I&M Canal History Records Now Accessible Online

Editor's note: The following is a press release issued by Lewis University.

More I &M Canal history now can be accessed through key strokes and the Internet. The Robert Hawley Milne Collection, which is a part of the Howard and Lois Adelmann Regional History Collection at in Romeoville, is online. Visit http://bit.ly/MilneCollection to view the Milne Collection and http://bit.ly/Milnebooks to view the book collection. The websites are being updated on a frequent basis so visitors can enjoy a unique experience each time.

"This collection provides insight into the agrarian past of Lockport, in particular, and the greater Chicago area as a whole," said Dennis Crimin, diector of the Lewis University History Center and associate professor of history. "The collection provides a unique insight into the public and private aspects of their family life."

The Milne collection contains personal papers; books, photographs and ephemera. In 2005 and 2009, the items were donated by Flora Louise Milne, executrix of the James Walter Milne and Gladys Donkle Milne estate. The Milne family resided for decades in Lockport in the Robert Hawley Milne House, also known as “the old stone house.” The house is presently owned by the Adelmann family, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  

The Howard and Lois Adelmann Regional History Collection is administered by the Lewis University History Center: Urban, Cultural and Catholic History of the Upper Midwest. It is housed in the historic and the Lewis University library. The Adelmann collection contains more than 10,000 items; including books, manuscripts, photographs, and maps relating to the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the areas, towns, and activities it influenced in Illinois. The collection also features material about other American canals in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Adelmann collection of photographs is the largest existing pictorial record of the history of the Illinois and Michigan Canal.