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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Since the State's beginning as a territory in
31809 and into statehood in 1818, the Illinois Secretary of
4State's office has served as the custodian of official state
5records; and
 
6    WHEREAS, During the early years of State government,
7records were neither numerous nor extremely complex, and the
8records entrusted to the Secretary of State's office consisted
9mainly of correspondence from the governor's office and
10records of the General Assembly; and
 
11    WHEREAS, As the functions of State government grew more
12complex and its records grew more numerous, Secretary of State
13Louis Emmerson advocated for and the Illinois General Assembly
14passed legislation in 1921 to create a division of State
15Archives to be housed in the State Library Department of the
16Secretary of State's office; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Secretary of State Emmerson named Margaret Cross
18Norton as the first supervisor of the Illinois State Archives;
19she served 35 years as supervisor and became an
20internationally recognized leader and pioneer in the archival
21profession; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, The State Archives originally had offices in the
2basement of the State Capitol building before moving to the
3newly constructed Centennial (Howlett) Building in 1923; and
 
4    WHEREAS, In 1925, Margaret Norton successfully advocated
5for legislation that gave the State Archives the authority to
6accept records from all state officials and state agencies
7instead of just the governor's office and the General
8Assembly; and
 
9    WHEREAS, On February 8, 1934, the State Arsenal building
10burned to the ground resulting in the loss of soldiers' bonus
11and World War I records and demonstrating the need for a
12state-of-the-art, fire-proof building to safely store state
13records; and
 
14    WHEREAS, In 1935, the Illinois General Assembly approved
15funding for the construction of a State Archives building; the
16building was completed in 1938 and was named the Margaret
17Cross Norton Building in 1995; and
 
18    WHEREAS, The 1957 State Records Act and the 1961 Local
19Records Act placed the Archives in charge of records
20management for state and local government records; this gave
21the Archives an important role in deciding what government
22records had permanent historic value; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Today, the Illinois State Archives is a separate
2department under the Secretary of State's office and is in
3charge of preserving and making accessible the permanent
4records of the State, overseeing records management programs
5of state agencies and units of local government, providing
6microfilming, scanning and records storage services to state
7government agencies, and operating a regional archives
8depository system for local government records; therefore, be
9it
 
10    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
11HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
12we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the creation of the
13Illinois State Archives on June 20, 1921, congratulate the
14Illinois State Archives for its proud 100 year history, and
15thank Secretary of State and State Archivist Jesse White and
16all the employees of the State Archives past and present who
17have contributed to the 100 year history of this department;
18and be it further
 
19    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
20presented to the Illinois State Archives as a symbol of our
21esteem and respect.