Browse By Collection Title | Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

Douglas E. Wade (1909-1987) was a wildlife conservationist, ecologist, educator, editor, writer, and prairie restorer. Graduating from Beloit College in 1935, Wade received an M.S. degree in 1940 at the University of Wisconsin, where he studied under Aldo Leopold. Between 1938 and 1963, he was a research specialist for the Pennsylvania ...

Theodore Vigo Wadskier, born on the island of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies in 1827, was educated in Copenhagen, where he completed a course in Architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He came to the United States in 1850, practicing his profession in Philadelphia until 1857, ...

Julius Wadsworth (1814-87) came to Chicago in 1836, from Middletown, Conn. He amassed a fortune from a dry-goods establishment, a packing house, an insurance business, and from investments in real estate and railroads. The collection includes Wadsworth's memorandum of a letter to Judge Mark Skinner, another Chicago businessman. Written in November ...

This collection contains the papers of the Thomas H. Walker family of Brownsburgh, Rockbridge County, Virginia, including correspondence, commercial papers, and a petition to release one of Walker's sons, James, from service in the Confederate army due to bad health. The correspondence is mostly personal, written largely among relatives within the Walker family, but the papers also include some business correspondence.

Helen (Nellie) Walker, an 1878 graduate of Geneseo (Ill.) High School became a teacher in nearby Munson Center. For Christmas 1880, Walker's students gave her this 40-page scrapbook, which she filled with unidentified and undated newspaper clippings, 1878-89, holiday illustrations, maps, and her high school reunion program. The clippings concern ...

John Hunter Walker (1872-1955) was an Illinois labor leader and politician, whose positions included President of the Illinois Federation of Labor (1913-30); President of District 12 (Illinois); United Mine Workers of America (1906-13 and 1931-33); and International Secretary of the United Mine Workers of America, Reorganized (1930-31). Walker also served ...

This collection contains two pocket notebooks belonging to Pinckney H. Walker, a judge in the Illinois Supreme Court. Walker used the two notebooks to record notes for his judicial opinions in 1860 and 1861. Pinckney H. Walker, born in Kentucky, moved to Rushville, Illinois, in 1834, and then to Macomb, Illinois, ...

Thomas Walton, who graduated from the University of Illinois in 1911, became Education Director of the campus Y.M.C.A. in 1914. This collection contains his handwritten draft (on 70 half-size sheets of paper) of "The Spending of Home Mission Money in Illinois." He based his paper on interviews with church officials ...

Edward B. Warner, after engaging in business in Prophetstown, a village in Whiteside County, Illinois, became Treasurer of the county, serving from 1858 to 1869. During that period, he brought order to the county's finances. Through his influence, taxes were levied to pay for the relocation of the county seat ...

This document, filed with the circuit clerk of Warren County on June 5, 1842, is a copy of the pleadings in the case of [i]Cicero Hamilton v. Samuel Johnson[/i], the defendant having failed to repay the plaintiff $202.50, which he borrowed at 6% on June 1, 1840.

This collection contains two handwritten letters and one original print of a speech written by Elihu B. Washburne. Washburne, a resident of Galena, Illinois, was elected to Congress in 1853 and served as a Representative until 1869. He served for only a few days as Secretary of State under Ulysses S. ...

William Walcott "Buck" Watson (1857-1932) was a Republican Party supporter, newspaper editor, insurance salesman, and one-term mayor of Barry, Pike County, Ill. From 1880 to 1898 he was the publisher and editor of the Barry [i]Adage[/i], a Republican weekly. At the turn of the twentieth century he was chairman of ...

This collection consists of stories and radio scripts related to Illinois history and Abraham Lincoln, written by journalist and professor Elmo Scott Watson. Elmo Scott Watson (1892-1951) was a journalist and professor who wrote extensively on the history of Illinois and the American West. From 1918 to 1924, he taught journalism ...

This collection consists of a transcript of letters from James G. Watson, a soldier in the 25th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, to his father during the Civil War. Born in Brooklyn, New York, James G. Watson was a farmer near Middletown (now Mahomet), Champaign County, Illinois. In August 1861 Watson joined Company ...

This collection contains letters of Jan. 23 and Apr. 14, 1853, from William W. Webb in Belvidere, Ill., to Chester Orvis, who had recently moved from Belvidere to Champion, New York. Webb wrote about marriages of their friends and other news, including the burning down of the Belvidere hotel, talk ...

William B. Webber (1836-1916) was a prominent Champaign County lawyer, a state legislator, and a mayor of Urbana. He was the son of Thomson R. Webber (1807-81), one of Urbana's most influential pioneer settlers. This collection reflects the varied nature of law practice in Champaign County during the last half of ...

William T. Webber (1785-1838) was an early settler of Champaign County, Ill., having moved his family there from Shelby County, Ky. in 1833. By the time of his death, Webber was one of the area's most prominent land owners. The collection mainly contains photocopies of documents relating to his real ...

This collection consists of the papers and correspondence of Thomson Rhodes Webber, an early settler of Champaign County, Illinois. Its contents relate to Webber's business dealings as well as his personal life and family. Thomson Rhodes Webber (1807-1881) was a prominent early settler of Champaign County, Illinois. Upon arriving in Illinois ...

In 1887, Charles and Leverett Webster took over their father's general merchandise and farm supply store in Shelbyville, Ill. Named Webster Brothers, the business lasted until 1906, when Leverett acquired sole control of the firm. Active in the stock market and real estate transactions, Leverett also owned land in California ...

This collection contains three essays, including “A Critique,” “On Human Greatness,” and “On Emerson,” written by Remigens Weiss in the early 1800s. Remigens Weiss, the author of the essays within the collection, wrote at least one of these essays for the Lyceum in Mount Carmel (Wabash County), Illinois. A form of ...

This collection consists of photostats of correspondence between Gideon Welles and various statesmen, sent between 1865 and 1878. Gideon Welles (1802-1878) was a newspaper editor and politician from Connecticut. He served as U.S. Secretary of the Navy under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. The collection is comprised of correspondence discussing suffrage ...

In this letter of Apr. 14, 1841, Joseph B. Wells seeks to rally his correspondent's "Democratic friends" to subscribe to the [i]Rock Island Banner and Stephenson Gazette[/i], edited by Henry C. McGrew. Wells wrote from Stephenson, Ill., which had officially been renamed Rock Island the previously month.

On July 26, 1800, "Sir John" Wentworth wrote to Dr. Lyman Spalding for a "substitute" front tooth for his wife, which had been broken in an accident and "discomposed" by a traveling dentist. He also noted the return of his own rash, medicine for which Dr. Spalding had prescribed. Another, ...

This collection mainly contains material relating to the research of Raymond C. Werner (1893-1952) on the Pennsylvania Loyalist Joseph Galloway (1731-1803). It also contains Werner's notes on American history and some other fields for his courses in the Department of History of the University of Illinois, 1927-52. The materials are ...

This collection contains a transcript of Silas Dexter Wesson's Civil War diary, as well as a copy of the Wesson family genealogy, which includes transcripts of letters from Silas Wesson to his family during the Civil War. In 1861, Silas Dexter "Deck" Wesson (1839-1909) of DeKalb County, Illinois, enlisted in Company ...

This collection consists of correspondence involving members of the Westcott and White families, as well as mailed envelopes and other enclosed ephemera. Mary White of Butler, Illinois, and her husband, Jacob B. White, maintained correspondence with relatives and friends from Cleveland, Ohio; Hillsboro, Illinois; Providence, Rhode Island; and other locations ...

This collection contains printed questionnaires and handwritten replies, sent out by the Cincinnati office of the Western Methodist Book Concern to various Methodist educational institutions throughout the nation, especially in the Midwestern states, and returned by them, 1865-69 and 1871. The returns, at least 70 each year, give statistical information ...

The bills, receipts, and correspondence in this collection illustrate the business relationship between Western Wheel Works of Chicago, maker of Crescent bicycles, and one of the company's agents, Tarter Brothers of Rural Retreat, a small community in southwestern Virginia. The collection, which the Library acquired in 1978, also includes ...

This collection contains undated photographs in or near Westfield, Illinois. Woods, cornfields, farm animals, town events, and scenes along the North Fork of the Embarras (or "Embraw") River are pictured. About 350 photographs are mounted in two large volumes, many with notations as to their location. About 40 additional photographs are ...

Samuel Wharton was active in the Philadelphia firm of Baynton, Wharton, and Morgan. After the Seven Years War, the firm engaged in trade with the Indians in the West, especially in Illinois. However, as a result of a series of reverses, beginning with losses from Pontiac's Uprising, the firm turned ...

This collection contains handwritten and typed transcripts of papers, the originals of which are in the Wharton Papers of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Certain papers are printed in Clarence Walworth Alvord and Clarence Edwin Carter, eds., [i]The New Regime, 1765-1767[/i], and [i]Trade and Politics, 1767-1769[/i], Collections of the Illinois ...

Almeron Wheat was a prominent Quincy attorney and an associate of Orville Hickman Browning. The letters in this collection are addressed either directly to Wheat or to law firms in Quincy, Illinois, of which Wheat was a member. The letters pertain to legal issues in Quincy, Nauvoo, Warsaw, Carthage, Charleston, ...

This collection contains the diaries for 1870, 1872-76, and 1876-78, of Christopher August Wheeler (1835-1882), a farmer in Kendall County, Ill. The diaries mainly document Wheeler's farm activities and purchases in town, the life of his family, and the notable speakers and events in the area. Wheeler's great-granddaughter, Harriet E. Wallace ...

On May 1, 1844, Joel Wheeler of Galena, Ill., gave an account of his ministerial activities for the preceding quarter to the Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, the corresponding secretary of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society. Wheeler requests overdue payment for his work and describes various difficulties that he has ...

Henry Clay Whitney was an Illinois Lawyer on the 8[sup]th[/sup] Circuit. The collection relates to civil litigation handled by Whitney, illustrating routine legal procedures in his day. Henry Clay Whitney (1831-1905) was an Illinois lawyer, who made the rounds on the 8[sup]th[/sup] Circuit at the same time as Lincoln did. He ...

This collection consists of a diary belonging to James Henry Wiggin, a Unitarian minister and editor. James Henry Wiggin (1836-1900) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Dwight Grammar School and traveled to several parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He later graduated from the Meadville Theological ...

This collection contains a typed English translation of the Swedish work, [i]Abraham Lincoln, den store amerikanen[/i] (1940), written by Sven Wikberg. The volume was translated as [i]Abraham Lincoln: The Great American [/i]by Adam Julius Strohm circa 1940-1950. Sven Wikberg (1890-1959) was a Swedish author who wrote several biographies on historical figures, ...

This collection contains the personal papers of Frederick S. Wild. Materials include military papers, correspondence, and other documents. Wild was born on November 4th, 1863 in New York City, but the Wild family moved to Chicago, Illinois soon after Frederick's birth. He served in the United States military for nineteen years, ...

Benjamin Ladd Wiley (1821-90) , enlisted in Co. B, 1st Ill. Vols. in the Mexcan War, becoming acting quartermaster of the unit. This collection contains a carbon typescript (35 pages) of his diary during ther regiment's march from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe, July 8-Dec. 27, 1847. The original diary ...

This collection consists of two letters and one note written by suffragist and educator, Frances E. Willard. Willard was the president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) from 1879-1898. Frances E. Willard (1839-1898) was a woman's suffragist, educator, and temperance reformer. Born in New York and raised in Wisconsin, she ...

This collection consists of a letter from Assistant Adjutant General Seth Williams to Colonel R. N. Batchelder about storing election forms for Civil War soldiers from New York at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac. Seth Williams (1822-1866) was an American military officer who served as an assistant adjutant ...

Wesley Williams moved with his family from Montgomery County, Kentucky, to Adams County, Illinois, in 1825. In the 1830s he became an early settler of Hancock County and built one of the first houses in Carthage. There, and later at nearby Elvaston, he held various public offices, including justice of ...

This collection includes a map and manuscript written by Delores Williams circa 1930s. Her school paper is entitled "George Rogers Clark's March from Kaskaskia to Vincennes," describing Clark's nineteen day trip in 1778. Delores Williams used a variety of bibliographic sources for her paper, including a letter from Clark, his ...

The collection contains the business, personal, and financial papers of Amos Williams, his son-in-law Dr. William W. R. Woodbury, James A. D. Sconce, and L. A. Sconce. Materials also include the correspondence of the Williams and Woodbury families. Amos Williams (1797-1857) held the positions of county agent, clerk of county court, ...

In this answer to a bill in chancery, William Willson of Rushville, Ill., asserts that he already paid off Daniel S. Shacklett's note for $150. for "a quantity of lime," and that Shacklett's action against him is therefore a "cheat & fraud." On Sept. 9, 1842, after filing this pleading ...

This collection contains the court financial ledger from Wilson & William Law in Rock Island, Illinois. The ledger includes brief descriptions of court cases in Rock Island with details such as the plaintiffs, defendants, and expenses throughout the case. The ledger documents 115 court cases spanning from 1842 to 1849. Most ...

Wilbur M. Wilson (1881-1958) graduated from Iowa State College in 1900 and received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University in 1904. In 1913, after teaching at Iowa State and working for the Illinois Steel Company and Strauss Bascule Bridge Company, he joined the faculty at the University of ...

The Wingard-Forney-Vaky Papers relate primarily to the Wingard family of Champaign, Ill., but also contain materials on the Forney family of Waynesboro, Pa., and the Vaky family of Champaign. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1860s and 1870s, and features detailed accounts of life in Civil War Waynesboro ...

This collection contains an original letter dated September 20 and October 10, 1847, and its transcription. The letter mentions the dissolution of Philadelphia Industrial Association, a Fouriertist community near South Bend, Indiana, which had been incorporated in 1845. The letter was written in different hands, mostly by A. E. Winter, to ...

This 260-page ledger book contains customer accounts of Winter & Waggoner, a general store in Athens, Ill., which sold hardware, lumber, and fresh produce. The store was also engaged in horseshoeing, hauling of goods, and repairing tools.

This collection contains forty cartes de viste portraits of soldiers in the Wisconsin 42[sup]nd[/sup] Volunteer Infantry and two brass uniform buttons with raised eagle emblems, circa 1864-1865. The Wisconsin 42[sup]nd[/sup] Volunteer Infantry was organized at Camp Randall in Madison, Wisconsin, and began its service in the Union Army on September ...

This collection contains the diary of James E. Withrow of Macomb, Illinois. James E. Withrow served in Co. I, 78th Ill. Vol. Inf. during the Civil War. He kept this diary from September 24, 1863, to January 5, 1864. He noted on the inside front cover that he had previously served ...

This collection consists of one 1902 envelope from Wm. Wrigley Jr. and Company, the manufacturer of Wrigley Chewing Gum. Wm. Wrigley Jr. and Company, known as the Wrigley Company, was founded in Chicago in 1891. It was run by four generations of the Wrigley family until 2006. In 2008, the company ...

This collection consists of records from the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) of Illinois at the state, county, and local level. Bound volumes of records, mostly containing meeting minutes, comprise the bulk of the collection. Also included are two dozen handbooks that were published by the Illinois or National W.C.T.U. ...

This volume contains a record of the Annual Conventions of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) of the 10th Congressional District in central Illinois, later redistricted as the 14th District. The volume also includes records from executive committee meetings for the organization in select years. The Annual Conventions for the district ...

This collection consists of minute books, financial records, correspondence, programs, and miscellaneous notes, publications, and other materials documenting the meetings, membership, and activities of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) in Putnam County, Illinois, both on the county and local level from the late 19th through the mid-twentieth century. Records from ...

This collection consists of a stock certificate that sold ten Woman's Federal Oil Company of America shares to Mrs. E.H. Brockway in 1917. The Woman's Federal Oil Company of America was established in 1915 by Harriet Benham (Mrs. Harry H.) Honore of Chicago, Illinois, and several other wealthy Chicago women. Honore ...

This collection contains a profit sharing investment bond issued to Mrs. J.E. Humphrey and an envelope from the Woman's Land Syndicate in Chicago, Illinois, addressed to Dr. Martha A. Anderson. The envelope is postmarked July 22, 1892, and the bond is dated 1893. The Woman's Land Syndicate was formed in 1892 ...

This collection is comprised primarily of publications from the Woman’s Relief Corps Department of Illinois and National Headquarters along with a few documents from the Grand Army of the Republic. These documents include General Orders, Circulars, Rosters, and Rules and Regulations. Additionally, the original binding of the volume and the ...

This collection contains ledger books of the Women's Town Club, a group which provided housing for women in Champaign, Illinois. In 1897, the Beardsley Hotel, on the northwest corner of Hill and Neil Streets in downtown Champaign, Illinois, built an annex on its west side at 112 West Hill Street. In ...

This collection consists of a eulogy written by Reverend Nathaniel Milton Wood three days after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Nathaniel Milton Wood (1882-1876) was a leading Baptist minister in Maine. Born in Camden, he graduated from Waterville (now Colby) College in 1844, and later attended the Western Baptist Theological Institute ...

Harlington Wood, Jr., of Springfield and Petersburg, Ill., served as a U.S. Circuit Judge for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, 1976-2003. Previously, he was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, 1958-61, and U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Illinois, 1973-76. Wood also served in the ...

This collection contains prints of watercolor paintings from various artists depicting scenes from Chicago's 1893 World's Fair. The prints in this collection depict scenes before construction of and during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. All prints have been mounted on heavy paper and are identified by scene and year in pencil. The ...

This collection contains a portrait of Robert G. Ingersoll by Grant Wright. Wright inscribed the portrait to "[his] old friend," B.C. Bryner. Grant Wright (1865-1935) was an artist who spent many of his young years in Peoria, Illinois. Wright was known for his Impressionist paintings of landscapes and commercial illustrations. His ...

Writing from Edwardsville, Ill., on Jan. 10, 1820,  J. C. Wright informs his brother, Nathaniel Wright of Cincinnati, about the difficulty of selling bounty lands in Illinois.

This collection consists of World War II ration books and related items that belonged to Elsie Louise and Richard H. Guthrie of Chicago, Illinois. During World War II food was in short supply due to the needs of American and allied soldiers overseas. Because of these shortages, the US Government's Office ...