Have you ever passed something countless times without stopping to examine it? For me, it was a series of books in the Archives reference section, each titled with the name of a state. One day, as we were going about our regular archival business, these books were brought to my attention. It was at that point that I finally decided to take a look at them. Of course, one doesn’t simply pick up an item in the Archives and have that be the end of the story. Queue the “it’s time to do some research” music!
So, what are these books?
These books belong to the American Guide Series. The series originated as part of the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), one piece of the much larger Works Progress Administration (WPA). In the same way that the WPA provided jobs through various public works projects during the Great Depression, the FWP aimed to employ writers. Each book was created and printed by its respective state, but the content of each book is uniform. Within each title, readers can find the history of the state, descriptions of major cities, and information about the state’s culture. The American Guide Series was just one of many published works that resulted from the project. Other publications include guides related to specific cities, local and oral histories, and children’s books.
Over the years, several books in the series have been republished and revised, and not all the books housed in the Archives are the original editions. The Archives has two copies for the state of Illinois, from 1946 and 1973, and both contain some interesting comments about Champaign-Urbana.
Illinois American Guide Book, 1946
According to the 1946 edition of the Illinois book, “Champaign and Urbana lie in the east central section of the State in the center of a fertile prairie. Although they are divided only by a street, they are individually incorporated and preserve a vigorous independence.”
Illinois American Guide Book, 1973
The new revised edition, published in 1973, starts much differently with, “situated in the middle of the richest corn and soybean producing farmlands is this closely meshed community of two contiguous cities that gain their distinction and much of their prosperity from the presence of the main campus of the University of Illinois, which makes its address Urbana-Champaign because most of its plant is in Urbana.”
Are you interested in exploring this series? For these books and others, visit the Archives and see what we have to offer!
-Shalini Smith
Archives Librarian