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Curating Illinois Quaker History – An Interview with Sofia Caruso and Emily Gutknecht

Banner for exhibit. Exhibit title is The Quakers of Illinois: Social Concerns and Westward Migration. It is located in the Main Library in Room 324. The open hours ae Monday through Friday, 9am to 12pm, and 1pm to 5pm.

This spring, the IHLC opened The Quakers of Illinois: Social Concerns and Westward Migration, an exhibit exploring the history of the Religious Society of Friends, or the Quakers, in Illinois throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Read about graduate student Sofia Caruso and undergraduate student Emily Gutknecht’s experiences and insights researching and curating the exhibit.

Two glass exhibit cases displaying The Quakers of Illinois: Social Concerns and Westward Migration. The cases contain photographs, documents, and books. Between the cases is a poster with a photo of a house and some text about the exhibit.

How did the idea for the exhibit come about?

SC: In the fall of 2023, I began processing new additions to the Illinois Yearly Meeting papers in our Religious Society of Friends collection (MS 960). I was surprised by how involved the Religious Society of Friends had been with social movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially for a religious group that is relatively small.… Read More

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The Danville Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers

In March of 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill establishing the National Asylum (later renamed National Home) of Disabled Volunteer Soldiers into legislation, just three months before his assassination. Due to the severe impact of the Civil War, the idea of homes for disabled veterans had begun gaining favor in Congress. The war had a severe impact on the population of young men in the United States, with approximately two percent of the US population losing their lives and thousands of soldiers returning home injured.

A black and white portrait of an older man with a short white beard, wearing a suit jacket and bow-tie.
Joseph Gurney Cannon portrait by Hartsook Photo, 1915

After the bill establishing the National Home was signed into law, the federal government began selecting locations for branches.… Read More

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Camp Butler in Springfield, Illinois

The Establishment of Camp Butler

On April 15, 1861, Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, sent a telegram to Illinois Governor Richard Yates reading: “Call made on you by to-nights mail, for six regiments of militia, for immediate service.” The Civil War had begun, and the State of Illinois was responsible for organizing men to fight in the Union army. At the time, there were no organized militias within Illinois, and the state’s government began planning military training camps. On August 2, 1861, the State of Illinois announced the construction of a Union army camp about six miles outside of Springfield named Camp Butler, after Illinois State Treasurer William Butler.… Read More

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Illinois History Abroad: Manuscript Copies from the French National Archives and Repositories

In the initial decades after its founding in 1909, the Illinois Historical Survey (now part of the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections) focused on research and collecting documents to support the publication of a multi-volume state history as well as an edited series of documents. The Survey obtained copies of archival materials from both North America and Europe. The IHLC currently holds dozens of boxes and reels of microfilm of documents from these early collecting initiatives, including 16 cubic feet and 25 reels of microfilm from French Archives and Depositories (MS 023). The project to collect copies of documents from French archives and depositories involved significant effort and repeated readjustments, as it spanned two continents and the outbreak of two world wars.… Read More