We’ve added 3 new albums to our digital collections. They feature the Illinois Central Railroad, African American Community leaders, and churches throughout Champaign County.  

Illinois Central Railroad

The Illinois Central Railroad Company, incorporated in 1851, took advantage of an 1850 charter that allowed using public land for railroads. Its first railroad would run diagonally northwest with a branch to Chicago. In Champaign, a Power House was built on Wabash with barns for housing and repairing trains nearby, the freight house was located off Neil, the tower was put east of the freight house and along the Belt Line and the station was on University St.  In Urbana, the depot was on Broadway with its powerhouse off Main.

Thanks everyone for making Archives Month such a success. We enjoyed seeing you all over the last month. Remember to be kept up-to-date on all the events and workshops hosted by the Archives you can sign up for email notifications to be sent to your inbox. Just make sure to check Local History and Genealogy in the selection list.  

The National Archives will once again be offering its Virtual Genealogy Fair on October 28, 29, & 30, starting daily at 10 a.m. eastern time. This will be a live broadcast via the Internet so you can ask the genealogy experts questions at the end of their talks. The entire event is free, open to all, and requires no registration.

Read more about Resource Alert: The National Archives is offering its 9th Annual Virtual Genealogy Fair, October 28-30

We are closing out American Archives Month  with a bang as we prep for 3 events this week. Whether you are interested in the discoveries made by local authors during the research process, kid-friendly genealogy activities, or oral history there is an event for you.  We hope to see you as we finsh up celebrating Archives Month. 

“Saving our film heritage should not be limited only to commercially produced films. Home movies do not just capture the important private moments of our family’s lives, but they are historical and cultural documents as well.”– Martin Scorsese

On Wednesday, October 15, 2014, the Champaign County Historical Archives and Student Life and Culture Archives will present a mashup of archival films from the mid-1920s through the 21^st century including aerials of Champaign-Urbana, college life, Orpheum Theatre, agricultural technology, the Flat Iron fire of the late 1940s, African-American CU Day Reunion, and the changing nature of transportation that includes trains, buses, and cars.  

Archival Crush. It’s a real thing, look it up.

Actually, never mind, Google won’t return a hit, but all archivists have one. Society of American Archivists president Kathleen Roe talks about her crush (although she calls her an archival neighbor), Genevieve Hankins-Hawke, an African-American nurse, widow and mother during World War II, whose papers she processed more than 25 years ago but whose story still remains with her.  Read more about October is American Archives Month.

Try-It! Illinois 2014, the fourteenth annual statewide database trial, sponsored by Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White and the Illinois State Library is now available. Come visit the Archives and get your password! Read more about Try-It Illinois is now available! (October 1 through November 30, 2014)

Urbana native, Joseph William Royer is well-known for being the architect of The Urbana Free Library (1917), the Champaign County Courthouse (1901), and Urbana High School (1913). But his designs extended beyond Urbana and Champaign County, and even Illinois reaching into Iowa and Indiana. Read more about Joseph William Royer, Architect of Schools and Early Urbana

Life-long Champaign County resident Raymond Eugene Suggs passed away Friday, September 19, 2014 at the age of 86. Read more about In Memoriam: Raymond Eugene Suggs, May 22, 1928 – September 19, 2014

The Champaign County Historical Archives is partnering with the Student Life and Culture Archives at the University of the Illinois to present a Town & Gown Speaker Series.  Our inaugural event takes place Thursday, September 18, 2014 and looks at the local impact of World War I.  Come join us for an evening of period music, poems from a native solider, local headlines, and letters from the front lines.