Other UI History Resources

This page is intended to be a list of other online and print resources for those interested in taking their journey into campus history further. Many of these resources were used in the preparation of the histories on this site, while others are provided as an excellent starting point for those wishing to learn more about the past which has set us on our present course.

If you are aware of a resource not listed on this page, please contact Kalev Leetaru atleetaru@illinois.edu and he will get it listed here! The goal of this page is to form the beginnings of a campus historical resource, a single site weaving together all of the resources available on the history of this magnificent campus.

Student organizations looking to research their histories may be interested in an article published in SWE Magazine in 2008 that offers a brief guidebook on the subject.

COLLECTIONS

http://web.library.uiuc.edu/ahx/ - The University of Illinois Archives has an incredible collection of material on the history of campus, and within its holdings you will find almost everything imaginable.

http://www.uic.edu/depts/uichistory/index.html - The University of Illinois at Chicago Historian's site has a lot of detail on the founding of the UIC campus.

MIRRORED WEBSITES

The following two detailed websites are no longer available and have been mirrored with permission here on the UIHistories website to maintain their availability.

http://uihistories.library.illinois.edu/TransBldgHistory/ - History of the Transportation Building with historical photos by Mike Safoutin, 1990.

http://uihistories.library.illinois.edu/TAMHistory/Talbot/index.html - History of the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (TAM) Department and Arthur Newell Talbot.

PRINT

Deming, Leon Tilton and O'Donnell, Thomas Edward. History of the Growth and Development of the Campus of the University (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1930) - This book is a superb reference on early campus history with many references not seen in later works. Tilton covered the period 1867 to 1919, while O'Donnell wrote on the period from 1919 to 1930.

Ebert, Roger. An Illini Century: One Hundred Years of Campus Life (Champaign:

University of Illinois Press, 1967) - This book is a perfect companion to Kiler's On the banks of the Boneyard, expanding upon the tales told in that book with a myraid mischievous memoirs.

Kiler, Charles Albert. On the banks of the Boneyard (Urbana: Illini Union Bookstore, 1942) - This remarkable collection of tales tells the mischievous side of student life in the early days of the University.

Powell, Burt E. The Movement for Industrial Education and the Establishment of the University (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1918) - Perhaps the most exquisite account of the formation of the University, this lengthy book, written by the first and only official University Historian, includes first-person interviews and accounts of early campus life, and its foreword was written by President Edmund Janes James, who himself was a major figure in University history. Together with a book authored by a Princeton historian, this book claims the honor of the first written history of the University of Illinois. However, unlike the Princeton book, which was written using transcripts and copies of records mailed to the author, Powell's material was locally derived, much of it from first-person accounts.