United States Works Progress Administration, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln Newspaper Calendar, 1831-1865 | Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

Scope and Contents:

This collection contains 11,500 notecards recording the bibliographic information of Illinois newspaper articles about Abraham Lincoln from 1831-1865. Notecards are 3x5 inches printed on thin paper stock. In 1942, the project was put on hold and the card sets were sent to a WPA office in Springfield, Illinois.

Biographical/Historical Context:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt founded the Works Progress Administration as a means to create jobs during the Great Depression. People were hired to work on specific projects in public works and the arts. This project recorded entries of Illinois newspaper articles about Abraham Lincoln during his legislative years in Springfield, Illinois, and his presidency. WPA staff looked at newspapers held in the Chicago Historical Society, Illinois State Historical Library, Alton Telegraph Office, and Belleville Public Library. Recorded entries were originally published in the Alton Telegraph, the Alton Courier, the Illinois Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Democrat, the Belleville Tribune, the Bureau County Republican, the Quincy Herald, and the Quincy Whig, amongst others.

Acquisition Source: The Illinois State Archives obtained several sets of notecards and sent one set to University of Illinois Professors James G. Randall and Theodore C. Pease. The notecards were given to the Illinois State Historical Survey Library in 1953.