Scope and Contents:
This collection contains individual issues of newspapers collected by the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections (IHLC) and its predecessor, the Illinois Historical Survey. Materials date from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries.
The collection is organized into three series: Illinois Newspapers, Newspapers from other U.S. States, and Lincoln Commemorative Issues.
The newspapers document important political events and people in Illinois and U.S. history, such as Mr. and Mrs. Stephen A. Douglas, the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1801, the seige of Vicksburg in 1863, the 1870 Illinois state constitution, James A. Garfield's assassination in 1881, and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Of particular note is a copy of the July 2, 1863 issue of the Vicksburg Daily Citizen printed on wallpaper. Also included in the collection are commemorative issues, dating from 1869 to 1931, on the life and political career of Abraham Lincoln.