Search for Archival Collections
The following databases can be used to search for archival materials from other libraries' collections.
- ArchiveGridArchiveGrid includes over 5 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,000 different archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.
- WorldCat (FirstSearch platform)Union catalog with holdings information from libraries across the world.
Special Collections IM
About Special Collections
The Richard J. Daley Special Collections Department houses collections of rare books, manuscripts, and photographs. The rare book collection includes books of permanent, historic, and research interest focusing primarily on the history of Chicago. The manuscript holdings consist of records of individuals and organizations important to the history of Chicago. Images of these individuals, organizations, and Chicago form the core of the photographs and digital images collection.
Special Collections is open to the public during the following hours:
10-4:30, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
10-7, Wednesday
12:30-4:30, Saturdays during fall and spring school sessions (call for details)
Closed on holiday weekends and for occasional special events.
Phone: Richard J. Daley Library, Special Collections - 312.996.2742
Chicago Board of Education
- Charles F. Armstrong papersCharles F. Armstrong (1919-1965) served the 22nd District in the Illinois House of Representatives for five consecutive terms, from 1957 until his death in 1965. A Democrat with a strong interest in public education, Armstrong sponsored H.B. 113 (1963) amending the Illinois School Code to require revision of school districts to eliminate racial segregation of children. The collection consists of correspondence, legal and financial records, speeches, minutes, reports, clippings, and photographs.
- Chicago Urban League recordsFounded in 1910, the National Urban League is one of the oldest African American social service, research, and advocacy organizations in the United States. A group of sociologists, social workers, and philanthropists founded the Chicago League in 1916 to address the rapidly increasing needs of the African American community during a time of voluminous migration.
- Chicago Woman's Aid recordsThe Young Ladies Aid Society, organized in 1882, was incorporated by the State of Illinois in 1895 and renamed the Chicago Woman's Aid. The collection contains correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, minutes, and photographs dating from 1903 to 1988.
- Mary J. Herrick collection, 1924-1969Mary J. Herrick (1895-1984) was a teacher in the Chicago public secondary schools from 1922 to 1965. Herrick was actively involved in the teachers' union movement. The Herrick collection is comprised entirely of printed works including books, pamphlets, and reports. These printed works are primarily concerned with adult education, patriotism, civil defense, public school education in Chicago, urban affairs, and tax reform.
- Scholarship and Guidance Association (Chicago, Ill.) recordsThe collection contains correspondence, reports, minutes, photographs, and tape recordings. The materials pertain to the education and vocational training of adolescents, child labor legislation in Illinois and to Chicago-area social service agencies.
Education Writ Large
- Adult Education Council of Greater ChicagoThe Adult Education Council of Greater Chicago was established in 1924 and incorporated in 1925 as the Chicago Forum Council. The purpose was "to promote understanding and good will by bringing people of different groups into friendly association with each other for discussion of problems related to the public welfare." The collection contains annual reports, brochures, constitution and by-laws, correspondence, auditors' examination of records, minutes, programs from musical events, clippings, photographs, scrapbooks, and published materials.
- Art Resources in TeachingArt Resources in Teaching was founded as the Chicago Public School Art Society in 1894 at Hull-House. It was led by Ellen Gates Starr and included a group of women from the Chicago Woman's Club. Its goal was to serve young people in the inner city. It did this initially by refurbishing classrooms and by providing art appreciation lectures and museum visits for schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The Chicago Public School Art Society has never been a part of or funded by the Chicago Public School System. To avoid confusion, its name was changed in 1984 to Art Resources in Teaching. The Society currently produces art appreciation curriculum materials, sponsors lectures, and awards scholarships to young art students.
- Education in Chicago pamphlets, 1895-1905This collection reflects the missions and policies of several private schools in Chicago during the late 19th and early 20th century. It also includes information on the activities of Chicago's Special Park Commission. Documents in this collection include pamphlets and an announcement. Folders are arranged chronologically.
- Girl's Best Friend Foundation Organizational archives, 1994-2008Since its creation in 1994 as a private family foundation and closing in 2008, Girl's Best Friend Foundation has provided over $8.3 million in grants in support of policies and programs that ensure girls' self determination, power, and well being. Core grants also include an additional 10 percent over and above the grant award to support the evaluation of the project. Since mid-2002, grants focused on metropolitan Chicago. Includes information on Chicago Freedom School.
- Juvenile Protective Association recordsThe Juvenile Court Committee was established in Chicago in 1904 by women reformers five years after they organized for the Cook County Juvenile Court. The Juvenile Court Committee offered aid to dependent and delinquent children during the period before the Juvenile Court itself was able to take up their cases.
- Ladies' Association for Educating Females, 1834-1867The Ladies Association for Educating Females was established in Jacksonville, Illinois in 1833 with the aim of encouraging and assisting young women to become teachers. The Association, later known as the Ladies' Education Society, was organized and staffed by women who raised and distributed funds to pay for books and tuition for female students.
- National Congress of Parents and Teachers publicationsThis collection consists of bound material separated from the National Parent Teacher Association Records. Many of the items in this collection are bound volumes of periodical publications, but some of the material consists of unique items created by the taping or tipping in of leaflets, pamphlets, posters, certificates and other items. Some of the pages in the volumes contain annotations or marginalia by staff of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers.
- National Congress of Parents and Teachers Records, 1896-1965The National Congress of Parents and Teachers (now the PTA) was organized by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst in December 1896.
The initial focus of the group was on mother/teacher cooperation and child welfare issues. However, as the organization grew and diversified, it supported many other causes including sex education, teacher salary increases, mothers' pension laws, safety, homemaking, adult education, nutrition, anti-drug and -tobacco use, race relations, and fluoridation. - National Parent Teacher Association RecordsThe National Parent Teacher Association can be traced back to the National Congress of Mothers, founded in 1897. The brief history available on the organization's web site states that "for more than a century, Parent Teacher Association (PTA) has provided support, information and resources to families focused on the health and education of children." This collection documents those efforts, with an emphasis on the period from 1950 to 2000.
- Saint Mary's High School and Center for Learning records, 1899-1988Saint Mary's High School was an all-girl Catholic academy founded in 1899 by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Mary's School was the first central independent girls high school built and operated by a community of nuns in Chicago. Saint Mary's curriculum emphasized the practical and religious needs of young urban girls. Saint Mary's also tried to realistically serve the muti-ethnic communities of the west side in order to make secondary education more accessible to girls of working-class parents. In the late 1960s, the traditional formal structure of Saint Mary's High School was replaced by an alternative style learning environment where the students, teachers, and administration all shared in the processes of the school through teams. It also began admitting male students in 1968. Some items restricted.
- Sylvia Cotton papers, 1960-1971Sylvia Cotton (1912- ) was the founder and president of the Day-Care Crisis Council of the Chicago Area (later the Day Care Action Council), an organization that advocates for safe, affordable child care in the Chicago area. Cotton's work as a child care advocate began with her involvement in the education section of the National Council of Jewish Women. Cotton also worked to desegregate public schools and day care facilities in Chicago.
University Archives
- Carmen Carsello papers (008-20-03)Carmen Carsello was a Reading Specialist, and Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Illinois beginning in 1963. He also lectured at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, De Paul University, Chicago State College, and Triton College. He also worked as a Reading Specialist at the Bureau of Child Study in Chicago from 1957-1963. This collection contains the papers of Carmen Carsello. The collection includes information on the Italians in Chicago Project, as well as educational documents, photographs, articles, research, correspondence, grant proposals, Illinois Reading Council documents, Chicago Area Reading Association Documents, International Reading Association documents, promotion and tenure materials, and conference information.
- College of Education - Office of Evaluation Methods - Cooperative Teacher Corps Program (008-02-01)The Cooperative Teachers Corps Program was an experiment designed by the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle in cooperation with School District No. 19 of the Chicago Public Schools located in the near west side neighborhood of Pilsen. This collection contains proposal and report materials pertaining to the Cooperative Teacher Corps Training Program. Materials span the duration of evaluation of the various stages of the program, dating from 1969-1972.
- College of Education - Publications - Guide to Student Teaching at UICC (008-00-03)This collection consists of the Guide to Student Teaching at UICC from 1969-1998. The Guide to Student Teaching at UICC has been prepared by the teaching staff of the College of Education at UICC for use by senior students in education, to acquaint them with the roles and responsibilities of the student teacher, the objectives of the program, and the policies concerning admissions. Samples of the evaluation forms are also included. One booklet has been prepared for student teachers in the secondary schools, and another, derived from the first, for the elementary schools. The revised edition is from 1974. Another edition was prepared in 1998.
Guide Author
Kellee E. Warren
Contact:
Special Collections and University Archives
UIC Library
801 South Morgan St, Rm 3-330
Chicago, IL 60607
UIC Library
801 South Morgan St, Rm 3-330
Chicago, IL 60607
312.996.2742
Primary Sources
A primary source is material that was created at the time being studied. It can be a document, a recording or an artifact. It serves as an original source of information about the topic. Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources which usually are analysis, commentary or a filtered account of the topic.
Suggested search terms for finding primary resources in the library catalog:
- Diaries
- Correspondence
- Description and Travel
- Personal Narratives
- Sources
- Memoirs
- Journal