The Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library is pleased to announce a grant award to digitize significant local history materials. The Library recently received a $5,000 award from the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board to support the digitization of audio-visual (AV) materials within the Chanute Air Force Base Collection. Funds will be used to digitize U-Matic, VHS, and other aging tapes in this collection of local and national significance.
The Champaign County Historical Archives (CCHA) was one of the select few institutions to receive historically significant material following the closure of Rantoul’s Chanute Air Museum in 2015. The CCHA’s collection consists of the former museum’s archival holdings, including items from Chanute Air Force Base and the Chanute Technical Training Center, one of the premier technical training centers for airmen and women in the United States Army and Air Force during the 20th century. The Chanute collection includes blueprints and maps for Chanute Air Force Base, base publications, training materials, oral histories, aerial photographs of the base, subject files, photographs, scrapbooks, videotapes, open-reel audio tapes, cassette tapes, vinyl records, correspondence, and archival donations from personnel connected to Chanute. The collection, estimated at over 700 cubic feet of material, holds great research value. It is estimated that at the time of the base’s closure in 1994, more than two million airmen and women had been trained at Chanute Air Force Base. Among those trained at Chanute were the 99th Pursuit Squadron, also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, and the first all-Black fighter squadron in the US military.
The Chanute Collection is of national significance with documentary evidence of the cultural impact and history of the US military, Air Force, and the Chanute Technical Training Center. However, the Chanute collection’s importance to CCHA is directly tied to its patrons’ research and reference needs. CCHA’s patrons have expressed interest in original, unique records in the collection that are relevant to CCHA’s mission, including local, cultural, building, and military history. From our limited understanding, the Chanute AV collection documents the cultural history of the base and Rantoul, vital elements of US military history that were initiated in Champaign County, and major events at the base that affected the landscape of Champaign County.
Due to the Chanute AV collection’s national and local significance, this grant award will allow CCHA to continue processing, preserving, and making this valuable, unique AV collection accessible. By digitizing these materials and making them available online, interested patrons across the state, country, and beyond will have the opportunity to access the Chanute AV collection and get a glimpse into the past.
In 2027, toward the end of the grant period, staff will host a public screening of selected digitized materials in the Library’s auditorium. The program may include an overview of the collection and digitization project, remarks from staff and partners involved, and screening of excerpts from some of the digitized materials. Staff may also offer popcorn and other refreshments to attract attendees to this “mini film festival.”
For updates on the project and to learn more about the Archives and Library, please visit www.urbanafree.org.
-Pat Cain
Archives Manager