Holdings of the Illinois State
Archives
The Illinois State Archives is the official
depository for those records of government, both state and local,
which have been appraised to have long-term legal, administrative,
historical, or other research values.
State
Governmental Records in the Illinois State Archives
| The archival records
of state govern- ment are housed at the Margaret Cross Norton
Building in Springfield. All three branches of state government are represented in 2,443 record series arranged
under 191 different offices, departments, divisions,
institutions, boards, the legislature, the supreme court, and
several federal agencies whose records were transferred officially
to the state of Illinois. The archives building contains more than
53,000 cubic feet of state governmental records. The objects of
these records were both practical and varied, and as a consequence
their contents are extremely diverse. |
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Margaret Cross Norton Building
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The Archives' holdings of state and related
federal records are described in:
Descriptive Inventory of the Archives of the
State of Illinois, Second Edition (1997), 940 pp.
Access is at the record group and record series
levels and is provided by source and by subject. This publication is
updated periodically. Questions relating to the Descriptive
Inventory should be addressed to:
Illinois State Archives
Publications Unit
Margaret Cross Norton Building
Capitol Complex
Springfield, IL 62756
Telephone: (217) 782-2226
Fax: (217) 524-3930
The Descriptive Inventory of the Archives of
the State of Illinois is also provided in a PDF (Portable
Document Format) file, which can be viewed or printed using your Web
browser and Adobe's Acrobat Reader software. Macintosh and Windows
versions of Acrobat Reader may be downloaded free of charge from
Adobe.
Local
Governmental Records Holdings
The State Archives administers a system of
Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD) to manage the
archival records of local governments. Located on seven state
university campuses, regional depositories house and service those
records of local governments which have been appraised as having
long-term values and have been transferred to the Archives'
custody. While one depository is devoted solely to Cook County,
the other six include regions made up of from fourteen to
twenty-three contiguous counties. Records holdings represent 101
counties and 167 cities, towns, townships, and villages. In all
there are over 5,400 individual record series comprised of 11,000
microfilm rolls and over 8,000 cubic feet of materials. These
records concern courts, schools, land, taxation, elections,
welfare, accounts and audits, inquests, military service, jail
prisoners, professional practitioners, births, deaths, marriages,
mortgages, naturalizations, and the multifaceted considerations of
local boards and councils.
Local governmental records in the Illinois
Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) system are listed in:
A Summary Guide to Local Governmental Records
in the Illinois Regional Archives, Second Edition (1999),
265 pp.
The guide is made up of two parts: one listing
local governmental records in IRAD by county and the other listing
them by title. This publication is updated periodically. Questions
relating to the Summary Guide should be addressed to:
Illinois State Archives
Information Services/IRAD
Margaret Cross Norton Building
Capitol Complex
Springfield, IL 62756
Telephone: (217) 785-1266
Fax: (217) 524-3930
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