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Galesburg and Knox County Local History

The Local History Collection is a continually growing series of documents, catalogs, photos, news clippings, articles and other publications that tell the story of Galesburg's development and the College that started it all.

From the beginning to the events of just yesterday, the Local History Collection contains accounts of happenings in and around Knox County, with special attention to people, buildings, business and industries. Vintage photos, rare publications and pioneer accounts make this unique collection a valuable resource to local history researchers. Topics of local interest are often the subject of exhibits on campus and online.

Follow this link to subject headings in the Local History Collection. Please contact Special Collections & Archives for a more specific description of the contents.

Local History Subject Headings

Local History Exhibits

Brief Reading List for Galesburg & Knox County:

Missionaries and Muckrakers - The First Hundred Years of Knox College, Hermann R. Muelder, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois, 1984.

Fighters for Freedom - A History of Anti-Slavery Activities of Men and Women Associations of Knox College, Hermann R. Muelder, Columbia University Press, New York, 1959.

They Broke the Prairie, Ernest E. Calkins, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois, 1989. First published for the Galesburg Centenary in 1937, They Broke the Prairie was reissued with an introduction by Rodney O. Davis, Knox College professor of history emeritus and currently co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox.