The history of Illinois may be defined by several broad historical periods, namely, the pre-Columbian period, the Era of European Exploration and Colonization, its development as part of the American frontier, and finally, its growth into one of the most populous and economically powerful states of the United States.

Pre-Columbian Era

Cahokia

Cahokia

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is the area of an ancient indigenous city located in the American Bottom floodplain, between East Saint Louis and Collinsville in south-western Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. The site included 120 human-built earthwork mounds...

, the urban center of the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture

Mississippian culture

The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....

, was located near present-day Collinsville, Illinois

Collinsville, Illinois

Collinsville is a city located mainly in Madison County, and partially in St. Clair County, both in Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 26,016. Collinsville is approximately 12 miles from St. Louis, Missouri and is considered part of that city's Metro-East area...

. That civilization vanished circa 1400–1500 for unknown reasons. The next major power in the region was the Illiniwek

Illiniwek

The Illinois Confederation, sometimes referred to as the Illiniwek or Illini, were a group of twelve to thirteen Native American tribes in the upper Mississippi River valley of North America...

 Confederation, a political alliance among several tribes. The Illiniwek gave Illinois its name. The Illini suffered in the 17th century as Iroquois

Iroquois

The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

 expansion (caused by European expansion in the eastern United States) forced them to compete with several tribes for land. The Illini were replaced in Illinois by the Potawatomi

Potawatomi

The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...

, Miami

Miami tribe

The Miami are a Native American nation originally found in what is now Indiana, southwest Michigan, and western Ohio. The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma is the only federally recognized tribe of Miami Indians in the United States...

, Sauk, and other tribes.

European Exploration and Colonization

French explorers Jacques Marquette

Jacques Marquette

Father Jacques Marquette S.J. , sometimes known as Père Marquette, was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. Marie, and later founded St. Ignace, Michigan...

 and Louis Jolliet

Louis Jolliet

Louis Jolliet , also known as Louis Joliet, was a French Canadian explorer known for his discoveries in North America...

 explored the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers in 1673. As a result of their exploration, the Illinois Country

Illinois Country

The Illinois Country , also known as Upper Louisiana, was a region in what is now the Midwestern United States that was explored and settled by the French during the 17th and 18th centuries. The terms referred to the entire Upper Mississippi River watershed, though settlement was concentrated in...

 was part of the French empire until 1763, when it passed to the British. The area was ceded to the new United States in 1783 and became part of the Northwest Territory

Northwest Territory

The Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Northwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 13, 1787, until March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio...

.

American Territory

The Illinois-Wabash Company

Illinois-Wabash Company

The Illinois-Wabash Company, formally known as the United Illinois and Wabash Land Company, was a company formed in 1779 from the merger of the Illinois Company and the Wabash Company. The two companies had been established in order to purchase land from Native Americans in the Illinois Country, a...

 was an early claimant to much of Illinois. The Illinois Territory

Illinois Territory

The Territory of Illinois was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 1, 1809, until December 3, 1818, when the southern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Illinois. The area was earlier known as "Illinois Country" while under...

 was created on February 3, 1809. Illinois saw the construction of numerous civilian forts during the War of 1812

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

, as well as the short-lived Fort Johnson

Fort Johnson

This article is about the War of 1812 fortification:*For the community in New York, see Fort Johnson, New York*For the Revolutionary War British garrison named Fort Johnson see Wilmington, North Carolina...

.

Statehood

On December 3, 1818, Illinois became the 21st U.S. state. Early U.S. settlement began in the south part of the state and quickly spread northward, driving out the native residents. In 1832, some Indians returned from Iowa but were driven out in the Black Hawk War

Black Hawk War

The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict fought in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans headed by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos known as the "British Band" crossed the Mississippi River into the U.S....

, fought by militia.

Illinois is known as the "Land of Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

" because it is here that the 16th President spent his formative years. Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 gained prominence as a lake and canal port after 1848, and as a rail hub soon afterward. By 1857, Chicago was the state's dominant metropolis. (see History of Chicago

History of Chicago

The history of Chicago, Illinois, has played an important role in the history of the United States. Americans founded the city in 1832. The Chicago area's recorded history begins with the arrival of French explorers, missionaries and fur traders in the late 17th century...

).

Slavery

The state has a varied history in relation to slavery and the treatment of African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s in general. The French had black slaves from 1719 to as late as the 1820s. Slavery was nominally banned by the Northwest Ordnance, but that was not enforced. But when Illinois became a sovereign state in 1818, the Ordnance no longer applied, and there were about 900 slaves there. As the southern part of the state, known as "Egypt", was largely settled by migrants from the South, the section was hostile to free blacks and allowed settlers to bring slaves with them for labor. Proslavery elements tried to call a convention to legalize slavery, but they were blocked by Governor Edward Coles

Edward Coles

Edward Coles manumitted his slaves in 1819, was secretary to James Madison , neighbor and anti-slavery associate of Thomas Jefferson and was the second Governor of Illinois, serving from 1822 to 1826...

 who mobilized anti-slavery forces, warning that rich slave owners would buy up all the good farm lands. A referendum in 1823 showed 60% of the voters opposed slavery, so efforts to make slavery official failed. Nevertheless, some slaves were brought in seasonally or as house servants as late as the 1840s. The Illinois Constitution of 1848 was written with a provision for exclusionary laws to be passed. In 1853, state senator John A. Logan

John A. Logan

John Alexander Logan was an American soldier and political leader. He served in the Mexican-American War and was a general in the Union Army in the American Civil War. He served the state of Illinois as a state senator, congressman and senator and was an unsuccessful candidate for Vice President...

 helped pass a law to prohibit all African Americans, including freedmen

Freedman

A freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation ....

, from settling in the state. After 1865 Logan reversed positions and became a leading advocate of civil rights for blacks.

Mormons at Nauvoo

In 1839, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

s, created a settlement they called Nauvoo

Nauvoo, Illinois

Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...

. The city, situated on a prominent bend along the Mississippi River, quickly grew to 12,000 inhabitants, and was for a time rivaling for the title of largest city in Illinois. By the early 1840s, the LDS church built a large stone temple in Nauvoo

Nauvoo Temple

The Nauvoo Temple was the second temple constructed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons. The church's first temple was completed in Kirtland, Ohio, United States in 1836. When the main body of the church was forced out of Nauvoo, Illinois in the...

, one of the largest buildings in Illinois at the time, which was completed in 1846. In 1844, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement Joseph Smith, Jr. was assassinated in nearby Carthage, Illinois

Carthage, Illinois

Carthage is a city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,725 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hancock County. Carthage is most famous for being the site of the murder of Joseph Smith in 1844.- History :...

, even though he was under the protection of Illinois judicial system, with assurances of his safety from then Governor Ford

Thomas Ford (politician)

Thomas Ford was the eighth Governor of Illinois, and served in this capacity from 1842 to 1846. A Democrat, he is remembered largely for his involvement in the death of Joseph Smith, Jr., and the subsequent Illinois Mormon War...

. In 1846, the Mormons under Brigham Young

Brigham Young

Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

 left Illinois for what would become Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, but what was still then Mexican territory. A small breakaway group remained, but Nauvoo fell largely into abandonment. Nauvoo today has many restored buildings from the 1840s.

The Civil War

During the Civil War, over 250,000 Illinois men served in the Union Army, coming 4th among the states. Beginning with President Lincoln's first call for troops and continuing throughout the war, Illinois mustered 150 infantry regiments (see Illinois in the American Civil War

Illinois in the American Civil War

The state of Illinois during the American Civil War was a major source of troops for the Union army , and of military supplies, food, and clothing. Situated near major rivers and railroads, Illinois became a major jumping off place early in the war for Ulysses S...

), which were numbered from the 7th IL to the 156th IL. Seventeen cavalry regiments were also mustered, as well as two light artillery regiments. The most prominent soldier was Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...

 of Galena. Throughout the war the Republicans were in control, under the firm leadership of Governor Richard Yates.

20th century

In the 20th century, Illinois emerged as one of the most important states in the Union. Edward F. Dunne was a Chicago Democrat and leader of the progressive movement, who served as governor 1913-1917. He was succeeded by Frank O. Lowden

Frank Orren Lowden

Frank Orren Lowden was a Republican Party politician from Illinois, who served as the 25th Governor of Illinois and as a United States Representatives from Illinois...

, who led the war effort and was Republican presidential hopeful in 1920.

Democrat Adlai Stevenson served as governor in 1948-52. William G. Stratton led a Republican statehouse in the 1950s. In 1960 Otto Kerner, Jr.

Otto Kerner, Jr.

Otto Kerner, Jr. was the 33rd Governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968. He is best known for chairing the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders and for accepting bribes....

 led the Democrats back to power. He promoted economic development, education, mental health services, and equal access to jobs and housing. In a federal trial in 1973, Kerner was convicted on 17 counts of bribery while he was governor, plus other charges; he went to prison. Richard B. Ogilvie

Richard B. Ogilvie

Richard Buell Ogilvie was the 35th Governor of Illinois from 1969 to 1973. A wounded combat veteran of World War II, he achieved fame as the mafia-fighting Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois in the 1960s....

, a Republican, won in 1968. Bolstered by large Republican majorities in the state house, Ogilvie embarked upon a major modernization of state government. He successfully advocated for a state constitutional convention, increased social spending, and secured Illinois' first state income tax. The latter was particularly unpopular with the electorate, and the modest Ogilvie lost a close election to the flashy Democrat Dan Walker

Dan Walker

Dan Meirion Walker is a British sports journalist. He is the current presenter of Football Focus, the BBC's Saturday lunchtime football show. He has also been seen presenting sport on the BBC News Channel and BBC Network News, as well as regularly reporting for Score, Football Focus and Match of...

 in 1972.
The state constitutional convention of 1970 wrote a new document that was approved by the voters. It modernized government and ended the old system of three-person districts which froze the political system in place.

Walker did not repeal the income tax that Ogilvie had enacted and wedged between machine Democrats and Republicans had little success with the Illinois legislature during his tenure. In 1987 he was convicted of business crimes not related to his governorship. In the 1976 gubernatorial election, Jim Thompson

James R. Thompson

James Robert Thompson, Jr. , also known as Big Jim Thompson, was the 37th and longest serving Governor of the US state of Illinois...

, a Republican prosecutor from Chicago won 65 percent of the vote over Michael Howlett

Michael Howlett

Michael J. Howlett, Sr. was a Democratic politician from the U.S. state of Illinois, who was elected several times to statewide office.-Early life:...

. Thompson was reelected in 1978 with 60 percent of the vote, defeating State Superintendent Michael Bakalis

Michael Bakalis

Michael J. Bakalis is an American academic and politician. He was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Illinois in 1978, losing to incumbent Republican governor James R. Thompson....

. Thompson was very narrowly reelected in 1982 against former U.S. Senator Adlai E. Stevenson III

Adlai Stevenson III

Adlai Ewing Stevenson III is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He represented the state of Illinois in the United States Senate from 1970 until 1981.-Education, military service, and early career:...

, and then won decisively against him in a rematch in 1986.
Thompson was succeeded by Republican Jim Edgar

Jim Edgar

James Edgar is an American politician who was the 38th Governor of Illinois from 1991 to 1999 and Illinois Secretary of State from 1981 to 1991. As a moderate Republican in a largely blue-leaning state, Edgar was a popular and successful governor, leaving office with high approval ratings...

 who won a close race in 1990 against his Democratic opponent, attorney general Neil Hartigan, and was reelected in 1994 by a wide margin against another Democratic opponent, state comptroller and former state senator Dawn Clark Netsch. In the elections of 1992 and 1994, the Republicans succeeded in capturing both houses of the state legislature and all statewide offices, putting Edgar in a very strong political position. He advocated increases in funding for education along with cuts in government employment, spending and welfare programs. He was succeeded by yet another Republican, George H. Ryan. Ryan worked for extensive repairs of the Illinois Highway System called "Illinois FIRST." FIRST was an acronym for "Fund for Infrastructure, Roads, Schools, and Transit." Signed into law in May 1999, the law created a $6.3 billion package for use in school and transportation projects. With various matching funds programs, Illinois FIRST provided $2.2 billion for schools, $4.1 billion for public transportation, another $4.1 billion for roads, and $1.6 billion for other projects.

21st century

Ryan gained national attention in January 2003 when he commuted the sentences of everyone on or waiting to be sent to death row in Illinois—a total of 167 convicts—due to his belief that the death penalty was incapable of being administered fairly. Ryan's term was marked by scandals, and as of late 2005 he was himself on trial.

Rod Blagojevich

Rod Blagojevich

Rod R. Blagojevich is an American politician who served as the 40th Governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. A Democrat, Blagojevich was a State Representative before being elected to the United States House of Representatives representing parts of Chicago...

, elected in 2002, was the first Democratic governor in a quarter century. Illinois was trending sharply toward the Democratic party in both national and state elections. After the 2002 elections, Democrats had control of the House, Senate, and all but one statewide office. Blagojevich signed numerous pieces of progressive legislation such as ethics reform, death penalty reform, a state Earned Income Tax Credit

Earned income tax credit

The United States federal earned income tax credit or earned income credit is a refundable tax credit primarily for individuals and families who have low to moderate earned income. Greater tax credit is given to those who also have qualifying children...

, and expansions of health programs like KidCare and FamilyCare. Blagojevich signed a bill in 2005 that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, and credit. Other notable actions of his term include a strict new ethics law and a comprehensive death penalty reform bill that was written by Sen. Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 in his capacity as a state senator, and the late-Sen. Paul M. Simon. Despite an annual budget crunch, Blagojevich oversaw an increase in funding for health care every year without raising general sales or income taxes. He feuded with his powerful father-in-law Chicago Alderman Richard Mell

Richard Mell

Richard F. "Dick" Mell is an American politician and long-time member of the Chicago City Council. He is a Democrat. Mell is the chairman of the Rules Committee and has a history of feuding with former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley....

. Blagojevich was criticized for using what his opponents call "gimmicks" to balance the state budget. Republicans have also claimed that he simply passed the state's fiscal problems on to future generations by borrowing to balance budgets. Indeed, the 2005 state budget called for paying the bills by shorting state employees' pension fund by $1.2 billion, which led to a backlash among educators. He also was criticized for not moving into the Governor's Mansion in Springfield, instead commuting via plane between his home in Chicago and the state capital, Springfield.

Blagojevich has been criticized for too rapidly expanding the role of state government. In October 2005, the state had $1.4 billion in overdue medical bills, yet in November 2005, Blagojevich created two new government agencies and signed the All Kids health insurance bill, which obligates Illinois to provide affordable, comprehensive health insurance to every child in the state.

In December 2008, Blagojevich was arrested on charges of conspiracy and solicitation to commit bribery. The following month, he became the first Illinois governor to be impeached and removed from office.

Illinois, as of the census of 2000, currently has the 5th largest population of the 50 U.S. states. Chicago, in terms of populations, is the third largest city in the country.

Taxes

With the state budget deficit projected to hit $15 billion in 2011, and debt spiraling out of control, the Democrats who control the Legislature in early 2011 raised the personal income tax from 3% to 5%, and the corporation profits tax 4.8% to 7%. Governor Pat Quinn

Pat Quinn (politician)

Patrick Joseph "Pat" Quinn III is the 41st and current Governor of Illinois. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Previously elected three times to statewide office, Quinn was the sitting lieutenant governor and became governor on January 29, 2009, when the previous governor, Rod Blagojevich,...

 projects the new taxes will generate $6.8 billion a year, enough to balance the annual budget and begin reducing the state's backlog of about $8.5 billion in unpaid bills.

Famous people

Most pre 1940 names have been selected from the WPA Guide This is a list of people from Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

; people are not included if they left the state before beginning a career.

Before 1940

• Jane Addams
  Jane Addams
  Jane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace...
  
  , social work
• George Ade
  George Ade
  George Ade was an American writer, newspaper columnist, and playwright.-Biography:Ade was born in Kentland, Indiana, one of seven children raised by John and Adaline Ade. While attending Purdue University, he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity...
  
  , author
• Dankmar Adler
  Dankmar Adler
  Dankmar Adler was a celebrated German-born American architect.-Early years:...
  
  , architect
• Mortimer J. Adler
  Mortimer Adler
  Mortimer Jerome Adler was an American philosopher, educator, and popular author. As a philosopher he worked within the Aristotelian and Thomistic traditions. He lived for the longest stretches in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo, California...
  
  , education, philosophy
• Nelson Algren
  Nelson Algren
  Nelson Algren was an American writer.-Early life:Algren was born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Goldie and Gerson Abraham. At the age of three he moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois where they lived in a working-class, immigrant neighborhood on the South Side...
  
  , author
• John Peter Altgeld
  John Peter Altgeld
  John Peter Altgeld was the 20th Governor of the U.S. state of Illinois from 1893 until 1897. He was the first Democratic governor of that state since the 1850s...
  
  , politics, Dem
• Philip D. Armour, business
• Louis Armstrong
  Louis Armstrong
  Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
  
  , music
• Edward Beecher
  Edward Beecher
  Edward Beecher was a noted theologian, the son of Lyman Beecher and the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher. He was born August 27, 1803 in East Hampton, New York. He graduated from Yale College in 1822. After this he studied theology at Andover. In 1826, he became the pastor...
  
  , religion
• Lydia Moss Bradley
  Lydia Moss Bradley
  Lydia Moss Bradley was a wealthy philanthropist notable for her philanthropic works in Illinois and the independent management of her wealth.-Earlier life:...
  
  , philanthropy
• Daniel H. Burnham, architect
• Joseph Gurney Cannon
  Joseph Gurney Cannon
  Joseph Gurney Cannon was a United States politician from Illinois and leader of the Republican Party. Cannon served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1903 to 1911, and historians generally consider him to be the most dominant Speaker in United States history, with such...
  
  , politics, GOP
• Anton Cermak
  Anton Cermak
  Anton Joseph Cermak was the mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1931 until his assassination by Giuseppe Zangara in 1933.-Early life and career:...
  
  , politics, Dem
• John Coughlin, politics, Dem
• Clarence Darrow
  Clarence Darrow
  Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, best known for defending teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks and defending John T...
  
  , law
• John Dewey
  John Dewey
  John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
  
  , philosophy
• Stephen A. Douglas
  Stephen A. Douglas
  Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
  
  , politics, Dem
• Finley Peter Dunne
  Finley Peter Dunne
  Finley Peter Dunne was a Chicago-based U.S. author, writer and humorist. He published Mr. Dooley in Peace and War, a collection of his nationally syndicated Mr. Dooley sketches, in 1898. The fictional Mr...
  
  , author
• Ninian Edwards
  Ninian Edwards
  Ninian Edwards was a founding political figure of the state of Illinois. He served as the first and only governor of the Illinois Territory from 1809 to 1818, as one of the first two United States Senators from Illinois from 1818 to 1824, and as the third Governor of Illinois from 1826 to 1830...
  
  , politics
• James T. Farrell
  James T. Farrell
  James Thomas Farrell was an American novelist. One of his most famous works was the Studs Lonigan trilogy, which was made into a film in 1960 and into a television miniseries in 1979...
  
  , author
• Theodore Dreiser
  Theodore Dreiser
  Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
  
  , author
• Eugene Field
  Eugene Field
  Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays.-Biography:...
  
  , author
• Marshall Field
  Marshall Field
  Marshall Field was founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores.-Life and career:...
  
   I, business
• Marshall Field III
  Marshall Field III
  Marshall Field III was an American investment banker, publisher, racehorse owner/breeder, philanthropist, heir to the Marshall Field department store fortune and a leading financial supporter and founding board member of Saul Alinsky's community organizing network Industrial Areas Foundation.Born...
  
  , business
• Thomas Ford
  Thomas Ford (politician)
  Thomas Ford was the eighth Governor of Illinois, and served in this capacity from 1842 to 1846. A Democrat, he is remembered largely for his involvement in the death of Joseph Smith, Jr., and the subsequent Illinois Mormon War...
  
  , politics, Dem
• John T. Frederick
  John T. Frederick
  John Towner Frederick , born Corning, Iowa and only child of Oliver Roberts and Mary Elmira Frederick. He was a noted professor and literary editor, scholar, critic, and novelist.-Family:...
  
  , literature
• Lyman J. Gage
  Lyman J. Gage
  Lyman Judson Gage was an American financier and Presidential Cabinet officer.He was born at DeRuyter, New York, educated at an academy at Rome, New York, and at the age of 17 he became a bank clerk...
  
  , business
• Ulysses S. Grant
  Ulysses S. Grant
  Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
  
  , military
• Red Grange
  Red Grange
  Harold Edward "Red" Grange, nicknamed "The Galloping Ghost", was a college and professional American football halfback for the University of Illinois, the Chicago Bears, and for the short-lived New York Yankees. His signing with the Bears helped legitimize the National Football League...
  
  , sports
• Frank W. Gunsaulus
  Frank W. Gunsaulus
  Frank Wakeley Gunsaulus D.D. LL.D was a noted preacher, educator, pastor, author and humanitarian. Famous for his "Million Dollar Sermon" which led Philip Danforth Armour to donate money to found Armour Institute of Technology where Gunsaulus served as president for its first 27 years...
  
  , education
• William Rainey Harper
  William Rainey Harper
  William Rainey Harper was one of America's leading academics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Harper helped to organize the University of Chicago and Bradley University and served as the first President of both institutions.-Early life:Harper was born on July 26, 1856 in New Concord,...
  
  , education
• Carter Harrison, Sr.
  Carter Harrison, Sr.
  Carter Henry Harrison, Sr. was an American politician who served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois from 1879 until 1887; he was subsequently elected to a fifth term in 1893 but was assassinated before completing his term. He previously served two terms in the United States House of Representatives...
  
  , politics, Dem
• Carter Harrison, Jr.
  Carter Harrison, Jr.
  Carter Henry Harrison, Jr. served as Mayor of Chicago . The City's 30th mayor, he was the first actually born in Chicago....
  
  , politics, Dem
• George Peter Alexander Healy
  George Peter Alexander Healy
  George Peter Alexander Healy was an American painter born in Boston, Massachusetts.Going to Europe in 1835 Healy studied under Baron Gros in Paris and in Rome...
  
  , artist
• Ben Hecht
  Ben Hecht
  Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
  
  , author
• William Holabird
  William Holabird
  William Holabird was an American architect.Holabird studied at the United States Military Academy at West Point but resigned and moved to Chicago, where he later got married. He worked for William Le Baron Jenney...
  
  , architect
• Raymond Hood
  Raymond Hood
  Raymond Mathewson Hood was an early-mid twentieth century architect who worked in the Art Deco style. He was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, educated at Brown University, MIT, and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. At the latter institution he met John Mead Howells, with whom Hood later partnered...
  
  , architect
• Henry Horner
  Henry Horner
  Henry Horner was the 28th Governor of Illinois, serving from 1933 to 1940, when he died in office. Horner was the first Jewish governor of Illinois.- Political biography :...
  
  , politics, Dem
• Robert Maynard Hutchins, education
• Robert Ingersoll
  Robert G. Ingersoll
  Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll was a Civil War veteran, American political leader, and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism. He was nicknamed "The Great Agnostic."-Life and career:Robert Ingersoll was born in Dresden, New York...
  
  , religion
• Samuel Insull
  Samuel Insull
  Samuel Insull was an Anglo-American innovator and investor based in Chicago who greatly contributed to creating an integrated electrical infrastructure in the United States. Insull was notable for purchasing utilities and railroads using holding companies, as well as the abuse of them...
  
  , business
• William Le Baron Jenney
  William Le Baron Jenney
  William Le Baron Jenney was an American architect and engineer who became known as the Father of the American skyscraper.- Life and career :...
  
  , architect
• Leslie Keeley
  Leslie Keeley
  Leslie Keeley was an American physician, originator of the Keeley Cure.Born in St. Lawrence County, N.Y., Keeley graduated at the Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1863, and later entered the Union Army as a surgeon. At the end of the war he moved to Dwight, Ill., where he began his private...
  
  , medicine
• Florence Kelley
  Florence Kelley
  Florence Kelley was an American social and political reformer. Her work against sweatshops and for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, and children's rights is widely regarded today.-Family:...
  
  , social work
• John Kinzie
  John Kinzie
  John Kinzie was one of Chicago's first permanent European settlers. Kinzie Street in Chicago is named after him.-Early life:...
  
  , settler
• Frank Knox
  Frank Knox
  -External links:...
  
  , newspapers
• Christian C. Kohlsaat
  Christian Cecil Kohlsaat
  Christian Cecil Kohlsaat was a United States federal judge.Kohlsaat attended the University of Chicago and received an LL.B. from Illinois Law School, then read law to enter the bar in 1867. He was in private practice in Chicago, Illinois from 1867 to 1890...
  
  , judge
• H. H. Kohlsaat
  H. H. Kohlsaat
  Herman Henry Kohlsaat was an American businessman and publisher.-Biography:...
  
  , editor and publisher of the Chicago Times Herald
• René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
  René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
  René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico...
  
  , explorer
• Victor F. Lawson, newspapers
• Abraham Lincoln
  Abraham Lincoln
  Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
  
  , politics, Whig, GOP, 16th President of the United States
  President of the United States
  The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
  
  
• Mary Todd Lincoln
  Mary Todd Lincoln
  Mary Ann Lincoln was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and was First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.-Life before the White House:...
  
  , Lincoln's wife
• Robert Todd Lincoln
  Robert Todd Lincoln
  Robert Todd Lincoln was an American lawyer and Secretary of War, and the first son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln...
  
  , Lincoln's son
• Vachel Lindsay
  Vachel Lindsay
  Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was an American poet. He is considered the father of modern singing poetry, as he referred to it, in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted...
  
  , author
• John A. Logan
  John A. Logan
  John Alexander Logan was an American soldier and political leader. He served in the Mexican-American War and was a general in the Union Army in the American Civil War. He served the state of Illinois as a state senator, congressman and senator and was an unsuccessful candidate for Vice President...
  
  , politics, Dem, GOP
• Frank O. Lowden
  Frank Orren Lowden
  Frank Orren Lowden was a Republican Party politician from Illinois, who served as the 25th Governor of Illinois and as a United States Representatives from Illinois...
  
  , politics, GOP
• Cyrus Hall McCormick, business
• Robert R. McCormick
  Robert R. McCormick
  Robert Rutherford "Colonel" McCormick was a member of the McCormick family of Chicago who became owner and publisher of the Chicago Tribune newspaper...
  
  , newspapers
• James Robert Mann, politics, GOP
• Edgar Lee Masters
  Edgar Lee Masters
  Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist...
  
  , author
• Joseph Medill
  Joseph Medill
  Joseph Medill was an American newspaper editor and publisher, and politician. He was co-owner and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, and was Mayor of Chicago.-Biography:...
  
  , newspapers
• Charles E. Merriam, education
• Harriet Monroe
  Harriet Monroe
  Harriet Monroe was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet and patron of the arts. She is best known as the founding publisher and long-time editor of Poetry Magazine, which made its debut in 1912. As a supporter of the poets Ezra Pound, H. D., T. S...
  
  , poet
• Dwight L. Moody
  Dwight L. Moody
  Dwight Lyman Moody , also known as D.L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts , the Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers.-Early life:Dwight Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts to a large...
  
  , religion

• William Vaughn Moody
  William Vaughn Moody
  William Vaughn Moody was a United States dramatist and poet. Author of The Great Divide, first presented under the title of The Sabine Woman at the Garrick Theatre in Chicago on April 12, 1906...
  
  , author
• George Mundelein, cardinal
• William Butler Ogden
  William Butler Ogden
  William Butler Ogden was the first Mayor of Chicago.Ogden was born in Walton, New York. When still a teenager, his father died and Ogden took over the family real estate business...
  
  , business
• Richard James Oglesby
  Richard James Oglesby
  Richard James Oglesby was an Illinois statesman and U.S. Army officer. He served in the Mexican-American War and was a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He also served Illinois in the legislature. Near the end of the civil war, he was elected the 14th Governor of...
  
  , politics, GOP
• John M. Palmer
  John M. Palmer (politician)
  John McAuley Palmer , was an Illinois resident, an American Civil War General who fought for the Union, the 15th Governor of Illinois, and presidential candidate of the National Democratic Party in the 1896 election on a platform to defend the gold standard, free trade, and limited...
  
  , politics, GOP, Dem
• Potter Palmer
  Potter Palmer
  Potter Palmer was an American businessman who was responsible for much of the development of State Street in Chicago.-Retailing career:...
  
  , business
• Bertha Palmer
  Bertha Palmer
  Bertha Palmer was an American businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist.- Biography :Born Bertha Matilde Honoré in Louisville, Kentucky, her father was businessman Henry Hamilton Honoré...
  
  , society
• Francis W. Parker, education
• John Mason Peck
  John Mason Peck
  John Mason Peck was an American Baptist missionary to the western frontier of the United States, especially in Missouri.-Biography:...
  
  , author
• Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, settler
• George M. Pullman, business
• Henry T. Rainey
  Henry T. Rainey
  Henry Thomas Rainey was a prominent U.S. politician during the first third of the 20th century. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1903 to 1921 and from 1923 to his death as a Democrat from Illinois, and was its Speaker during the famous Hundred days of Franklin D...
  
  , politics, Dem
• John W. Root
  John Wellborn Root
  John Wellborn Root was an American architect who worked out of Chicago with Daniel Burnham. He was one of the founders of the Chicago School style...
  
  , architect
• Julius Rosenwald
  Julius Rosenwald
  Julius Rosenwald was a U.S. clothier, manufacturer, business executive, and philanthropist. He is best known as a part-owner and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and for the Rosenwald Fund which donated millions to support the education of African American children in the rural South, as well...
  
  , business
• E. W. Scripps
  E. W. Scripps
  Edward Willis Scripps , was an American newspaper publisher and founder of The E. W. Scripps Company, a diversified media conglomerate, and United Press news service. It became United Press International when International News Service merged with United Press in 1958. The E. W...
  
  , newspapers
• Richard Warren Sears, business
• Albion W. Small, sociology
• Joseph Smith, religion
• John Spalding, religion
• Amos Alonzo Stagg
  Amos Alonzo Stagg
  Amos Alonzo Stagg was an American athlete and pioneering college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football...
  
  , sports
• Ellen Gates Starr
  Ellen Gates Starr
  Ellen Gates Starr was an American social reformer and activist.-Biography:...
  
  , social work
• Bernard James Sheil
  Bernard James Sheil
  Bernard James Sheil was an Auxiliary Roman Catholic Bishop of Chicago.-Biography:Born and raised in Chicago, Sheil was ordained a priest on May 3, 1910. He was named auxiliary Bishop of Chicago in 1928, a post he held for over forty years. As bishop he was give the titular see of Pegae...
  
  , religion
• Melville E. Stone
  Melville E. Stone
  Melville Elijah Stone was a newspaper publisher, the founder of the Chicago Daily News, and was the general manager of the reorganized Associated Press.-Biography:...
  
  , newspapers
• Adlai Stevenson, politics; Vice President, Dem
• Gustavus F. Swift, business, social work
• Theodore Thomas, conductor
• Lyman Trumbull
  Lyman Trumbull
  Lyman Trumbull was a United States Senator from Illinois during the American Civil War, and co-author of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.-Education and early career:...
  
  , politics, Dem, GOP, Dem
• Jonathan Baldwin Turner
  Jonathan Baldwin Turner
  Jonathan Baldwin Turner Born in Templeton, Massachusetts, Turner was a classical scholar, botanist, dedicated Christian, and political activist. He was perhaps the leading voice in the social movement of the 1850's that produced the land grant universities that pioneered public higher education in...
  
  , education
• A. Montgomery Ward, business
• John Wentworth
  John Wentworth (mayor)
  "Long" John Wentworth was the editor of the Chicago Democrat, a two-term mayor of Chicago, and a six-term member of the United States House of Representatives....
  
  , politics, Dem, GOP
• Frances E Willard
  Frances Willard (suffragist)
  Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Her influence was instrumental in the passage of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution...
  
  , social activist, head of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
  Woman's Christian Temperance Union
  The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the first mass organization among women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." Originally organized on December 23, 1873, in...
  
  
• Frank Lloyd Wright
  Frank Lloyd Wright
  Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
  
  , architect
• Richard Yates, politics, GOP
• Charles Yerkes
  Charles Yerkes
  Charles Tyson Yerkes was an American financier, born in Philadelphia. He played a major part in developing mass-transit systems in Chicago and London.-Philadelphia:...
  
  , business

Recent

• Jackie Joyner-Kersee
  Jackie Joyner-Kersee
  Jacqueline "Jackie" Joyner-Kersee is a retired American athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women's heptathlon as well as in the women's long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, in those four different events...
  
  , Olympic Gold Medalist
• John Bardeen
  John Bardeen
  John Bardeen was an American physicist and electrical engineer, the only person to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the transistor; and again in 1972 with Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer for a...
  
   (1908–1991) winner of two Nobel prizes in physics
• Joseph Bernardin (1928–1996), cardinal
• Richard J. Daley
  Richard J. Daley
  Richard Joseph Daley served for 21 years as the mayor and undisputed Democratic boss of Chicago and is considered by historians to be the "last of the big city bosses." He played a major role in the history of the Democratic Party, especially with his support of John F...
  
   (1902–1976), Chicago mayor; Dem
• Richard M. Daley
  Richard M. Daley
  Richard Michael Daley is a United States politician, member of the national and local Democratic Party, and former Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. He was the longest serving Chicago mayor, surpassing the tenure of his...
  
   (born 1942), Chicago mayor, son of Richard J.; Dem
• Everett Dirksen
  Everett Dirksen
  Everett McKinley Dirksen was an American politician of the Republican Party. He represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate...
  
  , politics, GOP
• Enrico Fermi
  Enrico Fermi
  Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...
  
  , nuclear physics
• Vince Vaughn
  Vince Vaughn
  Vincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor, screenwriter, producer and comedian. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 movie Swingers...
  
  , actor
• Andrew Greeley
  Andrew Greeley
  Father Andrew M. Greeley is an Irish-American Roman Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist and fiction writer....
  
   (born 1928), author; religion; sociology
• George Halas
  George Halas
  George Stanley Halas, Sr. , nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was a player, coach, owner and pioneer in professional American football. He was the iconic longtime leader of the NFL's Chicago Bears...
  
  , (1895–1983) sports
• Robert H. Michel
  Robert H. Michel
  Robert Henry "Bob" Michel is an American Republican Party politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives for 38 years. He represented central Illinois' 18th congressional district, and was the GOP leader in Congress, serving as Minority Leader for 14 years during an era...
  
  , (b. 1923), politics, GOP
• Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
  
   (1911–2004), 40th President of the United States
  President of the United States
  The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
  
  , GOP
• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
  Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
  Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....
  
  , architect
• William Shockley
  William Shockley
  William Bradford Shockley Jr. was an American physicist and inventor. Along with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain, Shockley co-invented the transistor, for which all three were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics.Shockley's attempts to commercialize a new transistor design in the 1950s...
  
  , 1910–1989, physicist invented transistor
• Adlai Stevenson II (1908–1965), politician, Dem
• Barack Obama
  Barack Obama
  Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
  
   (born 1961), politician, Dem, 44th President of the United States
  President of the United States
  The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
  
  

See also

• History of the Midwestern United States
• List of historical sites related to the Illinois labor movement

Secondary sources

• Adams, Jane. The Transformation of Rural Life: Southern Illinois, 1890-1990 (1994)
• Angle, Paul M. Here I Have Lived: A History of Lincoln's Springfield, 1821-1865 (1935)
• Baringer, William E. and Romaine Proctor. Lincoln's Vandalia, a Pioneer Portrait (1949)
• Barnard, Harry. "Eagle Forgotten": The Life of John Peter Altgeld (1938)
• Beveridge, Albert J. Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1858 (1928)
• Biles, Roger. Illinois: A History Of The Land And Its People (2005)
• Buck, Solon J. Illinois in 1818 (1917): online
• The Centennial History of Illinois a famous series by leading scholars; the copyright has expired and the books are in the public domain
  • vol. 1. The Illinois Country 1673-1818 by Clarence Walworth Alvord. (1920) online edition
  • vol. 2. The Frontier State, 1818-1848 by Theodore Calvin Pease. (1919) online edition
  • vol. 3. The Era of the Civil War 1848-1870 by Arthur Charles Cole (1919)
  • vol. 4. The Industrial State 1870-1893 by Ernest Ludlow Bogart & Charles Manfred Thompson, (1920) online edition
  • vol. 5. The Modern Commonwealth, 1893-1918 by Ernest Ludlow Bogart and John Mabry Mathews (1920) online edition
• Carr, Kay J. Belleville, Ottawa, and Galesburg: Community and Democracy on the Illinois Frontier (1996)
• Chapman, Margaret L. et al. Mitsubishi Motors in Illinois: Global Strategies, Local Impacts (1995)
• Davis, James E. Frontier Illinois (1998).
• Elazar, Daniel J. Cities of the Prairie Revisited (1986)
• Garland, John H. The North American Midwest: A Regional Geography (1955)
• Gjerde, Jon
  Jon Gjerde
  Jon Gjerde was an American historian and the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of American History and American Citizenship at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also served as dean of the Division of Social Sciences in the College of Letters and Science at the University of...
  
  . The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917 (1997)
• Gove, Samuel K. and James D. Nowlan. Illinois Politics & Government: The Expanding Metropolitan Frontier (1996)
• Hallwas, John E. ed., Illinois Literature: The Nineteenth Century (1986)
• Hartley, Robert E. Big Jim Thompson of Illinois (1979), governor 1980s
• Hartley, Robert E. Paul Powell of Illinois: A Lifelong Democrat (1999)
• Hicken, Victor. Illinois in the Civil War (1966).
• Hoffmann, John. A Guide to the History of Illinois. (1991)
• Howard, Robert P. Illinois: A History of the Prairie State (1972).
• Howard, Robert P. Mostly Good and Competent Men: Illinois Governors 1818-1988 (1988)
• Hutchinson, William. Lowden of Illinois the Life of Frank O. Lowden 2 vol (1957) governor in 1917-21
• Jensen, Richard. Illinois: A History (2001). interpretive history using model of traditional-modern-postmodern
• Keiser, John H. Building for the Centuries: Illinois 1865-1898 (1977)
• Kenney, David The Political Passage: The Career of Stratton of Illinois (1990). Governor in 1950s.
• Kinsley, Philip. The Chicago Tribune: Its First Hundred Years (1943)
• Kleppner, Paul. Political Atlas of Illinois (1988) maps for 1980s.
• Leonard, Gerald. The Invention of Party Politics: Federalism, Popular Sovereignty, and Constitutional Development in Jacksonian Illinois (2002)
• Littlewood, Thomas B. Horner of Illinois (1969), governor 1933-40
• Martin, John Bartlow. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois (1977). Governor 1948-52.
• Meyer, Douglas K. Making the Heartland Quilt: A Geographical History of Settlement and Migration in Early-Nineteenth-Century Illinois (2000)
• Miller, Kristie. Ruth Hanna Mccormick: A Life in Politics, 1880-1944 (1992)
• Morgan, M.J. Land of Big Rivers: French and Indian Illinois, 1699-1778 (Southern Illinois University Press; 2010) 288 pages; Examines the environmental history and settlement of the river plain along the Mississippi.
• Morton, Richard Allen. Justice and Humanity: Edward F. Dunne, Illinois Progressive (1997) governor 1913-17.
• Nardulli, Peter, ed.Diversity, Conflict, and State Politics: Regionalism in Illinois (1989)
• Peirce, Neal, and John Keefe. The Great Lakes States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Five Great Lakes States (1990)
• Plummer, Mark A. Lincoln's Rail Splitter: Governor Richard J. Oglesby (2001) governor 1865-69, 1885–89
• Riddle, Donald W. Lincoln Runs for Congress (1948)
• Scott, David W., “The Transformation of Higher Education in the 1960s: Master Plans, Community Colleges, and Emerging Universities,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 101 (Summer 2008), 177–92.
• WPA. Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide (1939)

Primary documents

• Johnson, Walter. Governor of Illinois 1949-1953 (Papers of Adlai E. Stevenson, Volume 3) (1973), primary documents.
• Peck, J. M. A Gazetteer of Illinois (1837), a primary source online
• Quaife, Milo Milton ed. Growing Up with Southern Illinois, 1820 to 1861: From the Memoirs of Daniel Harmon Brush (1944)
• Sutton, Robert P. ed. The Prairie State: A Documentary History of Illinois (1977).

External links

• History of Illinois at Thayer's American History site
• Encyclopedia of Chicago (2005)
• e-books on Illinois and Chicago
• Historical Society of Montgomery County Illinois