Local History Collections

Local History Collections 

In an effort to preserve and increase access opportunities to locally significant materials, physical and digital local history collections are maintained by the library.

The Historical Collection attempts to complement the efforts of other local historical and genealogical groups in the area, such as the Hampshire Historical Society, please take a look at the Genealogy Research page for their links.

Physical History Collections

PHYSICAL COLLECTION CURRENTLY CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC 

A complete list of known materials is enumerated in the Historical Collection Index, which is found below. The Excel spreadsheet index linked below will be updated slightly more frequently than the alternative PDF. Use the link that best fits your that is updated as more items are added to the collection.

While the library is open, the Historical Collection is available for in library use and may be accessed by asking at the front desk for it to be unlocked. Call ahead to ensure that the room will be available if you are traveling.

Historical Collection Index – Excel – PDF
Boxes & Larger Group Breakdown

The links provide the current indices for the collection. The Historical Collection Index provides a large overview of the collection; including title, author, format, date and where to find an item (i.e. the cabinet and shelf numbers). A more refined look at collections of items in the overall index is found in Boxes and Larger Group Breakdown.

Digital History Collections

Digitization is a priority. To support increased historical and genealogical access to materials, the library maintains three digital archives and a historical map. The three Ella’s Historical Collections are available through the Illinois Digital Archives. They contain select materials from the Local Historical Collections as well as digital donations.

Hampshire Register Newspaper

The local newspaper ran from approximately 1884 through 2009 and has been digitized. It may be found at here. For added fun, make sure you use these Boolean operators when searching the newspaper:

  • AND—between two words includes both words
  • NOT—removes the word after it from your results
  • “Put parenthesis around all of your words” to find all of them.
  • CTRL F on your keyboard brings up a search & highlight feature