In June 2021, the Illinois State Archives willcelebrate 100 years as an Illinois governmentagency. In anticipation of the centennial cel-ebration, For the Record will feature past andcurrent photographs of the various depart-ments of the Archives.

The Illinois State Archives began microfilm-ing in 1939, when it acquired a camera tomicrofilm county records. Prior to the 1957State Records Act, many state agenciesoperated their own microfilming programs,meeting with mixed success and utilizingmixed standards.

The 1957 State Records Act gave the StateArchives the authority to establish centralizedmicrofilming services for agencies. TheCentral Microfilming Unit (CMU) opened in1958 and was placed under the RecordsManagement Section of the State Archives.The department eventually moved to theSecretary of State’s Data Processing Division,but in 1993, it returned to the Archives.

The CMU consolidated microfilming for thestate to save money and ensure proper stan-dards were met. The department began witha staff of three: a photographer trained inmicrofilm techniques and two camera opera-tors. The unit provided microfilming services,reproductions from microfilm and technicaladvice to agencies. Both user and backupmicrofilm copies were made and bothlongterm and permanent records werefilmed.

By the 1970s, the staff of the microfilm unitexpanded to more than 30 people. The roleexpanded too, as it began placing recordsfrom computer cartridges to microfiche, in aprocess known as computer output to micro-fiche, or COM. Each microfiche could holdthe equivalent of 325 letter-sized pages.

Sum

mer

202

0

www.cyberdriveillinois.com

Newsletterof theIllinoisState

Archives&

The Illinois State Historical

RecordsAdvisory Board

Jesse WhiteSecretary of State

&State Archivist

Volume 34Number 2

For the

For the Record is published three times a year by the Illinois State Archives Advisory Board, Office of the Secretary of State.Jesse White • Secretary of State & State Archivist • Produced by the Secretary of State Communications Department.

Printed by authority of the State of Illinois. June 2020 – 1 – AR D 146.27

ISHRAB receives CoSA-NHPRC Award of MeritThe Council of State Archivists(CoSA) and the National HistoricalPublications and Records Commis -sion (NHPRC) have presented theIllinois State Historical RecordsAdvisory Board (ISHRAB) with the2020 SHRAB Award of Merit. Theaward was given to the ISHRAB inrecognition of the 10th anniversaryof its successful historical recordsgrant program.

“The CoSA-NHPRC SHRAB Awardof Merit is given to a StateHistorical Records Advisory Board(SHRAB) program that strengthensthe condition or access of docu-ments and records within its state,”said Secretary of State and StateArchivist Jesse White. “The IllinoisSHRAB received the award inrecognition of its historical records

grant program, which uses NHPRCfunding to provide grants of up to$5,000 to small Illinois archivalinstitutions to fund projects thatpreserve their records or provideenhanced online access to their col-lections.”

Over the past 10 years, the ISHRABhas awarded 86 grants totaling$260,510 to institutions in 30Illinois counties. Projects haveincluded creating online findingaids, purchasing collection manage-ment systems, and digitizing andplacing online collections thatinclude documents, photographs,maps and oral histories.

“It has been extremely fulfilling tosee the board award money to awide variety of institutions from all

around the state,” wrote ISHRABchair Johanna Russ about the pro-gram. “The impact our work has hadon our colleagues around the stateis something of which I amimmensely proud.”

The Illinois State Archives serves asthe coordinating agency for the 14-member ISHRAB. Membership con-sists of archivists, librarians andrelated professionals from acrossIllinois.

“A lot of the work in state govern-ment is done by volunteer boardsand commissions like the ISHRAB,”said White. “I am happy to see theISHRAB receive this deservinghonor for creating and maintainingthis great program.”

The Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board conducted its February meeting in the Appellate Court chamber of the Illinois Supreme Courtbuilding in Springfield. Pictured from left to right are: David Joens, Andrew Bullen, Jerice Barrios, Peggy Glowacki, Cathy Popovitch, Tina Beaird,Laura Alagna, Julie Wroblewski, Aaron Lisec, Cecilia Salvatore, Johanna Russ, Lee Fosburgh and Ian Hunt. Not pictured: Skyla Hearn.

Illinois State Archives Centennial (1921-2021) — Microfilm Unit serves state

LEFT: Illinois State Archives Micrographics Lab circa 1950s. RIGHT: Richard Bumgarner and Lana Basden work in theIllinois State Archives Micrographics Camera Room on June 17, 2020.

Changes in technology led the department tobegin burning the information to compactdiscs rather than microfiche in 1999. In 1989,the department set up a lab to protect thefilm it created using a chemical toningprocess. The unit also began filming localrecords for use at the Illinois RegionalArchives Depositories (IRADs).

Technology and needs continued to change.In 2008, the department started usingArchive Writers, which receives digital dataand creates microfilm for permanent records.The department no longer uses COM and isphasing out the use of compact discs as astorage and transfer media. The unit oper-ates two large planetary cameras that micro-film paper records, ledger books, maps andblueprints, and operates one overhead scan-ner for paper documents, ledger books andprinted material. It also operates threemicrofilm/microfiche scanners to allow

records kept on microfilm to be made avail-able electronically to users. Finally, thedepartment is replacing rotary cameras,which rapidly film paper records, with highspeed scanners.

James Wassell, who worked for the sectionfrom 1978 until his retirement as supervisorin 1995, provided two highlights for the sec-tion. He founded the Midwest State Micro -graphics Conference in 1986 and, beforecoming to work at the Archives, he won anOscar in 1963 for his work with film and filmprocessing.

The microfilm section now consists of 12 em ployees. Although technology haschanged, the unit continues to provide stateagencies with a way to reduce their paperload while ensuring that records with a his-toric value are permanently stored in a pro-fessional standard.

Summer 2020.qxp_For the Record Fall 04 6/30/20 1:47 PM Page 1

On March 16, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office announced it was implementing a nopublic access plan for its facilities due to COVID-19. The Illinois State Archives, an agencyunder the Secretary of State’s office, closed the next day to the public. It also sent most ofits employees home to protect them and their families and to help stop the spread of thevirus. The Archives and Secretary of State’s office fully reopened to the public on June 1.

The State Archives continued to operate during this closure but at a minimum level. Somework was done from home, including the indexing of previously scanned records, cleanupof the Archives’ descriptive inventory, and creation of a workflow for ingesting electronicreports. The State Records Center, which houses long-term state agency records, is consid-ered an essential service due to the need of these agencies to access their records. Itremained open part-time and with a single employee operating it. The Illinois RegionalArchives Depositories, conservation lab, reference room and micrographics section wereclosed during the shutdown.

The Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board was accepting applications for schol-arships and for its grant program when the crisis hit. State Archives staff ensured thatthese federally funded programs continued. Email and mail requests for records wereprocessed, although with expected delays. Freedom of Information requests were handledpromptly.

Similarly, most records management staff did not go into work, but state records disposalrequests were monitored and local records disposal certificates were processed.

The Archives implemented its emergency plan, of which the most vital part for this emer-gency was utilizing the phone tree for the exchange of information.

NHPRC Awards State Archives Grant for Doc Helm Collection

Professional DevelopmentScholarships available

beginning July 1

The State Archives and COVID-19

The Margaret Cross Norton Building closed to the public March 17 due to COVID-19. The building is located onthe Capitol Complex in Springfield, which also closed to the public.

In May, Secretary of State and State ArchivistJesse White announced that the Illinois StateArchives was awarded a $60,178 federalgrant to preserve, digitize and provide onlineaccess to 21,000 photographs taken by long-time state photographer Eddie Winfred “Doc”Helm.

“Doc Helm served as the official state photog-rapher for half a century, from the 1940s to1992,” said White. “During this time he tookpictures of presidents, governors, celebrities,citizens, notable events and the ordinary day-to-day operations of state government. He leftbehind a vast historical record, and this grantwill allow the public to view and enjoy hiswork.”

According to White, Helm’s photographs wereonly stored as negatives, so they are not wellknown to researchers. Despite this, they havebeen used in books, newspapers, magazinearticles and, most recently, the Hulu televisionshow “Mrs. America.”

Helm photographed at least three presidents,several presidential candidates and politi-cians, and celebrities such as Nat King Cole,Bob Hope and Sammy Davis Jr. The collectionincludes such diverse images as the governoraddressing a joint session of the state legisla-ture during World War II, the first group photoof the newly created Black Legislative Caucusin 1967, and photos of capitol tour guides inthe 1970s dressed in uniforms not unlikethose worn by airline attendants at the time.

Along with serving as the state photographer,Doc Helm was also considered a leading

photographer in central Illinois and arguablythe most important African American photog-rapher in the state during the mid-20th century.

His private sector work focused largely onSpringfield’s African American community andhas been featured in exhibits at the Spring -field and Central Illinois African AmericanHistory Museum, the Illinois State Museum,Bicentennial Plaza in Springfield, and in thepages of Illinois Heritage magazine.

The grant to the Illinois State Archives waspart of almost $2.9 million in grants thatArchivist of the United States David Ferrierorecently awarded to projects in 17 states. Thegrants are carried out with the advice and recommendations of the National HistoricalPublications and Records Commission(NHPRC).

The grant for the Doc Helm collection will beused to purchase a scanner to professionallyscan, index and place online the photographicnegatives. The funds will also be used to pur-chase archival quality envelopes to better pre-serve the negatives and to hire two Universityof Illinois at Springfield history students toassist in scanning and cataloguing the nega-tives. The projected completion of the projectis set for Oct. 1, 2021.

“The efforts of the National Archives and theNHPRC to provide funding for projects at thestate and local levels are very important andnecessary,” said White. “Those efforts aremaking a huge difference in preserving historyacross the country.”

Archival WorkersEmergency Fund

The Society of American Archivists(SAA) Foundation is acceptingdonations to support the ArchivalWorkers Emergency Fund (AWEF),established to provide financialassistance for archival workers whohave experienced acute, unantici -pated financial hardship due to theCOVID-19 global pandemic.

Grants of up to $1,000 will beawarded to financially vulnerableand at-risk workers. All U.S.-basedarchival workers affected by theCOVID-19 crisis are eligible to applyto the fund. Applications for fund-ing opened April 15 and will be con-sidered on a rolling basis until Dec.31, 2020.

For information on how to con-tribute to the fund or apply forfinancial assistance, please visitthe SAA Foundation website athttps://www2.archivists .org/foundation.

Illinois State ArchivesMargaret Cross Norton Building

Capitol ComplexSpringfield, IL 62756

217-782-4682217-524-3930 (Fax)

Monday-Friday: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Closed all state holidays.

Beginning July 1, the Illinois HistoricalRecords Advisory Board (ISHRAB) will beoffering professional development schol-arships to Illinois archivists and archivalvolunteers to attend an archival work-shop/seminar of their choice in Illinois (oran online professional archival develop-ment course). Awards are available for upto $200 per applicant and may be usedtoward the cost of registration, housing,and/or travel to the event. It is a reim-bursable award. Scholarships will beawarded on a first-come basis until thefunding is exhausted. Complete informa-tion and an application form can be foundat www.cyberdriveillinois.com (click onDepartments, Illinois State Archives,Illinois Historical Records AdvisoryBoard).

If you have any questions, please contact: David Joens, DirectorIllinois State ArchivesM. C. Norton BuildingSpringfield, IL 62756Phone: 217-782-3492djoens@ilsos.gov

This archival educational opportunity isfunded by a State Board Programminggrant from the National HistoricalPublications and Records Commission(NHPRC).

The Society of AmericanArchivists empowersarchivists to achieve

professional excellence andfoster innovation to ensure

the identification, preservation, understanding,

and use of records of enduring value.

LEFT: Secretary of State Photographer Doc Helm. RIGHT: President Eisenhower visits the Illinois State Fair, 1954.Photograph taken by Doc Helm.

Summer 2020.qxp_For the Record Fall 04 6/30/20 1:47 PM Page 2

On March 16, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office announced it was implementing a nopublic access plan for its facilities due to COVID-19. The Illinois State Archives, an agencyunder the Secretary of State’s office, closed the next day to the public. It also sent most ofits employees home to protect them and their families and to help stop the spread of thevirus. The Archives and Secretary of State’s office fully reopened to the public on June 1.

The State Archives continued to operate during this closure but at a minimum level. Somework was done from home, including the indexing of previously scanned records, cleanupof the Archives’ descriptive inventory, and creation of a workflow for ingesting electronicreports. The State Records Center, which houses long-term state agency records, is consid-ered an essential service due to the need of these agencies to access their records. Itremained open part-time and with a single employee operating it. The Illinois RegionalArchives Depositories, conservation lab, reference room and micrographics section wereclosed during the shutdown.

The Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board was accepting applications for schol-arships and for its grant program when the crisis hit. State Archives staff ensured thatthese federally funded programs continued. Email and mail requests for records wereprocessed, although with expected delays. Freedom of Information requests were handledpromptly.

Similarly, most records management staff did not go into work, but state records disposalrequests were monitored and local records disposal certificates were processed.

The Archives implemented its emergency plan, of which the most vital part for this emer-gency was utilizing the phone tree for the exchange of information.

NHPRC Awards State Archives Grant for Doc Helm Collection

Professional DevelopmentScholarships available

beginning July 1

The State Archives and COVID-19

The Margaret Cross Norton Building closed to the public March 17 due to COVID-19. The building is located onthe Capitol Complex in Springfield, which also closed to the public.

In May, Secretary of State and State ArchivistJesse White announced that the Illinois StateArchives was awarded a $60,178 federalgrant to preserve, digitize and provide onlineaccess to 21,000 photographs taken by long-time state photographer Eddie Winfred “Doc”Helm.

“Doc Helm served as the official state photog-rapher for half a century, from the 1940s to1992,” said White. “During this time he tookpictures of presidents, governors, celebrities,citizens, notable events and the ordinary day-to-day operations of state government. He leftbehind a vast historical record, and this grantwill allow the public to view and enjoy hiswork.”

According to White, Helm’s photographs wereonly stored as negatives, so they are not wellknown to researchers. Despite this, they havebeen used in books, newspapers, magazinearticles and, most recently, the Hulu televisionshow “Mrs. America.”

Helm photographed at least three presidents,several presidential candidates and politi-cians, and celebrities such as Nat King Cole,Bob Hope and Sammy Davis Jr. The collectionincludes such diverse images as the governoraddressing a joint session of the state legisla-ture during World War II, the first group photoof the newly created Black Legislative Caucusin 1967, and photos of capitol tour guides inthe 1970s dressed in uniforms not unlikethose worn by airline attendants at the time.

Along with serving as the state photographer,Doc Helm was also considered a leading

photographer in central Illinois and arguablythe most important African American photog-rapher in the state during the mid-20th century.

His private sector work focused largely onSpringfield’s African American community andhas been featured in exhibits at the Spring -field and Central Illinois African AmericanHistory Museum, the Illinois State Museum,Bicentennial Plaza in Springfield, and in thepages of Illinois Heritage magazine.

The grant to the Illinois State Archives waspart of almost $2.9 million in grants thatArchivist of the United States David Ferrierorecently awarded to projects in 17 states. Thegrants are carried out with the advice and recommendations of the National HistoricalPublications and Records Commission(NHPRC).

The grant for the Doc Helm collection will beused to purchase a scanner to professionallyscan, index and place online the photographicnegatives. The funds will also be used to pur-chase archival quality envelopes to better pre-serve the negatives and to hire two Universityof Illinois at Springfield history students toassist in scanning and cataloguing the nega-tives. The projected completion of the projectis set for Oct. 1, 2021.

“The efforts of the National Archives and theNHPRC to provide funding for projects at thestate and local levels are very important andnecessary,” said White. “Those efforts aremaking a huge difference in preserving historyacross the country.”

Archival WorkersEmergency Fund

The Society of American Archivists(SAA) Foundation is acceptingdonations to support the ArchivalWorkers Emergency Fund (AWEF),established to provide financialassistance for archival workers whohave experienced acute, unantici -pated financial hardship due to theCOVID-19 global pandemic.

Grants of up to $1,000 will beawarded to financially vulnerableand at-risk workers. All U.S.-basedarchival workers affected by theCOVID-19 crisis are eligible to applyto the fund. Applications for fund-ing opened April 15 and will be con-sidered on a rolling basis until Dec.31, 2020.

For information on how to con-tribute to the fund or apply forfinancial assistance, please visitthe SAA Foundation website athttps://www2.archivists .org/foundation.

Illinois State ArchivesMargaret Cross Norton Building

Capitol ComplexSpringfield, IL 62756

217-782-4682217-524-3930 (Fax)

Monday-Friday: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Closed all state holidays.

Beginning July 1, the Illinois HistoricalRecords Advisory Board (ISHRAB) will beoffering professional development schol-arships to Illinois archivists and archivalvolunteers to attend an archival work-shop/seminar of their choice in Illinois (oran online professional archival develop-ment course). Awards are available for upto $200 per applicant and may be usedtoward the cost of registration, housing,and/or travel to the event. It is a reim-bursable award. Scholarships will beawarded on a first-come basis until thefunding is exhausted. Complete informa-tion and an application form can be foundat www.cyberdriveillinois.com (click onDepartments, Illinois State Archives,Illinois Historical Records AdvisoryBoard).

If you have any questions, please contact: David Joens, DirectorIllinois State ArchivesM. C. Norton BuildingSpringfield, IL 62756Phone: 217-782-3492djoens@ilsos.gov

This archival educational opportunity isfunded by a State Board Programminggrant from the National HistoricalPublications and Records Commission(NHPRC).

The Society of AmericanArchivists empowersarchivists to achieve

professional excellence andfoster innovation to ensure

the identification, preservation, understanding,

and use of records of enduring value.

LEFT: Secretary of State Photographer Doc Helm. RIGHT: President Eisenhower visits the Illinois State Fair, 1954.Photograph taken by Doc Helm.

Summer 2020.qxp_For the Record Fall 04 6/30/20 1:47 PM Page 2

In June 2021, the Illinois State Archives willcelebrate 100 years as an Illinois governmentagency. In anticipation of the centennial cel-ebration, For the Record will feature past andcurrent photographs of the various depart-ments of the Archives.

The Illinois State Archives began microfilm-ing in 1939, when it acquired a camera tomicrofilm county records. Prior to the 1957State Records Act, many state agenciesoperated their own microfilming programs,meeting with mixed success and utilizingmixed standards.

The 1957 State Records Act gave the StateArchives the authority to establish centralizedmicrofilming services for agencies. TheCentral Microfilming Unit (CMU) opened in1958 and was placed under the RecordsManagement Section of the State Archives.The department eventually moved to theSecretary of State’s Data Processing Division,but in 1993, it returned to the Archives.

The CMU consolidated microfilming for thestate to save money and ensure proper stan-dards were met. The department began witha staff of three: a photographer trained inmicrofilm techniques and two camera opera-tors. The unit provided microfilming services,reproductions from microfilm and technicaladvice to agencies. Both user and backupmicrofilm copies were made and bothlongterm and permanent records werefilmed.

By the 1970s, the staff of the microfilm unitexpanded to more than 30 people. The roleexpanded too, as it began placing recordsfrom computer cartridges to microfiche, in aprocess known as computer output to micro-fiche, or COM. Each microfiche could holdthe equivalent of 325 letter-sized pages.

Sum

mer

202

0

www.cyberdriveillinois.com

Newsletterof theIllinoisState

Archives&

The Illinois State Historical

RecordsAdvisory Board

Jesse WhiteSecretary of State

&State Archivist

Volume 34Number 2

For the

For the Record is published three times a year by the Illinois State Archives Advisory Board, Office of the Secretary of State.Jesse White • Secretary of State & State Archivist • Produced by the Secretary of State Communications Department.

Printed by authority of the State of Illinois. June 2020 – 1 – AR D 146.27

ISHRAB receives CoSA-NHPRC Award of MeritThe Council of State Archivists(CoSA) and the National HistoricalPublications and Records Commis -sion (NHPRC) have presented theIllinois State Historical RecordsAdvisory Board (ISHRAB) with the2020 SHRAB Award of Merit. Theaward was given to the ISHRAB inrecognition of the 10th anniversaryof its successful historical recordsgrant program.

“The CoSA-NHPRC SHRAB Awardof Merit is given to a StateHistorical Records Advisory Board(SHRAB) program that strengthensthe condition or access of docu-ments and records within its state,”said Secretary of State and StateArchivist Jesse White. “The IllinoisSHRAB received the award inrecognition of its historical records

grant program, which uses NHPRCfunding to provide grants of up to$5,000 to small Illinois archivalinstitutions to fund projects thatpreserve their records or provideenhanced online access to their col-lections.”

Over the past 10 years, the ISHRABhas awarded 86 grants totaling$260,510 to institutions in 30Illinois counties. Projects haveincluded creating online findingaids, purchasing collection manage-ment systems, and digitizing andplacing online collections thatinclude documents, photographs,maps and oral histories.

“It has been extremely fulfilling tosee the board award money to awide variety of institutions from all

around the state,” wrote ISHRABchair Johanna Russ about the pro-gram. “The impact our work has hadon our colleagues around the stateis something of which I amimmensely proud.”

The Illinois State Archives serves asthe coordinating agency for the 14-member ISHRAB. Membership con-sists of archivists, librarians andrelated professionals from acrossIllinois.

“A lot of the work in state govern-ment is done by volunteer boardsand commissions like the ISHRAB,”said White. “I am happy to see theISHRAB receive this deservinghonor for creating and maintainingthis great program.”

The Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board conducted its February meeting in the Appellate Court chamber of the Illinois Supreme Courtbuilding in Springfield. Pictured from left to right are: David Joens, Andrew Bullen, Jerice Barrios, Peggy Glowacki, Cathy Popovitch, Tina Beaird,Laura Alagna, Julie Wroblewski, Aaron Lisec, Cecilia Salvatore, Johanna Russ, Lee Fosburgh and Ian Hunt. Not pictured: Skyla Hearn.

Illinois State Archives Centennial (1921-2021) — Microfilm Unit serves state

LEFT: Illinois State Archives Micrographics Lab circa 1950s. RIGHT: Richard Bumgarner and Lana Basden work in theIllinois State Archives Micrographics Camera Room on June 17, 2020.

Changes in technology led the department tobegin burning the information to compactdiscs rather than microfiche in 1999. In 1989,the department set up a lab to protect thefilm it created using a chemical toningprocess. The unit also began filming localrecords for use at the Illinois RegionalArchives Depositories (IRADs).

Technology and needs continued to change.In 2008, the department started usingArchive Writers, which receives digital dataand creates microfilm for permanent records.The department no longer uses COM and isphasing out the use of compact discs as astorage and transfer media. The unit oper-ates two large planetary cameras that micro-film paper records, ledger books, maps andblueprints, and operates one overhead scan-ner for paper documents, ledger books andprinted material. It also operates threemicrofilm/microfiche scanners to allow

records kept on microfilm to be made avail-able electronically to users. Finally, thedepartment is replacing rotary cameras,which rapidly film paper records, with highspeed scanners.

James Wassell, who worked for the sectionfrom 1978 until his retirement as supervisorin 1995, provided two highlights for the sec-tion. He founded the Midwest State Micro -graphics Conference in 1986 and, beforecoming to work at the Archives, he won anOscar in 1963 for his work with film and filmprocessing.

The microfilm section now consists of 12 em ployees. Although technology haschanged, the unit continues to provide stateagencies with a way to reduce their paperload while ensuring that records with a his-toric value are permanently stored in a pro-fessional standard.

Summer 2020.qxp_For the Record Fall 04 6/30/20 1:47 PM Page 1