Documenting Southern Illinois: A guide to selected resources at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Autumn 2002 by Salzmann, Katharine A

The collection of mining safety engineer John Jones, includes speeches, publications, newspaper clippings, printed material, research material, and subject files on coal mining, safety reports, patents, maps, photographs, and artifacts. The collection provides impressive documentation of coal mining in southern Illinois during the 1920s and 1930s. Of note is material focusing on safety issues including reports, coal and mine safety devices, and subject files on mine disasters. Mining organizations represented in the collection include the Illinois Coal Operators, Illinois Mining Investigation Committee, Mine Inspectors of America, National Coal Association, United Mine Workers of America, and the United States Bureau of Mines. Also included in the collection is John Jones's autobiography

Joy, Verne E.

Papers, 1905-1968

Collection 12; 6 boxes, 2 cu. ft.

Biographical material, correspondence, and business records document Verne E. Joy and the Centralia Senteniel newspaper. The Sentinel had several production "firsts" for Southern Illinois, including the first Linotype, 1907; the first web perfecting press, 1909; the first tubular rotary press, 1920; the first full Associated Press leased wire, 1925; the first Gemetal engraving plant; and the first installation of teletypesetter equipment in 1934.

Lawler, Frances Leighton

Collection of Vachel Lindsay, 1879-1931

Collection 89; 4 boxes, 1 cu. ft.

The Frances Leighton Lawler Collection of Vachel Lindsay consists of a seven-page Vachel Lindsay manuscript of "The Wrecks of the Galleons of Spain," with corrections and marginal notes; correspondence, and news clippings about Vachel Lindsay and family, his death and the restoration of his house in Springfield, Illinois. In addition there is a small publication entitled "Rhymes to be traded for bread: being new verses" by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay. Four volumes by Lindsay and one biography of Lindsay by Edgar Lee Masters are also included.

Lawler, Michael Kelly

Papers, 1819-1884

Collection 8; 2 boxes, .5 cu. ft.

Correspondence, 1819-1884, forms the bulk of this collection documenting lawyer and soldier Michael Kelly Lawler. Lawler served as a captain in the Mexican War and as a Major General alongside John A. Logan during the Civil War. Included in the collection are Lawler's official reports outlining his military service and his personal copy of the Official Army Register, 1863. Also of note in the collection is legal material documenting the Crenshaw family of Gallatin, Illinois.

Lentz, Eli Gilbert

Papers, 1906-1958

Faculty Papers 17-1342; 2 boxes, 1 cu. ft.

This small collection of former SIU professor, Dean of Men, university historian, and author of Seventy-five Years in Retrospect, Eli Gilbert Lentz, includes speeches, writings, his 1932 University of Illinois masters' thesis, and an unpublished biography of John A. Logan.

Loosley, Edwin A.

Papers, 1862-1865

Collection 2; 1 box, .5 cu. ft.

The Edwin A. Loosley Papers contain more than 100 letters from Pvt. Loosley, cook and baker with the 81st Illinois Volunteer Infantry, to his wife Ann in Du Quoin, Illinois, and two diaries (April 12-October 30 1864 and 23 November 23 1864-27 April 1865). Loosley's letters and diaries describe the movements of the 81st, battles and skirmishes, and camp life.