Tag: general

Our current banner image comes from the Farm Security Administration Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress. This photograph of a young, Chicago newspaper hawker (a familiar sight in American cities from the 1830s) was taken by Jack Delano , an immigrant who achieved considerable renown as a documentary photographer. The original film negative of […]

For the most part the women’s movement was ignored by the press. When newspapers in the 19th century did address women’s rights and suffrage, it was from the negative perspective. Women realized early on that newspapers could reach greater numbers of people than the conferences and lectures most often attended by wealthy women.

The INP began in 1987, as part of the United States Newspaper Program (USNP), a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities(NEH) to identify, catalog, and preserve American newspapers. Since that time, the INP has been staffed by librarians from the Illinois State Historical Library (ISHL), the Chicago Historical Society (CHS), and the […]

Newspapers have played an important role in Illinois history since their introduction four years prior to statehood. In 1813, Matthew Duncan, a friend of Illinois Territorial Governor Ninian Edwards, secured a contract to print the first edition of the Illinois Territorial Laws. In 1814, Duncan began publishing the Illinois Herald at Kaskaskia, subsequently the state’s […]