Archives and Special Collections
Overview of Special Collections
reduced size digitization of plate of Christmas flower by William Curtis (1746 - 1799), on permanent loan from the public Lake Forest Library
The Library’s Special Collections, with origins in nineteenth-century donations from major Chicago-area private libraries, reflect the College’s beginnings and patronage from Chicago’s leadership community. Generally, the approximately quarter-million manuscript leaves and approximately fifty-thousand books and publications are distributed among five categories:
- Presbyterian roots of College founders, the Scots, Scots-Irish and the orthodox descendants of New England Puritans who, moving west, sought doctrinal stability in the hierarchical structures of Presbyterianism. Scotiana (Stuart) and early and eastern American history (Chicago Historical Society, transferred 1980s).
- Chicago’s-empire history: railroads (Elliot Donnelley, Munson Paddock, James Sloss, Arthur D. Dubin [ASTP ‘47]); slavery conflict and Civil War (Nebenzahl, Getz and others); the press/ChicagoTribune (J.M. Patterson, J. Howard Wood [Class of 1922]); other printing and publishing (R. R. Donnelley/Lakeside Press, Stone & Kimball, A. C. McClurg); exploration and westward expansion (Halsey, Getz, O’Kieffe, Bent and others); and advertising (Lasker, Needham, Leo Burnett/O’Kieffe).
- Lake Forest and Lake County history: atlases, histories, manuscript collections, photographs, architectural and landscape drawings and blueprints (Getz, Shaw, Barnes, Holt, McClure, McCormick, Anderson, Paddock, Arpee, and other families).
- Chicago Renaissance: books, manuscripts, photographs on literature (Patterson, Hamill, O’Kieffe, Chatfield-Taylor); theater (Patterson, Aldis, Shaw, Leverton); art and architecture (Hamill, Asmann, Shaw, Templeton, Weber. Lake Forest Library); gardens (Lake Forest Garden Club, Hamill); history (Hamill, O’Kieffe, Stuart, Graff, Smith, Halsey); and historic/fine printing (Hamill, Donnelley, Templeton, Davidson).
- Contemporary since 1960: Women’s studies (Northwestern U., Lloyd) ; social issues (Lloyd, Brown); Africa and African-American (Mojekwu, purchases on the Rosenthal Fund); education reform (Effective Schools Process/Taylor); historic preservation (Geary); Lake County (Getz, Geary, Paddock); world railroads and rail travel (Dubin, Sloss); world travel (Brown, Beach, Coutts, Dubin, Laflin, Loeffler, Smith [E.B.], Weeks).
On the occasion of the dedication of the Donnelley and Lee Library, 2004, a book was produced, One Hundred Rare and Notable Books, being a guide to the range and depth of the book collections especially through a focus on high spots in the collection. There are ten groups of ten items each, with copious references to other book and manuscript holdings in the item entries. From another perspective this too provides an overview of library special collections since the 1870s. While the stock of print copies is exhausted, the web version, linked above, offers an un-illustrated version, and with a few updatings (no longer possible in this version of the Special Collections website). But this web version stands as a continuation of this short survey.
Text by
Arthur H. Miller,
Archivist and Librarian for Special Collections
LIT, Lake Forest College,
555 North Sheridan Rd.
Lake Forest, IL 60045-2399
Updated July 28, 2011
