Friday, October 14, 2016

Upcoming Community Digitization Day


The Knox College Library invites you to a Community Digitization Day to be held Saturday, November 5, 2016 at the Galesburg Public Library (40 E. Simmons St.) from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm. Bring your materials related to African-American history in Galesburg and we can scan them and place the digital copies in the online collection (you keep the originals). 

Printed material such as letters and diaries, brochures from clubs and organizations, church programs are the kinds of materials rich in historical information. Photographs, especially ones dated pre-1950, are also valuable pieces of the historical record. We are especially looking for issues of The Illinois Star newspaper, a paper published in Galesburg for the African-American community in the 1930s and 1940s.

We will have samples of preservation materials on hand, and material explaining how to properly care for historical artifacts.  

The Struggle and Progress project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.


Friday, June 3, 2016

Community Digitization Day: June 18

The Knox College Library invites you to a Community Digitization Day to be held Saturday, June 18, 2016 at the Galesburg Public Library (40 E. Simmons St.) from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm. Bring your materials related to African-American history in Galesburg and we can scan them and place the digital copies in the online collection (you keep the originals). 

Printed material such as letters and diaries, brochures from clubs and organizations, church programs are the kinds of materials rich in historical information. Photographs, especially ones dated pre-1950, are also valuable pieces of the historical record. 

We will have samples of preservation materials on hand, and material explaining how to properly care for historical artifacts.  

The Struggle and Progress project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Upcoming Lecture: The Struggle for Equality in an Abolition City

The Knox College Library is pleased to present a lecture by historian Matthew Norman. He will discuss Galesburg’s African-American community and the abolitionist legacies of Galesburg and Knox College through the early 20th century. Dr. Norman will also discuss how various sources available shed light on these topics and why we need more material to enrich the story.

The lecture will be held on Wednesday, May 11 at 6:30 pm at the Galesburg Public Library in the Sanderson Room.

Matt Norman (Knox class of 1993) is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash.  He has taught at Gettysburg College and at Knox College and was formerly Project Director and Historian at Knox’s  Lincoln Studies Center.

This lecture is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and we thank the NEH for their support. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.



First Community Digitization Day

Our first Community Digitization Day was held on February 27 at the Carver Center. We had more materials contributed than we could digitize in the time we had available, but we were able to select some interesting items for inclusion in the project.

Church related items are a rich source of information about families and, of course, religious life in the community. Karen Ford-Kelley contributed the item depicted in the image to the left. It is an "Order of Service" program for a service at Allen Chapel. The event featured choirs from Wayman A.M.E. Church in Rock Island, Illinois, Allen Chapel and Second Baptist Church in Galesburg. Rev. J.J. Handy gave the sermon and benediction. Ms. Ford-Kelley also contributed the Mortgage Burning Program of the Second Baptist Church, and both of these items let us know that the black churches in the area worked closely together and celebrated one another from time to time.

Church programs, bulletins and reports usually list names, and sometimes include photographs, making these kinds of materials a treasure trove for genealogists.

This project is made possible in part with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this site do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

NEH Grant Supports the Struggle and Progress Project


Knox College has received a grant ($10,700) from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the project Struggle and Progress: Documenting African-American History in Galesburg, Illinois. The project aims to further document the experience of African American citizens in Galesburg, and builds on our existing digital collection of materials related to African-American history.

The existing digital collection, Struggle and Progress-African Americans in Knox County, Illinois, was created in 2012 and reflects materials held in the Knox College Archives. Galesburg's Support Group for African-American Affairs provided important support for this project.

The NEH funded project will offer several community digitization days; the resulting digital objects and associated metadata will enrich the publicly accessible digital repository. Five associated humanities events will be offered over the grant period, from the screening of video from the community digitization days, to a lecture on the history of African Americans in Galesburg, to an Oral History Story Day, at which community members who contributed objects for digitization will discuss their particular experiences, personal and family stories of struggle and progress. Themes about African Americans to be explored include civic, social, religious and business life; participation in wars; prejudice, discrimination; segregation, integration; public education; and voting rights.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.