Scope and Contents:
Otto Leopold Schmidt was a physician and leader in the Illinois history community. This collection contains both typed and handwritten transcripts of records in the French America Collection (formerly the Otto Schmidt Collection) of the Chicago History Museum. A portion of these typescripts was used in the preparation of Theodore Calvin Pease and Raymond C. Werner, eds., The French Foundations, 1680-1693, Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, Vol. 23 (1934), and a few items were used in Clarence Walworth Alvord and Clarence Edwin Carter, eds., The New Regime, 1765-1767, ibid., Vol. 11 (1916).
The transcripts are calendared and filed as first numbered: I:63 - I:105 for The French Foundations; I:127 - II:381 for later items; and another file for items in 1765-79. In addition, there are collated typescripts and revised typescripts of the records used in The French Foundations. These items mainly deal with the fur trade in the West, including the enterprises of La Salle, Tonti, and La Forest.