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Records of the Griffin Funeral Home, and its predecessor, the Bell Auto & Undertaking Company, which served the African American community in Chicago,1929-2007. Entries contain the decedent's name, address, occupation, physical characteristics, next of kin, date/place of birth, date/place of death, minister's name, and place of burial. Limited information of plot purchasers is also included.

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Papers documenting the activities of organizer, preservationist, and entrepreneur Harold L. Lucas. Material is related to African American communities, both in Chicago and nationwide. Also includes other activities including historic building preservation, Bronzeville history, heritage tourism, and political work for the city of Chicago.

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Prints and negatives by Helen Balfour Morrison from her multiple trips to African American communities in Kentucky during the 1930s and 1940s.

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Letters of Henry Clay, prominent statesman and orator, during his career as US Senator, concerning political topics which include the election of Jackson, secession, the temperance movement, and slavery.

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Forty-four diaries, 1857-1906, together with a few letters and miscellaneous items, documenting Hiram Scofield's Civil War service as an officer with the 2nd Iowa Infantry and commander of the 47th Colored Infantry Regiment, and his post war personal and professional life as a Washington, Iowa, attorney.

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Collection of correspondence, works, research materials, and personal information by and about Hoke Norris, reporter, book reviewer, novelist, and public affairs director. Norris worked for several papers including the Raleigh News and Observer, the Winston-Salem Journal-Sentinel, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Chicago Daily News.

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Chicago policeman and police fiction author. Holton's papers consist of his published and unpublished works, book production and promotional materials (including posters), awards and certificates, clippings, correspondence, photographs, and a full working police uniform.

Abstract The Archives of the Illinois Central Railroad Company document the activities of the Company and its subsidiary lines and companies from before its charter on Feb. 10, 1851, through and a bit beyond 1972, when the line merged with the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad to become Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. The collection includes correspondence of administrators and staff, minutes, reports and legal documents, financial records, stock information, historical material, maps, blueprints, and...

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Works, correspondence, and papers of American novelist, folklorist, and editor Jack Conroy. Conroy's novel The Disinherited, published in 1933, is considered a classic in proletarian literature and depicted in gritty detail the realities of the Great Depression. Conroy also edited radical journals The Rebel Poet, The Anvil, and The New Anvil.

Abstract The James Francis Driscoll collection of American sheet music, amassed by engineer and organist J. Francis Driscoll (1875-1959), is one of the largest and most representative collections of its kind. The approximated 80,000 pieces of sheet music and related material were arranged into sections by Driscoll himself, and reflect his collecting interests and preferences. Some of the music is arranged according to imprint information (i.e. American imprints, publishers’ imprints, illustrated...

Abstract Mainly Civil War (1862-1863) and European trip (1867) letters of James Taylor Graves addressed to his widowed mother, his sister Martha Louise Graves, and his brother John Morrison Graves. Graves' Civil War letters, written from Camp Miller at Greenfield, Mass., en route to Louisiana via New York City, and from various places in Louisiana, discuss camp life, ship transport, the treatment of Negroes, Southern guerrillas, skirmishes with Confederate forces, the siege of Port Hudson, and other...

Abstract Political cartoons and assorted miscellaneous items (clippings, photographs, correspondence, etc.) of Pulitzer Prize-winning artist John Fischetti. Fischetti worked for several newspapers and magazines during his long career, including Coronet, Esquire, the Chicago Sun, the New York Herald Tribune, the Chicago Daily News, and the...

Abstract Underground and counter-culture newspaper collection of Jona Goldschmidt, a Chicago activist, lawyer, and professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Loyola University. Includes late 1960s-mid 1970s materials about the Vietnam War, prisoners' rights, civil rights, women’s rights, yippies, socialism, and the Black Panther Party. Also included is Goldschmidt's collection of neighborhood newsletters, fliers, and clippings about Marynook, a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side that strove...

Abstract Incomplete (pages 81-296) manuscript of an anti-slavery essay written by Joseph Bachellor Goddard, a Congregational minister in Londonderry, Vermont, and 1816 graduate of Williams College, who argued for the elimination of slavery, but sharply criticized the program of the American Colonization Society. Goddard preached in Londonderry from 1827 to 1838, and later in Pitcairn, St. Lawrence County, N.Y. Also included are a typed transcript prepared by Eleanor Goddard Worthen, a...

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Vermont native who settled in Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois, in 1846 and practiced law there for over sixty years. Papers include extensive records of Kendall's legal practice, family correspondence, and real estate records.

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MoMing was a center in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood for dance training and avant-garde performance as well as an art gallery. It was formed in 1974 by Jackie Radis, Jim Self, Susan Kimmelman, Eric Trules, Kasia Mintch, Tem Horowitz, and Sally Banes. Along with local artists, it hosted many guest dancers and artists of renown, including Trisha Brown, Bill T. Jones, Mark Morris, and Meredith Monk. It officially dissolved in 1991.

Abstract Correspondence between Oliver R. Barrett, lawyer and collector of Abraham Lincoln material and poet Carl Sandburg, primarily pertaining to the interest of both men in Lincoln, plus a few other letters of Oliver Barrett and his son Roger; numerous brief undated notes from Sandburg to Barrett and work notes on Lincoln's biography by both men; copies of several articles and numerous poems by Sandburg; miscellaneous printed items relating to Sandburg, his work and his public appearances; and...

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Collection of family papers, genealogical material, books, and some correspondence about the Baumann Family side of the Prescott, Lyons, Carrington, and René families. Also includes photographs of various family branches, including Lyons, Carrington, Prescott, and Ferguson.

Abstract Records of this railroad sleeping-car operator and manufacturer. The Pullman Company (originally Pullman's Palace Car Company) revolutionized rail travel, dramatically increased employment opportunities for African Americans who served as porters on its cars, and had a significant impact on the American labor movement. Records for the entire firm are included until the mid-1920s division into operating and manufacturing companies; after that date, records mainly chronicle the activities of...

Abstract Correspondence, essays, financial and legal documents, genealogies, journals, newspaper clippings, and four photographs relating to the Rodgers family, descendants of Rev. John Rodger (1735-1812). The papers document the life of an American pioneer family in Virginia, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Oregon, New Mexico, and California, and cover topics such as farming life, homestead claims, politics, livestock and grain industries, and religion. There is an overland journal penned by Andrew Rodgers,...

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Malkind, a Chicago photojournalist, worked for the Ruth Page Foundation from 1981 to 1992. Her photographs primarily feature cultural life in Chicago, dance and performing arts events, as well as her personal life. The collection also includes clippings, correspondence, publicity materials, written work by Malkind and Ruth Page, and audio recordings.

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Papers of Chicago journalist Sherwood Ross, including articles he wrote for the New York Enquirer (1956-1957) and the Chicago Daily News (1962), a syndicated column for Reuters (1992-2002), material from his public relations and social activism work for the National Urban League and records belonging to Sherwood Ross Associates, a media consulting firm Ross founded in 1970.

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Writings and correspondence of Slim Brundage, founder of the College of Complexes, which operated on and off out of several locations on Chicago’s Near North Side during the 1950's-1960's as a forum where speakers and the audience debated controversial topics and read poetry. The collection also includes a variety of documents relating to the College of Complexes itself, such as correspondence, press releases, speaker solicitations, and poetry written by the College’s “students.”

Abstract Set of 44 lantern slides produced by the Committee on Conservation and Advance of the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) that document the daily life of African Americans during the early years of the Great Migration from the rural American South, as well as outreach activities conducted by the MEC to assist them with finding work and social services. A majority of the slides show African American Methodist Episcopal church buildings in cities, such as Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, New York,...

Abstract Research materials assembled by Theodore Kornweibel, a professor of African American studies at San Diego State University, used in the writing of monographs about federal surveillance of and campaigns against African Americans, 1917-1925, and federal efforts to compel Black loyalty during World War I. The collection consists of copies of FBI and other federal agency records, including case files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, detailed notecards, printed federal documents,...