Archives On The Move

Stay Tuned! Daily Updates on the progress of the move, including new photos, will be added starting May 21!

In 1963 the University of Illinois Archives opened its doors to the public. For 52 years the basement of the Main Library Building has been our home and it has served our needs well, but as the collections grew and as ever more students and scholars came to use the Archives, Room 19 became too cramped and unsuitable for our users. For the past three years, the archivists and the Library’s Assistant Dean for Facilities have been working to create a space more fitting to the Archives’great collections and users.

On May 21, 2015 the University of Illinois Archives will begin to relocate its core collections and public service operations from the basement to the former Applied Health Sciences Library (room 146 Main Library).

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New Reading Room
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New Stacks

The new home of the University Archives has been recently remodeled and outfitted with new equipment, large tables, improved wireless connectivity and expanded oversize storage. In addition to new equipment the remodel includes designated archival instruction and exhibit space as well as expanded stations for staff working with born-digital and digitized archives.

 

To ensure a speedy move our basement location (room 19 Main Library) will close its doors to the public between May 21 and May 29, 2015.

Only the Main Library location will be unavailable to the public during this time. The Student Life and Culture Archives and the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music will continue their regular hours of operation.

We will continue to check our email (illiarch@illinois.edu) and voice mail (217-333-0798) during the move.

Looking forward to opening our doors June 01, 2015!

For more photographs documenting our move please visit: https://uofi.box.com/ArchivesNewSpace

Champaign County On Film

Champaign County On Film, the second event in the Town & Gown Speaker Series, will be held in the Lewis Auditorium at Urbana Free Library, Wednesday, October 15, at 7pm. The Champaign County Historical Archives and the Student Life & Culture Archives will present an evening devoted to the changes of Champaign County from the 1920s through the twenty-first century as captured by the film lens. Continue reading “Champaign County On Film”

Engineering Materials Digitized and Online

Civil Engineering PhotographsSince December 2012, the University Archives has acquired over 50 new accessions of materials which have augmented the Archives’ holdings that document the College of Engineering’s rich institutional memory. These acquisitions have revealed new sources and insights into the establishment and development of Engineering’s curriculum from the University’s founding in 1867, as well as faculty research and the creation of new research programs and laboratories and their affect on scientific and technological innovations. In addition to being arranged and described, Engineering administrative records and faculty papers have received advanced conservation and preservation treatment, and many records series have been digitized by the Library’s Digital Content Creation Unit. These newly-digitized materials facilitate greater access to the history of science and technology at the University of Illinois. Recently digitized administrative materials include Faculty Minutes, 1897-1902, 1918-2008 and Annual Reports, 1903-1959, 1970-1971, 1987-1988 .These records capture the work of committees, administrators, departments, and laboratories, including Engineering’s unique documentation of its own history through its Historical File, 1908-1996.

Continue reading “Engineering Materials Digitized and Online”

Arthur H. “Mike” Mason

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Mason poses during a track meet. RS 41/20/230

In a 1937 News-Gazette article on the “past glory of Illinois track teams,” legendary Illini track coach Harry Gill named Arthur H. “Mike” Mason one of the best runners and fiercest competitors he ever witnessed. Gill recounted how Mason lost his shoe during a two mile race in 1915. Despite attempts to flag him down to prevent injury, Mason kept running and finished in the lead, setting a new Big Ten and Illinois record with a time of 9:42 2-3. After helping him to the locker room, Gill recalled how “a bloody sock was removed and the whole callous of his foot dropped off with it. That run was the greatest exhibition of courage I have ever witnessed.” [1] Mason bested this time on several occasions, and his records of 4:18 and 9:33 for one and two mile races stood until the 1920s. [2] Continue reading “Arthur H. “Mike” Mason”

Illinois Loyalty Amidst the Icebergs

In recognition of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the University of Illinois’ participation in an Arctic expedition, the University Archives has prepared an on-line exhibit featuring first-hand accounts of this ill-fated trip to find the “Crocker Lands”. The exhibit focuses on the observations of W. Elmer Ekblaw (class of 1910) who served as the expedition team’s geologist, and provides insights to survival in a brutal climate away from the rest of the world that was rushing into World War I.

 

Enter Exhibit

 

Illustrated by Fridtjof Nansen.
Illustrated by Fridtjof Nansen.