HR0390 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0390 LRB102 18855 ECR 27574 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Since the State's beginning as a territory in 1809 and into statehood in 1818, the Illinois Secretary of State's office has served as the custodian of official state records; and

WHEREAS, During the early years of State government, records were neither numerous nor extremely complex, and the records entrusted to the Secretary of State's office consisted mainly of correspondence from the governor's office and records of the General Assembly; and

WHEREAS, As the functions of State government grew more complex and its records grew more numerous, Secretary of State Louis Emmerson advocated for and the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation in 1921 to create a division of State Archives to be housed in the State Library Department of the Secretary of State's office; and

WHEREAS, Secretary of State Emmerson named Margaret Cross Norton as the first supervisor of the Illinois State Archives; she served 35 years as supervisor and became an internationally recognized leader and pioneer in the archival profession; and

WHEREAS, The State Archives originally had offices in the basement of the State Capitol building before moving to the newly constructed Centennial (Howlett) Building in 1923; and

WHEREAS, In 1925, Margaret Norton successfully advocated for legislation that gave the State Archives the authority to accept records from all state officials and state agencies instead of just the governor's office and the General Assembly; and

WHEREAS, On February 8, 1934, the State Arsenal building burned to the ground resulting in the loss of soldiers' bonus and World War I records and demonstrating the need for a state-of-the-art, fire-proof building to safely store state records; and

WHEREAS, In 1935, the Illinois General Assembly approved funding for the construction of a State Archives building; the building was completed in 1938 and was named the Margaret Cross Norton Building in 1995; and

WHEREAS, The 1957 State Records Act and the 1961 Local Records Act placed the Archives in charge of records management for state and local government records; this gave the Archives an important role in deciding what government records had permanent historic value; and

WHEREAS, Today, the Illinois State Archives is a separate department under the Secretary of State's office and is in charge of preserving and making accessible the permanent records of the State, overseeing records management programs of state agencies and units of local government, providing microfilming, scanning and records storage services to state government agencies, and operating a regional archives depository system for local government records; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Illinois State Archives on June 20, 1921, congratulate the Illinois State Archives for its proud 100 year history, and thank Secretary of State and State Archivist Jesse White and all the employees of the State Archives past and present who have contributed to the 100 year history of this department; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the Illinois State Archives as a symbol of our esteem and respect.