Our archives include still photos, motion pictures, manuscripts, and more.
Keep reading for details, as well as finding aids for notable Chicago and Illinois natural history organizations and figures.
Photography and Film
The Academy photography collection includes thousands of still photos and more than 1,300 motion pictures representing some of the earliest natural history photography. Many were made by Academy scientists and local naturalists who were using the then new technology to study the Chicago Wilderness region. Many of their images record now lost landscapes of the Midwest.
Manuscripts and Institutional Archives
The Academy’s archives contain more than 100 linear feet of manuscripts and 400 linear feet of institutional records and ephemera including field journals, maps and drawings, and publications. The collection is strongly focused on the Midwest and documents local naturalists’ studies of the region’s ecosystems, flora, and fauna. Types of materials include letters and personal correspondence, field notes, maps, drawings, research files and notes, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographs, meeting minutes, calendars, ephemera, and other materials.
Finding aids are available for the manuscript collections. The following is a list of the manuscript collections. Please contact the Collections Department to request additional information or to schedule an appointment to visit the archives.
Manuscript Collection Name
Andrews Family Papers (Edmund Andrews, M.D., Irene D. Andrews, and Edward W. Andrews, IV) | Finding Aid
Elizabeth E. Atwater Papers | Finding Aid
William J. Beecher Papers | Finding Aid
Laura Brodie Papers | Finding Aid
Charles B. Cory Papers | Finding Aid
William C. Davidson, U.S.N. Papers | Finding Aid
Francis S. Dayton Papers | Finding Aid
Ruthven Deane Papers | Finding Aid
William Dreuth Papers | Finding Aid
C.W.G. Eifrig Papers | Finding Aid
Ralph M. Eiseman Papers | Finding Aid
Benjamin T. Gault Papers | Finding Aid
Gregory Brothers Papers (Stephen S. Gregory, Jr. and Arthur Tappan Gregory) | Finding Aid
Edward G. Howe Papers | Finding Aid
Roger F. Howe Papers | Finding Aid
Herbert Kahn Papers | Finding Aid
Robert Kennicott Papers | Finding Aid
Komarek Family Papers (Betty Komarek, Edwin V. Komarek, Sr., Roy V. Komarek) | Finding Aid
William I. Lyon Papers | Finding Aid
J. de Navarre Macomb, Jr. Papers | Finding Aid
Margaret Morse Nice Papers | Finding Aid
Ida E.S. Noyes Papers | Finding Aid
Kathryn Olmstead Papers | Finding Aid
Amanda Parelius Papers | Finding Aid
Herman S. Pepoon Papers | Finding Aid
Donald T. Ries Papers | Finding Aid
Robert Ridgway Papers | Finding Aid
Harry D. Sicher Papers | Finding Aid
Winnifred Smith Papers | Finding Aid
William Stimpson Papers | Finding Aid
Reuben M. Strong Papers | Finding Aid
Leon F. Urbain Papers | Finding Aid
Institutional Records Collection Name
Burnham Astronomical Society Records | Finding Aid
Chicago Entomological Society Records | Finding Aid
Chicago Herpetological Society Records | Finding Aid
Chicago Historical Society Records | Finding Aid
Chicago Ornithological Society Papers | Finding Aid
Chicago Wilderness Records | Finding Aid
Chicagoland Bird-Banding Conference Records | Finding Aid
Conservation Council Records | Finding Aid
Cowles Botanical Society Records | Finding Aid
Field Museum of Natural History Records | Finding Aid
Geographic Society of Chicago Records | Finding Aid
Illinois Audubon Society Records | Finding Aid
Institutional Records, Why Prevent Extinction Symposium | Finding Aid
Kennicott Club Records | Finding Aid
Marquette Geologists Association Records | Finding Aid
Milwaukee Public Museum Records | Finding Aid
Peregrine Falcon Release and Restoration Project Records | Finding Aid
Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences Records | Finding Aid
Ridgway Ornithological Club Records | Finding Aid
State Microscopical Society of Illinois Records | Finding Aid
Wilson Ornithological Club Records | Finding Aid
