Illinois Central Railroad Company Archives
Scope and Content Note
The collection documents the company's history with correspondence, minutes, reports, log books, financial information, stock documents, maps, blueprints, sketches, ephemeral material, and photographs. Development of the railroad in downstate Illinois and in Mississippi (and some other Southern states, specifically Louisiana) is especially well-documented, although there is also significant material relating to Chicago and Iowa.
Dates
- Creation: 1831-1984
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1851 - 1970
Creator
- Illinois Central Railroad Company (Organization)
Language
Materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
The Illinois Central Railroad Company Archives are open for research; they are available a box at a time in the Special Collections Reading Room (Priority III).
Ownership and Copyright
The Illinois Central Railroad Company Archives are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.
Historical Note
With origins dating from an 1830s Illinois-sponsored program of internal improvements, the Illinois Central Railroad (IC), based in Chicago, was chartered in 1851 to take advantage of the Federal Land Grant Act of 1850 and build a north-south line in Illinois from Chicago to Cairo. In advertising and selling lands along its route, the IC was a catalyst for growth in the central and southern regions of Illinois, attracting thousands of settlers and laying the foundations for agricultural, industrial, and urban development. The company had a significant impact on the growth of Chicago and the development of its lakeshore. Expanding west to Iowa and into the southern states, the IC became the primary passenger and freight link between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.
Extent
1020 Linear Feet
Abstract
The Archives of the Illinois Central Railroad Company document the activities of the Company and its subsidiary lines and companies from before its charter on Feb. 10, 1851, through and a bit beyond 1972, when the line merged with the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad to become Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. The collection includes correspondence of administrators and staff, minutes, reports and legal documents, financial records, stock information, historical material, maps, blueprints, and photographs.
Organization
Organization
- Record Group 1: Letters by Officials
- 184 boxes, 467 volumes, and 13 oversize volumes
- Record Group 11: Letters by Office
- 203 boxes and 68 volumes
- Record Group 2: Reports, Legal
- 47 boxes, 42 volumes, and 61 oversize volumes
- Record Group 3: Minutes, Board Papers
- 267 boxes and 84 oversize volumes
- Record Group 4: Securities
- 21 boxes and 196 oversize volumes
- Record Group 5: Accounting
- 13 boxes and 304 oversize volumes
- Record Group 6: Southern Lines
- 65 boxes, 358 oversize volumes, and 2 oversize rolled documents
- Record Group 7: Land Department Records
- 5 boxes
- Record Group 71: Land Companies
- 11 boxes and 13 oversize volumes
- Record Group 8: Other Roads
- 63 boxes and 205 oversize volumes
- Record Group 9: Other Organizations
- 8 boxes and 27 oversize volumes
- Record Group A 1: Addenda - Letters
- 4 boxes
- Record Group A 2: Addenda - Operations Department
- 2 boxes
- Record Group A 3: Addenda - PR Department
- 14 boxes, 5 volumes, and 1 oversize volume
- Record Group A 4: Addenda - Subsidiary and Affiliated Lines and Companies
- 23 boxes, 10 volumes, and 16 oversize volumes
- Record Group A 5: ICG Merger documents
- 7 volumes
- Record Group A-Photo: Addenda - Photographs
- 8 boxes
- Record Group A-Map: Addenda - Maps, Plans, and Drawings
- 203 map folders (various sizes) and 16 oversize volumes
Stack Location
4a 31-35
Provenance
The bulk of the collection (ca. 1851-1906) was placed at the Newberry Library on deposit by the Illinois Central Railroad Company in July, 1943. Additions were made to the collection around 1990 and 1997 (specifically Papers Accompanying Board Minutes, papers relating to the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio RR and its subsidiary companies, and other miscellaneous material). The whole of the collection was formally gifted to the Newberry Library on March 20, 1995.
Processed by
Alison Hinderliter, Megan Vandehey, and Brian Reis, 2002.
Subject
- World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.) (Organization)
Genre / Form
- Bonds (negotiable instruments)
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Contracts
- Ledgers (account books)
- Scrapbooks
- Stock certificates
Geographic
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Manuscripts
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Transportation
Topical
- Advertising -- Transportation -- United States -- History
- Manuscripts, American -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Railroads -- United States -- Accidents
- Railroads -- United States -- Branch lines -- History
- Railroads -- United States -- Consolidation -- History
- Railroads -- United States -- Design and construction
- Railroads -- United States -- Electrification
- Railroads -- United States -- Equipment and supplies -- History
- Railroads -- United States -- Fares
- Railroads -- United States -- History
- Railroads -- United States -- Maintenance and repair
- Railroads -- United States -- Management -- History
- Railroads -- United States -- Maps
- Railroads -- United States -- Mergers
- Railroads -- United States -- Rates
- Railroads -- United States -- Right of way
- Railroads -- United States -- Tickets
- Railroads -- United States -- Timetables
- Title
- Inventory of the Illinois Central Railroad Company Archives, 1831-1984, , bulk bulk 1851-1970
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Carolyn Curtis Mohr / Alison Hinderliter
- Date
- ©2003.
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the The Newberry Library - Modern Manuscripts and Archives Repository
60 West Walton Street
Chicago Illinois 60610 United States
312-255-3512
reference@newberry.org