Thomas J. Burrill Papers, 1854, 1863-1912, 1916-1916, 1931 | University of Illinois Archives

Description: Papers of Thomas Jonathan Burrill (1839-1916), professor of botany (1868-1912), including a journal (1863-64, 1875, 1877-78), diplomas and certificates (1865-1912), photograph album (1890), a reminiscence concerning his boyhood (1895), appointment letters (1895-99), and a letterpress copybook (1904-10).  The journal includes lecture notes, definitions, questions and diagrams made in trigonometry, natural philosophy, hydrostatics, optics, astronomy, physiology, zoology, cosmogony and history courses at Illinois State Normal University (1863-64) and a diary of personal observations on crops, weather, plants, insects, seeds and personal activity (4/6/1875 to 9/30/1875; 6/1877 to 9/17/1888).  The 1895 15-page typewritten "Boyhood Biography, A Personal Sketch" by Burrill covers his boyhood in northern Illinois, 1849-59.  The copybook contains Burrill's private correspondence relating to drainage and timber on his Arkansas lands, assessment of his chicago lots, scientific investigations and university affairs (1904-10).  The series includes copies of a school record (1854), a genealogy (1931), correspondence about a western trip (1915), letters of condolence (1916) and Burrill family memoir by Mildred Burrill (ca. 1905).