters Available Online
November 16, 2009
MACOMB, IL -- As the holidays approach, many in western Illinois may start to feel the tug of nostalgia. Memories of Thanksgiving meals with family and friends, recalling the searches for prime snow-sledding spots on the region's relatively flat terrain and recollections of simpler times likely will always be very much alive in the hearts and minds of those who have called western Illinois home.
Earlier this year, two Western Illinois University librarians took it upon themselves to make the historical past and collective memories of the western Illinois region more accessible to those near and afar. Bill Thompson, librarian and associate professor at University Libraries, and Jeff Hancks, Baxter-Snyder Professor of Regional and Icarian Studies and University Archives and Special Collections unit coordinator, applied for and were awarded a grant through the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). The grant enabled Hancks and Thompson to spearhead a project that makes the content of several western Illinois historical societies' newsletters available online. Included in the online collection -- which is available at collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm4/index_wiu_hsn.php?CISOROOT=/wiu_hsn -- are newsletters from the western Illinois counties of Hancock (1987-present); McDonough (1982-present), including the Colchester Area Historical Society (1995-present); Rock Island (1966-present); and Schuyler (1969-present).
"Western Illinois University's Special Collections already had hard copies of the materials," explained Thompson. "It was a matter of getting permission to scan them and make them publicly accessible, so Jeff worked with the various historical societies involved to get their permission to put the material online."
Thompson noted the collection has been available online since late last summer, and the newsletters online are browsable by individual issue. Perusing the many stories about people and places in the western Illinois counties, Thompson pointed out, highlights how the seemingly simple recounting of the lives of the people in the region provides contemporary insight into the "simpler" days of yore.
"One of the items that I remember clearly is the Articles of Indenture signed by an Illinois couple. Although Illinois was not a slave-owning state, some of those who lived in the state practiced indentured servitude, a near cousin to slavery," he explained. "Reading the articles, which amounted to a temporary surrender of many of the freedoms we take for granted in return for room and board, was an eloquent statement of the hardships that people were willing to undergo to escape the even worse conditions only available to them elsewhere," he added.
Thompson also cited another item that stuck with him -- the tale of the first-known murder in Schuyler county, which was published in the Schuyler County Historical Society's newsletter.
"The story of the murder was about two men who were chopping wood. An argument soon ensued, and one killed the other. Not only did the newsletter publish the account of the murderer's trial and execution, but it also provided a list of the effects of the deceased, which were derived from the probate records. Through that list, a reader gets a sense of the material culture of ordinary people -- the clothes they owned, the tools they possessed and so on. Items like these open up a lost world and provide first-hand information about what a person carried with him and owned in frontier Illinois," Thompson said.
Thompson noted that scanning the newsletters took a better part of year, and said a WIU student worker, Kylene Davenport, completed the bulk of the time-intensive scanning work.
While the historical societies' newsletters available online are not searchable by full text, Thompson noted that he hopes that will happen in the future.
"The fact that this historical content is now available online makes the collection an even more marvelous resource than the print iteration of the newsletters held at WIU," Thompson said. "Those interested in the region's history or who are doing genealogical work from afar don't have to travel to Macomb to read about the fascinating history of those who lived and worked in western Illinois. They can just go online, and the information from these historical societies' newsletters is available to them at their fingertips."
And, according to Hancks, the newsletters are just the beginning of the historical content University Libraries is collecting and making available online to researchers.
"We currently offer photographs and some books published by Western, and future plans call for important historical resources, including WIU yearbooks ('Sequel') and the 'Western Courier,' Western's student-run newspaper."
For more information, contact Thompson at (309) 298-2784 or at WA-Thompson@wiu.edu or Hancks at (309) 298-2717 or JL-Hancks@wiu.edu. Read more about history relating to the western Illinois region via University Libraries' Archives & Special Collections blog at wiu.edu/libweb/blogs/archives.
Posted By: Teresa Koltzenburg (WIUNews@wiu.edu)
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