History of Illinois

Historical populationYear| Pop.| ±% p.a.

|
|

1800 | 2,458| —
1810 | 12,282| +17.45%
1820 | 55,211| +16.22%
1830 | 157,445| +11.05%
1840 | 476,183| +11.70%
1850 | 851,470| +5.98%
1860 | 1,711,951| +7.23%
1870 | 2,539,891| +4.02%
1880 | 3,077,871| +1.94%
1890 | 3,826,352| +2.20%
1900 | 4,821,550| +2.34%
1910 | 5,638,591| +1.58%
1920 | 6,485,280| +1.41%
1930 | 7,630,654| +1.64%
1940 | 7,897,241| +0.34%
1950 | 8,712,176| +0.99%
1960 | 10,081,158| +1.47%
1970 | 11,113,976| +0.98%
1980 | 11,426,518| +0.28%
1990 | 11,430,602| +0.00%
2000 | 12,419,293| +0.83%
2010 | 12,830,632| +0.33%
2020 | 12,812,508| −0.01%
Source:
1910–2020[1]

The history of Illinois may be defined by several broad historical periods, namely, the pre-Columbian period, the era of European exploration and colonization, its development as part of the American frontier, its early statehood period, growth in the 19th and 20th centuries, and contemporary Illinois of today.

## Pre-Columbian era

[edit]

Cahokia, urban center of the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture

Cahokia, the urban center of the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, was located near present-day Collinsville, Illinois. Several burial mounds and adobe structures were created in Southern Illinois across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. A gigantic mound, known as Monks Mound near Cahokia, is about the same height from its base as the Pyramid of Giza. Built around 1050 AD by an immense marshaling of human labor, this huge earth-work faced the site of a palisaded city that contained more than one hundred small artificial mounds marking burial sites. This Mississippi valley city of Cahokia is estimated to have had a population of about 16,000 to 20,000, the most concentrated population north of the Rio Grande until the late 1700s. Radiating out from Cahokia for many miles were tilled fields that supplied the corn for the urban dwellers.[2] That civilization vanished circa 1400–1500 for unknown reasons. A severe earthquake that damaged Monk's Mound at that time might have challenged the supernatural powers claimed by the Cahokian chiefs. Cahokians might have also outstripped their water supply caused in part by large-scale deforestation, and the period of global cooling or mini Ice Age of the era might have caused recurring famines and migration.[3]

The next major power in the region was the Illiniwek Confederation, a political alliance among several tribes. The Illiniwek gave Illinois its name. The Ho-Chunk, a Siouan people of the Chiwere subgroup & the alleged oldest continuous Siouan society, were also believed to claim some land north of the Rock River. During the Beaver Wars period of the 17th century, the Iroquois pushed through and briefly conquered Ohio, Indiana & Southern Michigan, forcing several peoples out of those regions. Several migrating groups of Miami & Mascouten—the oldest known inhabitants of Indiana & S. Michigan—spread throughout the western Great Lakes & Upper Mississippi region, living wherever they could. The known tribes were the Miami, Mascouten, Wea, Atchatchakangouen, Pepicokia, Mengakonkia, Pinakashaw & Kilatika.[4] The Beaver Wars also caused a secondary conflict in the greater Wisconsin area known as the Second Fauk War, which pushed the ancestors of the Lakota/ Dakota out onto the plains & destabilized the Dakotas.

The French, who arrived during the 1670s–80s and established the Illinois colony, helped to stabilize the region.[5] The Miami & Mascouten subtribes merged back into two—the Miami & Wea-- & returned to the east in the 1690s. In the aftermath of the Yamasee War (1715–1717) in the early 18th century, the French also offered aid to a breakaway group of Yuchi known as the Chisca, who had once resided in southeast Kentucky and had them migrate into Illiniwek territory.[6] During the French & Indian War, English influence spread deep into and destabilized the Illinois Colony. The largely Algonquian-ized Chisca split away and returned to Kentucky, taking several of the Illiniwek peoples with them (although, some remained) and became known as the Kispoko. The Kispoko soon after merged with the Shawnee. Later, the remaining Illiniwek were pushed out onto the Great Plains, alike many other tribes and were broken down as several peoples fought for adequate land. Today, the remaining Illiniwek are part of a single tribe—the Peoria of Oklahoma.[7]

## European exploration and colonization

[edit]

French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers in 1673. As a result of their exploration, the Illinois Country was part of the French empire until 1763, when it passed to the British, who later annexed the area to Canada in 1774. It was later ceded to the new United States in 1783 and became part of the Northwest Territory. The Illinois campaign was part of the Western theater of the American Revolutionary War.

## American Territory

[edit]

The Illinois-Wabash Company was an early claimant to much of Illinois. An early western outpost of the United States, Fort Dearborn, was established in 1803 (at the site of present-day Chicago), and the creation of the Illinois Territory followed on February 3, 1809.

## Statehood

[edit]

On December 3, 1818, Illinois became the 21st U.S. state. Early U.S. expansion began in the south part of the state and quickly spread northward, driving out the native residents. In 1832, some Native American "Indians" returned from Iowa but were driven out in the Black Hawk War, fought by militia.

Illinois is known as the "Land of Lincoln" because it is here that the 16th President spent his formative years. Chicago gained prominence as a lake and canal port after 1848, and as a rail hub soon afterward. By 1857, Chicago was the state's dominant metropolis. (see History of Chicago).

### Slavery

[edit]

The state has a varied history in relation to slavery and the treatment of African Americans in general.[8][9] The French had black slaves from 1719 to as late as the 1820s. Slavery was nominally banned by the Northwest Ordinance, but that was not enforced. When Illinois became a sovereign state in 1818, the Ordinance no longer applied, and there were about 900 slaves in the state. As the southern part of the state, known as "Egypt", was largely settled by migrants from the South, the section was hostile to free blacks and allowed settlers to bring slaves with them for labor. Pro-slavery elements tried to call a convention to legalize slavery, but they were blocked by Governor Edward Coles who mobilized anti-slavery forces, warning that rich slave owners would buy up all the good farm lands.[10] A referendum in 1823 showed 60% of the voters opposed slavery and efforts to make slavery official failed. Nevertheless, some slaves were brought in seasonally or as house servants as late as the 1840s.[11] The Illinois Constitution of 1848 was written with a provision for exclusionary laws to be passed. In 1853, state senator John A. Logan helped pass a law to prohibit all African Americans, including freedmen, from settling in the state. After 1865 Logan reversed positions and became a leading advocate of civil rights for blacks.[12]

### Mormons at Nauvoo

[edit]

Main articles: History of the Latter Day Saint movement and History of Nauvoo, Illinois

In 1839, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, usually called Mormons, created a city they named Nauvoo. By 1840 church leadership envisioned Nauvoo as an economic, cultural and spiritual center—a religious utopia guided by church leaders.[13] The city, situated on a prominent bend along the Mississippi River, quickly grew to 12,000 inhabitants and was for a time rivaling for the title of largest city in Illinois. By the early 1840s, the Latter Day Saints built a large stone temple in Nauvoo, one of the largest buildings in Illinois at the time, which was completed in 1846. In 1844 Joseph Smith, the church's founder was killed in nearby Carthage, Illinois. In 1846, the Mormons following Brigham Young left Illinois for what would become Utah, but what was still then Mexican territory. A small breakaway group remained, but Nauvoo fell largely into abandonment. Nauvoo today has many restored buildings from the 1840s.[14][15][16]

### American Civil War

[edit]

Main article: Illinois in the American Civil War

Further information: History of Chicago § Fighting the Civil War 1861-1865, and Mississippi River in the American Civil War

During the Civil War, over 250,000 soldiers from Illinois served in the Union Army, the fourth most by state. Starting with President Lincoln's first call for troops and continuing throughout the war, Illinois sent 150 infantry regiments; they were numbered from the 7th IL to the 156th IL. Seventeen cavalry regiments also served as well as two light artillery regiments. The most well worked soldier was Ulysses S. Grant of Galena. Throughout the war the Republicans were in control, under the firm leadership of Governor Richard Yates[17] The Democrats had a strong Copperhead element that opposed the war and tried in local areas to disrupt the draft. In Chicago, Wilbur F. Storey made his Democratic newspaper the Chicago Times into Lincoln's most vituperative enemy.[18]

## 20th century

[edit]

### Economy

[edit]

Northern Illinois, particularly Chicago and its surrounding areas, was a major industrial powerhouse. The steel industry along the Calumet River was a significant employer and economic driver, especially in the early to mid-20th century. Chicago grew rapidly and remained a crucial Midwestern center for manufacturing, trade, and transportation.[19][20]

Coal mining in central and southern Illinois was important in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The 1909 Cherry Mine disaster was an underground fire that killed 259 miners in the third worst disaster in the history of American coal miing. After 1940 there was a steady decline in coal mining.[21].[22]

Chicago and Urbana played international roles in scientific and technological advancements. Under the leadership of Enrico Fermi, the University of Chicago in 1942 was the site of Chicago Pile-1. It was the world's first self-sustained Nuclear chain reaction, ushering in the Atomic Age.[23]

### Progressive era: 1900-1929

[edit]

The Progressive Era in Illinois and Chicago, roughly from 1900 to the 1920s, was characterized by multiple overlapping middle class movements to address the social, economic, and political problems arising from rapid industrialization, urbanization, and immigration. Political leaders included Edward F. Dunne a Democrat as mayor of Chicago (1905-1907) and governor of the state 1913–1917. He was succeeded by Republican Frank O. Lowden, who led the state's war effort in World War I. [24][25][26]

Chicago was a national leader in the settlement house movement, most famously with Jane Addams. Her Hull House provided vital services to immigrant communities, including education, childcare, vocational training, and cultural programs. It served as centers for social research and advocacy, bringing attention to issues like child labor, poor housing, and public health.[27]

Women took the lead as reformers pushed for improvements in urban living conditions, including better housing standards, garbage collection, and sewage systems.[28] Muckrakers exposed unsanitary conditions in meatpacking (as famously depicted by Upton Sinclair in exaggerated form in 1905 in The Jungle. This best-selling novel was set in southside Chicago. It stimulated the national reform movement, especially the Pure Food and Drug Act passed by Congress is 1906. Activists in Illinois successfully campaigned for laws to end child labor by prohibiting employment of children under 14, and to limit working hours for women.[29]

The temperance movement to restrict or prohibit alcohol was strong in Protestant strongholds in rural Illinois, driven by concerns about its social impact, particularly on families and the working class. Urban saloons were denounced as centers of political corruption and social ills. War with Germany (1917-1918) became a cudgel to shut down German beer gardens and taverns across the state. [30]

Progressives supported reforms that increased citizen participation in government, especially the direct election of senators and, most significantly, women's suffrage. Illinois played a role in the national women's suffrage movement, culminating in the 19th Amendment in 1920. see Women's suffrage in Illinois.

Chicago was the base for the crusade by Ida B. Wells-Barnett to fight against the upsurge of lynching Blacks in the South. She also founded the Alpha Suffrage Club, the first such organization for Black women in Illinois. She helped elect Oscar Stanton De Priest as the first Black alderman in Chicago; he later served as the only Black man in Congress 1929 to 1935.[31] When the outbreak of World War one cut off immigration of workers from Europe, many thousands of Blacks from the Deep South migrated to Chicago and other Northern industrial cities. Race relations were troubled, with major riots attacking Blacks in the East St. Louis massacre in 1917 and in the much larger Chicago race riot of 1919. On a smaller scale there was an  anti-Black riot in Springfield in 1908 [32]

#### Good roads

[edit]

In 1905 Illinois had 90,000 miles of dirt roads--locally built as cheaply as possible and badly maintained. Most farmers were frozen in place for weeks at a time in the muddy season. In the 1890s bicyclist organized and demanded good roads. After 1900 automobiles started appearing, and experts at the University of Illinois demonstrated that concrete roads were needed. The dilemma was the downstate Republican coalition. There were multiple well-organized factions, each wanted someone else to pay more of the cost. Study after study was made, and almost no roads were upgraded. Edward Dunne was elected governor in 1912 when the Republicans split between President William Taft and a new party under ex-President Theodore Roosevelt. Dunne was a Chicago Democrat, and was not beholden to any of the downstate factions. He realized that good roads would dramatically enhance the Chicago economy, as farmers shipped their crops and animals more cheaply to Chicago. In turn, they would buy their household goods mail order from Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck based in Chicago. [33] [34] Paved roads would benefit, to a greater or lesser extent, all of the downstate factions. Dunne’s solution was to impose a new plan that most of the downstate factions could support, pouring in millions of dollars of state money in a long-term program that would upgrade the roads in every county In Illinois. Furthermore, when Democrat Woodrow Wilson became president in 1913, Dunne helped convince Congress to add federal money to the spending on roads. Good roads became a national priority, and by the 1920s it was a major boost to the economy as the United States took the world lead in automobiles and in good roads.[35][36]

#### 1920s

[edit]

The 1920s was a time of rapid economic. growth and prosperity in the Chicago area, and a decline in prosperity for the agricultural regions in the state. Cultural shifts were dramatic in with the "Roaring Twenties" This included the rise of new forms of entertainment: silent movies, radio and jazz music. Social norms were loosening: young women in short skirts were called. "Flappers". Advertising and consumerism drove the economy, and mortgages made home buying popular.[37] However, there was often a clash between these modern trends and more traditional, often rural, values. [38][39][40]

Thanks to decades of crusading by evangelical Protestants across the country, and hostility to all things German. during the Great World War, nationwide prohibition. was enacted by the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution. The promise was a reduction in crime and disorder, but the result was a dramatic increase in "bootlegging" (illegal alcohol production), with sales in secret speakeasies. Chicago, in particular, became notorious for its powerful bootlegging gangs, with figures like Al Capone dominating the city's criminal underworld.[41] This fueled widespread political corruption, especially under Chicago's corrupt Republican mayor Big Bill Thompson.[42] Bootlegging was also a significant problem in most downstate cities.[43]

The 1920s saw the widespread appearance across the nation of a newly formed organization the second Ku Klux Klan (KKK) . Illinois had about 200,000 members. Membership was secret but historians have discovered old lists and report that members came from a cross section of middle class and working class white Protestants, both urban and rural. The new KKK presented itself as a "morality police" in favor of prohibition. Its political agenda was strongly nativist, targeting Catholics especially, while supporting restriction on immigration and advocating for "100% Americanism" and traditional Protestant values. The many local Klan chapters organized parades and burned crosses at nightime rallies, but were poorly led and seldom cooperated with each other. However, in the coal mining districts, especially in Williamson County in southern Illinois, Klansmen and bootleggers engaged in. bloody attacks and counterattacks. The Klan collapsed and practically disappeared in the late 1920s.[44]

### Depression and war, 1929 to 1945

[edit]

Further information: Great Depression in the United States and Chicago in the 1930s

The Great Depression, starting in 1929 increasingly hammered both urban and rural areas.[45][46] Prices fell--especially the prices farmers received. Bankrutcy hit the huge network of electric utilities run by Samuel Insull, hurting 600,000 stockholders and 500,000 bondholders.[47] However, the great majority of large businesses survived by cutting back operations and laying off workers. Small businesses often closed. Urban unemployment soared to 25%. Corporate hiring offices typically turned away inexperienced young people, and rarely hired anyone over the age of 50.[48] It was standard practice in many government and private organizations to have a policy against employing both the husband and the wife. Typically only the main breadwinner--the husband--was retained.[49]. In Chicago ethnic commnities operated 199 small neighbohood banks in the booming 1920s. They specialized in financing mortgages for their community. As incomes dropped rents went unpaid, families had to spend their savings, and housing prices plunged. That meant that the old mortgage was costing far more money than the house was worth, and foreclosure was the safest policy. The banks lost heavily on their mortgages. By 1933, only 33 of the 199 survived. Frustrated depositors eventually received about 80 cents on their dollar.[50][51][52] Local charity operations were soon overwhelmed, including the Catholic Charities, Jewish Charities, Salvation Army, United Charities, and the Chicago Chapter of the American Red Cross. Chicago's city government was virtually insolvent even before the stock market crash of late 1929 due to a fiscal crisis and a widespread tax strike. [53] Psychologically, people coped and doubled up or tripled up. Teenagers stayed in school longer, which paid off in the long run. Older boys from impoverished families took to the road so their siblings would have more to eat. Illinois families suffered and survived and promised themselves never again.[54][55]

### World War II

[edit]

Further information: United States home front during World War II

World War II ended the depression, as federal money poured into the city and people who were unemployed or on relief were hired by factories. Washington's policy on war contracts was to pay all the wages, but companies realized that with most young men headed to the army and navy there would be a shortage of workers, so they hired as many people as fast as possible, including youths, women and the elderly. People now had money and paid off old debts. Rationing of food and a shortage of new houses meant that the extra cash went into savings. Marriages were no longer postponed--indeed with the draft looming couples married as soon as possible. The baby boom began. All the ingredients were in place for a spectacular boom into the suburbs as soon as the soldiers returned home in 1946.[56][57][58][59][60]

### Great Migration of Blacks to Chicago

[edit]

The Great Migrations from 1910 to 1960 brought hundreds of thousands of Black Americans from the rural South to Chicago. Some also came to East St. Louis. They had been locked into rural poverty, with very poor prospects for education, medical care, or decent housing. With the cutoff of immigration from Europe in 1914, and the surge in military spending during World War I, there were many job openings in Chicago. They created churches, community organizations, businesses, music, and literature. African Americans of all classes built a community on the South Side of Chicago for decades before the Civil Rights Movement, as well as on the West Side of Chicago. Residing in segregated communities, almost regardless of income, the Black residents of Chicago aimed to create communities where they could survive, sustain themselves, and have the ability to shape better lives.[61]

The 800,000 African Americans accounted for 29% of the city's population as of the 2020 census. As per 2023 Census estimates the metro area had just under 1.5 million residents claiming Black alone ancestry, making it the metropolitan area with the fourth-highest Black population after New York, Atlanta, and Washington DC.[62]

### Politics after 1945

[edit]

Democrat Adlai Stevenson served as governor in 1948–1952. William G. Stratton led a Republican statehouse in the 1950s. In 1960 Otto Kerner Jr. led the Democrats back to power. He promoted economic development, education, mental health services, and equal access to jobs and housing. In a federal trial in 1973, Kerner was convicted on 17 counts of bribery while he was governor, plus other charges; he went to prison. Richard B. Ogilvie, a Republican, won in 1968. Bolstered by large Republican majorities in the state house, Ogilvie embarked upon a major modernization of state government. He successfully advocated for a state constitutional convention, increased social spending, and secured Illinois' first state income tax. The latter was particularly unpopular with the electorate, and the modest Ogilvie lost a close election to the flashy Democrat Dan Walker in 1972. The state constitutional convention of 1970 wrote a new document that was approved by the voters. It modernized government and ended the old system of three-person districts which froze the political system in place.

Walker did not repeal the income tax that Ogilvie had enacted and wedged between machine Democrats and Republicans had little success with the Illinois legislature during his tenure. In 1987 he was convicted of business crimes not related to his governorship. In the 1976 gubernatorial election, Jim Thompson, a Republican prosecutor from Chicago won 65 percent of the vote over Michael Howlett. Thompson was reelected in 1978 with 60 percent of the vote, defeating State Superintendent Michael Bakalis. Thompson was very narrowly reelected in 1982 against former U.S. Senator Adlai E. Stevenson III (the son of the presidential candidate in 1952 and 1956), and then won decisively in a rematch in 1986.[63]

Thompson was succeeded by Republican Jim Edgar who won a close race in 1990 against his Democratic opponent, attorney general Neil Hartigan, and was reelected in 1994 by a wide margin against another Democratic opponent, state comptroller and former state senator Dawn Clark Netsch. In the elections of 1992 and 1994, the Republicans succeeded in capturing both houses of the state legislature and all statewide offices, putting Edgar in a very strong political position. He advocated increases in funding for education along with cuts in government employment, spending and welfare programs.[64]

Edgar was succeeded as governor by yet another Republican, George H. Ryan. Ryan worked for extensive repairs of the Illinois Highway System called "Illinois FIRST". FIRST was an acronym for "Fund for Infrastructure, Roads, Schools, and Transit". Signed into law in May 1999, the law created a $6.3 billion package for use in school and transportation projects. With various matching funds programs, Illinois FIRST provided $2.2 billion for schools, $4.1 billion for public transportation, another $4.1 billion for roads, and $1.6 billion for other projects. In 1993 Illinois became the first Midwestern state to elect a black person to the US senate before the term of Carol Moseley Braun.[65]

## 21st century

[edit]

Ryan gained national attention in January 2003 when he commuted the sentences of everyone on or waiting to be sent to death row in Illinois—a total of 167 convicts—due to his belief that the death penalty was incapable of being administered fairly. Ryan's term was marked by scandals; he was convicted of corruption in federal court and sent to prison.

Rod Blagojevich, elected in 2002, was the first Democratic governor in a quarter century. Illinois was trending sharply toward the Democratic party in both national and state elections. After the 2002 elections, Democrats had control of the House, Senate, and all but one statewide office. Blagojevich signed numerous pieces of progressive legislation such as ethics reform, death penalty reform, a state Earned Income Tax Credit, and expansions of health programs like KidCare and FamilyCare. Blagojevich signed a bill in 2005 that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, and credit. Other notable actions of his term include a strict new ethics law and a comprehensive death penalty reform bill. Despite an annual budget crunch, Blagojevich oversaw an increase in funding for health care every year without raising general sales or income taxes. Republicans claimed that he simply passed the state's fiscal problems on to future generations by borrowing to balance budgets. Indeed, the 2005 state budget called for paying the bills by shorting the state employees' pension fund by $1.2 billion, which led to a backlash among educators. In December 2008, Blagojevich was arrested on charges of conspiracy and solicitation to commit bribery with regard to appointing a U.S. Senator. He was convicted in federal court and sent to prison.

### Financial crisis

[edit]

Pat Quinn became governor on January 29, 2009, after Blagojevich was removed from office. Quinn was elected to a full term in office in the 2010 gubernatorial election. As governor he faced severe short-term budget shortfalls and a long-term state debt, all in the context of the worst national economic slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Quinn has pushed for spending cuts and tax increases, while trying to raise ethical standards, protect public-sector labor unions, and maintain environmental standards. Quinn faced a state with a reputation for corruption—the two previous governors both went to federal prison—and after two years polls showed Quinn himself was the "Nation's most unpopular governor."[66] Quinn in 2012 feared Illinois was "on the verge of a financial meltdown because of pension systems eating up every new dollar and health care costs climbing through the roof."[67] The state for decades had underfunded its pension system for state employees. By early 2013 the main issue remained a financial crisis in meeting the state's budget and its long-term debt as the national economic slump—the Great Recession—continued and Illinois did poorly in terms of creating jobs. In May 2013, Illinois' state (public) universities, colleges, and community colleges agreed, pending formation and passage of the legislation before the end of the state's legislative session, at Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and other members' repeated urging, to gradually assume more of the burden- half of a percent of the retirement and pension costs per fiscal year starting in 2015 (it would likely take roughly 10 to 20 years for them to assume the full cost; school districts likely will have to do the same at some point- Chicago Public Schools already bear the entire cost). Programs will likely be cut, tuition will probably keep on being raised too, and property taxes also might well increase, but it would make a sizable dent in the almost $100 billion unfunded retiree pension liability that is a large part of the state's fiscal crisis.[68]

## Famous people

[edit]

Most pre-1940 names have been selected from the WPA Guide[69] This is a list of people from Illinois; people are not included if they left the state before beginning a career.

### Before 1940

[edit]

* Jane Addams, social work
* Philip D. Armour, business
* Louis Armstrong, music
* Edward Beecher, religion
* Lydia Moss Bradley, philanthropy
* Daniel H. Burnham, architect
* Joseph Gurney Cannon, politics, GOP
* Anton Cermak, politics, Dem
* John Coughlin, politics, Dem
* Clarence Darrow, law
* John Dewey, philosophy
* Stephen A. Douglas, politics, Dem
* Finley Peter Dunne, author
* Ninian Edwards, politics
* James T. Farrell, author
* Theodore Dreiser, author
* Eugene Field, author
* Marshall Field I, business
* Thomas Ford, politics, Dem
* John T. Frederick, literature
* Lyman J. Gage, business
* Ulysses S. Grant, general and president
* Red Grange, sports
* Frank W. Gunsaulus, education
* William Rainey Harper, education
* Carter Harrison II, politics, Dem
* Carter Harrison IV, politics, Dem
* George Peter Alexander Healy, artist
* Ben Hecht, author
* William Holabird, architect
* Raymond Hood, architect
* Henry Horner, politics, Dem
* Robert Maynard Hutchins, education
* Robert Ingersoll, religion
* Samuel Insull, business
* William Le Baron Jenney, architect
* Leslie Keeley, medicine
* Florence Kelley, social work
* John Kinzie, settler
* Frank Knox, newspapers
* Christian C. Kohlsaat, judge
* H. H. Kohlsaat, newspapers
* René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explorer
* Julia C. Lathrop, social work
* Victor F. Lawson, newspapers
* Abraham Lincoln, politics, Whig, GOP, president
* Mary Todd Lincoln, Lincoln's wife
* Robert Todd Lincoln, Lincoln's son
* Vachel Lindsay, author
* John A. Logan, politics, Dem, GOP
* Frank O. Lowden, politics, GOP
* Cyrus Hall McCormick, business
* Robert R. McCormick, newspapers
* James Robert Mann, politics, GOP
* Edgar Lee Masters, author
* Joseph Medill, newspapers
* Charles E. Merriam, political science
* Harriet Monroe, poet
* Dwight L. Moody, religion

* William Vaughn Moody, author
* George Mundelein, Roman Catholic archbishop and cardinal
* William Butler Ogden, business
* Richard James Oglesby, politics, GOP
* John M. Palmer, politics, GOP, Dem
* Potter Palmer, business
* Bertha Palmer, society
* Francis W. Parker, education
* John Mason Peck, author
* Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, settler
* George M. Pullman, business
* Henry T. Rainey, politics, Dem
* Ronald Reagan (1911–2004), 40th President of the United States, GOP
* John W. Root, architect
* Julius Rosenwald, business and philanthropy
* E. W. Scripps, newspapers
* Richard Warren Sears, business
* Albion W. Small, sociology
* Joseph Smith, religion
* John Spalding, religion
* Amos Alonzo Stagg, sports
* Ellen Gates Starr, social work
* Bernard James Sheil, religion
* Melville E. Stone, newspapers
* Adlai Stevenson, politics; Vice President, Dem
* Gustavus F. Swift, business
* Graham R. Taylor, social work
* Theodore Thomas, conductor
* Lyman Trumbull, politics, Dem, GOP, Dem
* Jonathan Baldwin Turner, education
* Charles Rudolph Walgreen, business
* A. Montgomery Ward, business
* John Wentworth, politics, Dem, GOP
* Frances E Willard, social activist, head of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
* Frank Lloyd Wright, architect
* Richard Yates, politics, GOP
* Charles Yerkes, business

### Recent

[edit]

* Saul Alinsky (1909–1972), politics
* John Bardeen (1908–1991) winner of two Nobel prizes in physics
* Joseph Bernardin (1928–1996), Catholic archbishop and cardinal
* Gwendolyn Brooks 1917–2000), poet; first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize.
* Richard J. Daley (1902–1976), Chicago mayor; Dem
* Richard M. Daley (born 1942), Chicago mayor, son of Richard J. Daley; Dem
* Everett Dirksen (1896-1969), politics, GOP
* Enrico Fermi(1901-1954), nuclear physics
* Marshall Field III (1893-1956), business
* Andrew Greeley (1928–2013), author; Catholic religion; sociology
* George Halas, (1895–1983), sports
* Jackie Joyner-Kersee, (born 1962), sports, philanthropist
* Ray Kroc (1902-1984). business
* Robert H. Michel, (born 1923), politics, GOP
* Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, (1886–1969), architect
* Barack Obama (born 1961), politics, Dem; president of the U.S. 2009–2017.
* William Shockley, (1910–1989), physicist invented transistor
* Adlai Stevenson II (1908–1965), politics, Dem
* Harold Washington (1922–1987), politics, Dem

|

## See also

[edit]

Main article: Historical outline of Illinois

* History of Chicago
* History of education in Chicago
* History of African Americans in Chicago
* History of the Midwestern United States
* Women's suffrage in Illinois
* List of historical sites related to the Illinois labor movement
* List of historical societies in Illinois

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Historical Population Change Data (1910–2020)". Census.gov. United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on April 29, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
2. ^ Nash 2015, p. 6 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFNash2015 (help)
3. ^ Nash 2015, p. 8 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFNash2015 (help)
4. ^ Kinietz, W. Vernon (1940). The Indians of the Western Great Lakes: 1615-1760. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. ISBN 9781951538538. `{{cite book}}`: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
5. ^ "The Road from Detroit to the Illinois 1774". Michigan Pioneer and History Collections. 10. p. 248
6. ^ Hanna, Charles Augustus (1911). 1911 The Wilderness Trail. Vol. 2\. pp. 93–95\. doi:10.5479/sil.260818.39088006333488.
7. ^ "History". Peoria Tribe of the Indians of Oklahoma. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
8. ^ Harris, N. Dwight (1906). The History of Negro Servitude in Illinois, and the Slavery Agitation in that State, 1719–1864. Chicago, A.C. McClurg & Co.
9. ^ Middleton, Stephen (1993). The Black Laws in the Old Northwest: A Documentary History. pp. 269–342.
10. ^ David Ress,  Governor Edward Coles and the Vote to Forbid Slavery in Illinois, 1823–1824 (2006)
11. ^ Finkelman, Paul (2001). Slavery and the founders: race and liberty in the age of Jefferson. pp. 78–80.
12. ^ James Pickett Jones (1967). Black Jack: John A. Logan and Southern Illinois in the Civil War Era. SIU Press. ISBN 0-8093-2002-9.
13. ^ Dennis Rowley, "Nauvoo: A River Town." Brigham Young University Studies 18.2 (1978): 255-272, esp. pp. 258-59. online.
14. ^ Robert Bruce Flanders, Nauvoo Kingdom on the Mississippi (1965)
15. ^ Hallwas, John E. (1990). "Mormon Nauvoo from a Non-Mormon Perspective". Journal of Mormon History. 16: 53–69\. JSTOR 23285954.
16. ^ Poll, Richard D. (1978). "Nauvoo and the New Mormon History: A Bibliographical Survey". Journal of Mormon History. 5: 105–123\. JSTOR 23286039.
17. ^ Hicken, Victor (1991). Illinois in the Civil War (2nd ed.). University of Illinois Press. OCLC 21973891.
18. ^ Justin E. Walsh, To Print the News and Raise Hell! A Biography of Wilbur F. Storey (1968)
19. ^ Roger Biles, Illinois: A History of the Land and Its People (Northern Illinois University Press, 2005.) pp 121-147.
20. ^ Susan E. Hirsch, "Economic Geography" in  Encyclopedia of Chicago (2004) online
21. ^ A. Doyne Horsley, Illinois: a geography (Routledge, 2021) pp.107-118.
22. ^ Harry Mitchell Dixon, "The Illinois Coal Mining Industry" (PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1951. 0002728).
23. ^ Giuseppe Bruzzaniti, Enrico Fermi: The Obedient Genius (Springer New York, 2016) pp.197–257.
24. ^ Maureen A. Flanagan, "Illinois in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era: The State of the Field at the Bicentennial." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society #111.1-2 (2018): 79–99.
25. ^ Donald E. Tingley, The Structuring of a State: The History of Illinois,1899–1928 (1980) pp. 150–229.
26. ^ Biles, Illinois, pp. 148–166.
27. ^ Judith Ann Trolander, "Hull-House and the settlement house movement: A centennial reassessment." Journal of Urban History 17.4 (1991): 410–420.
28. ^ F. Garvin Davenport, "The Sanitation Revolution in Illinois 1870–1900." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society #66.3 (1973): 306–326.
29. ^ Lynn Gordon, "Women and the anti-child labor movement in Illinois, 1890-1920." Social Service Review 51.2 (1977): 228-248.
30. ^ Leslie V. Tischauser, The Burden of Ethnicity: The German Question in Chicago, 1914–1941 (1990) pp. 6–63.
31. ^ Wanda A. Hendricks, " 'Vote for the Advantage of Ourselves and Our Race': The Election of the First Black Alderman in Chicago." Illinois Historical Journal 87.3 (1994): 171–184. JSTOR 40192719
32. ^ Tingley, pp. 291–319.
33. ^ William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1991) pp.321,335-340, 377.
34. ^ Chas. P. Raleigh, "Agriculture," Encyclopedia of Chicago (2004) online
35. ^ Donald Tingley, The Structuring of a State: The History of Illinois 1899–1928 (1980) pp. 238–251.
36. ^ David Wrone, “Illinois Pulls Out of the Mud,” ‘’Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. ‘’ (1965) 58#1 pp. 54-76.
37. ^ Roland Marchand, Advertising the American dream: Making way for modernity, 1920-1940 (Univ of California Press, 2023).
38. ^ Tingley, pp. 252–281.
39. ^ Biles, pp. 208–211.
40. ^ Lizabeth Cohen, "Encountering mass culture at the grassroots: The experience of Chicago workers in the 1920s." American Quarterly 41.1 (1989): 6-33. JSTOR 2713191
41. ^ Dominic J. Capeci, "Al Capone: Symbol of a Ballyhoo Society." Journal of Ethnic Studies 2.4 (1975): 33+.
42. ^ Douglas Bukowski, Big Bill Thompson, Chicago, and the politics of image (U of Illinois Press, 1998) online
43. ^ Jim Ridings, Chicago to Springfield: Crime and Politics in the 1920s (Arcadia Publishing, 2010).
44. ^ Masatomo Ayabe, "Ku Kluxers in a Coal Mining Community: A Study of the Ku Klux Klan Movement in Williamson County, Illinois, 1923-1926." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (2009) 102.1 pp.73-100 JSTOR 27740148.
45. ^ Howard, pp.499–520.
46. ^ Cohen, pp.213–250.
47. ^ Forrest McDonald, Insull (1962); pp.274–304.online
48. ^ Christopher Wright, "Down But Not Out: The Unemployed in Chicago during the Great Depression" (PhD dissertation, U of Illinois Chicago, 2017) online
49. ^ Susan Ware, Holding their Own: American Women in the 1930s (1982). pp, 27–29.
50. ^ Cohen, pp.230–232.
51. ^ Milton Esbitt, “Bank Portfolios and Bank Failures During the Great Depression: Chicago,” Journal of Economic History 46#2 1986, pp. 455–462. JSTOR 2122176
52. ^ Mark Anthony Guglielmo, "Illinois state bank failures in the Great Depression" (PhD dissertation, U of Chicago; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1998. 9841523).
53. ^ David T. Beito, Taxpayers in Revolt (1989), focus on Chicago. online
54. ^ Ruth Shonle Cavan, The family and the depression, a study of one hundred Chicago families (1938) online
55. ^ For national perspectives. See Stephen Mintz and Susan Kellogg, Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life (1988) pp.132–149. online
56. ^ Pacyga, Chicago, pp. 273-285.
57. ^ Perry Duis, We've got a job to do : Chicagoans and World War II (1992) online
58. ^ John F. McDonald, Chicago: An economic history (2015) ch. 5; online
59. ^ John Frederick. Zwicky, "A state at war: The home front in Illinois during the Second World War" (PhD dissertation, Loyola University Chicago; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1989. 8923156.
60. ^ Mary Watters,  Illinois in the Second World War. (2 vol 1951) vol 1 online
61. ^ James Grossman, "Great Migration" in Encyclopedia of Chicago (2004) online
62. ^ "Explore Census Data". data.census.gov. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
63. ^ Robert E. Hartley, Big Jim Thompson of Illinois (1979) online
64. ^ Biles, Illinois pp.269–305.
65. ^ " Governor's 'Illinois FIRST' program approved by General Assembly" Illinois.Gov (2025) online
66. ^ "Pat Quinn, Illinois Governor, Polls As Nation's Least Popular Governor". Huffington Post. November 30, 2012. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
67. ^ Wills, Christopher (February 23, 2012). "Quinn says hello to 'reality' in Illinois". Daily Chronicle. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
68. ^ Sophia Tareen, "Illinois state universities and community colleges agree to gradually pick up retirement costs" (Associated Press May 17, 2013) online
69. ^ Works Progress Administration. Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide (1939). ISBN 0-394-72195-0. One of the most famous surveys — covers every town and city and much more.

## Further reading

[edit]

Further information: History of Chicago § Further reading

### Scholarly surveys, biographies and politics

[edit]

* Angle, Paul M. (1935). Here I Have Lived: A History of Lincoln's Springfield, 1821–1865.
* Barker, Brett, et al. Union Heartland: The Midwestern Home Front during the Civil War (SIU Press, 2013).
* Baringer, William E. (1949). Lincoln's Vandalia, a Pioneer Portrait. illustrated by Romaine Proctor. Rutgers University Press.
* Barnard, Harry (1938). "Eagle Forgotten": The Life of John Peter Altgeld.
* Beveridge, Albert J. (1928). Abraham Lincoln, 1809–1858.
* Biles, Roger (2005). Illinois: A History Of The Land And Its People.
* Buck, Solon J. (1917). Illinois in 1818.
* The Centennial History of Illinois a famous series by leading scholars; the copyright has expired and the books are in the public domain
* vol. 1. The Illinois Country 1673–1818 by Clarence Walworth Alvord. (1920) online edition
* vol. 2. The Frontier State, 1818–1848 by Theodore Calvin Pease. (1919) online edition
* vol. 3. The Era of the Civil War 1848–1870 by Arthur Charles Cole (1919) online
* vol. 4. The Industrial State 1870–1893 by Ernest Ludlow Bogart & Charles Manfred Thompson, (1920) online edition
* vol. 5. The Modern Commonwealth, 1893–1918 by Ernest Ludlow Bogart and John Mabry Mathews (1920) online edition
* Carr, Kay J. Belleville, Ottawa, and Galesburg: Community and Democracy on the Illinois Frontier (1996)

* Davis, James E. Frontier Illinois (1998).
* Elazar, Daniel J. Cities of the Prairie Revisited (1986)
* Garland, John H. The North American Midwest: A Regional Geography (1955)
* Gjerde, Jon. The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830–1917 (1997)
* Gove, Samuel K. and James D. Nowlan. Illinois Politics & Government: The Expanding Metropolitan Frontier (1996)
* Hallwas, John E. ed., Illinois Literature: The Nineteenth Century (1986)
* Hartley, Robert E. Big Jim Thompson of Illinois (1979), governor 1980s;online
* Hartley, Robert E. Paul Powell of Illinois: A Lifelong Democrat (1999)
* Hicken, Victor. Illinois in the Civil War (1966).
* Hoffmann, John. A Guide to the History of Illinois. (1991)
* Horsley, A. Doyne. Illinois: a geography (Routledge, 2021)

* Howard, Robert P. Illinois: A History of the Prairie State (1972).
* Howard, Robert P. Mostly Good and Competent Men: Illinois Governors 1818–1988 (1988)
* Hutchinson, William. Lowden of Illinois the Life of Frank O. Lowden 2 vol (1957) governor in 1917–21

* Illinois Department of Transportation. History of the Illinois Department of Transportation 1903 – 2013 (2013) online

* Jensen, Richard. Illinois: A History (2001). interpretive history using model of traditional-modern-postmodern; online
* Keating, Ann Durkin (2018). "In the Shadow of Chicago: Postwar Illinois Historiography". Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 111 (1–2): 120–136\. doi:10.5406/jillistathistsoc.111.1-2.0120. JSTOR 10.5406/jillistathistsoc.111.1-2.0120.1–2&rft.pages=120-136&rft.date=2018&rft_id=info:doi/10.5406/jillistathistsoc.111.1-2.0120&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jillistathistsoc.111.1-2.0120#id-name=JSTOR&rft.aulast=Keating&rft.aufirst=Ann+Durkin&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jillistathistsoc.111.1-2.0120&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:History+of+Illinois" class="Z3988">
* Keiser, John H. Building for the Centuries: Illinois 1865–1898 (1977)
* Kenney, David The Political Passage: The Career of Stratton of Illinois (1990). Governor in 1950s.
* Kinsley, Philip. The Chicago Tribune: Its First Hundred Years (1943)
* Kleppner, Paul. Political Atlas of Illinois (1988) maps for 1980s.
* Leonard, Gerald. The Invention of Party Politics: Federalism, Popular Sovereignty, and Constitutional Development in Jacksonian Illinois (2002)
* Martin, John Bartlow. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois (1977). Democratic governor 1948–52.
* Masters, Charles J. Governor Henry Horner, Chicago Politics, and the Great Depression (2007) Democratic governor 1933-1940

* Miller, Kristie. Ruth Hanna McCormick: A Life in Politics, 1880–1944 (1992)
* Morgan, M.J. Land of Big Rivers: French and Indian Illinois, 1699–1778 (Southern Illinois University Press; 2010) 288 pages; Examines the environmental history and settlement of the river plain along the Mississippi.
* Morton, Richard Allen. Justice and Humanity: Edward F. Dunne, Illinois Progressive (1997) governor 1913–17.
* Nardulli, Peter, ed.Diversity, Conflict, and State Politics: Regionalism in Illinois (1989)
* Pacyga, Dominic A. Chicago: A Biography (U of Chicago Press, 2009)
* Peirce, Neal, and John Keefe. The Great Lakes States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Five Great Lakes States (1990)
* Plummer, Mark A. Lincoln's Rail Splitter: Governor Richard J. Oglesby (2001) governor 1865–69, 1885–89

* Reiff, Janice L. et al eds.  Encyclopedia of Chicago (2004), with thorough coverage by scholars in 1120 pages of text, maps and photos. The Encyclopedia of Chicago online

* Reid, Debra A. "Illinois and the Interwar Years, 1914 to 1945" Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (2017) 111#1-2, pp.100–119. online

* Scott, David W., "The Transformation of Higher Education in the 1960s: Master Plans, Community Colleges, and Emerging Universities," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 101 (Summer 2008), 177–92.

* Stover John E. History of the Illinois Central Railroad (1975). online
* Teaford, Jon C. (1993). Cities of the heartland: The rise and fall of the industrial Midwest. Indiana University Press.; strong on Chicago and St Louis.
* Tingley, Donald E. The Structuring of a State: The History of Illinois,1899–1928 (University of Illinois Press,1980).
* WPA. Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide (1939) online

### Social history, ethnicity and race

[edit]

Further information: History of Chicago § Race, religion, ethnicity

* Adams, Jane (1994). The Transformation of Rural Life: Southern Illinois, 1890–1990. Univ of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-4479-3.

* Cohen, Lizabeth. Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago 1919–1939 (Cambridge University Press, 1990)
* Cutler, Irving. The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb (1996).
* Grossman, James R. Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration (1989)

* Holli, Melvin G. and Peter d'A. Jones, eds. Ethnic Chicago: A Multicultural Portrait (4th ed. 1995). 648 pp. essays by scholars on each major ethnic group

* Lemann, Nicholas. The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America (1991).
* McCaffrey, Lawrence J. et al. The Irish in Chicago (1987)
* Meyer, Douglas K. Making the Heartland Quilt: A Geographical History of Settlement and Migration in Early-Nineteenth-Century Illinois (2000)
* Reed, Christopher Robert. The rise of Chicago's black metropolis, 1920-1929 (U of Illinois Press, 2011).
* Tuttle, William M., Jr. Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919 (1970)
* Wilkerson, Miranda E.; Richmond, Heather (2019). Germans in Illinois. Southern Illinois UP. ISBN 978-0-8093-3721-7.

### Primary documents

[edit]

* Johnson, Walter. Governor of Illinois 1949–1953 (Papers of Adlai E. Stevenson, Volume 3) (1973), primary documents.
* Peck, J. M. A Gazetteer of Illinois (1837), a primary source online
* Quaife, Milo Milton ed. Growing Up with Southern Illinois, 1820 to 1861: From the Memoirs of Daniel Harmon Brush (1944)
* Sutton, Robert P. ed. The Prairie State: A Documentary History of Illinois (1977).

## External links

[edit]

* Encyclopedia of Chicago, covers city and suburbs but no biographies
* "Illinois During the Gilded Age", primary sources
* Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-1984) issues in JSTOR
* Digital Research Library of Illinois History®
* Federal Writers' Project (1939). "Chronology". Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide. American Guide Series. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co. - via Open Library.; Timeline of Illinois

* v
* t
* e

State of Illinois

Springfield (capital)

Topics|

* Index
* Abortion
* African Americans
* Buildings and structures
* Census areas
* Climate change
* Crime
* Communications
* Culture
* Delegations
* Earthquakes
* Economy
* Education
* Energy
* Environment
* Geography
* Government
* Health
* History
* Homelessness
* Languages
* Law
* Military
* Music
* People
* Politics
* Portal
* Protected areas
* Science and technology
* Sister cities
* Society
* Sports
* Symbols
* Tourism
* Transportation
* Windmills

Regions|

* American Bottom
* Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area
* Central Illinois
* Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area
* Chicago metropolitan area
* Collar counties
* Corn Belt
* Driftless Area
* Forgottonia
* Fox Valley
* Illinois–Indiana–Kentucky tri-state area
* Metro East
* Metro Lakeland
* Mississippi Alluvial Plain
* North Shore
* Northern Illinois
* Northwestern Illinois
* Peoria metropolitan area
* Quad Cities
* River Bend
* Rockford metropolitan area
* Southern Illinois
* Wabash Valley

Municipalities|

* Alton/Granite City/Edwardsville
* Arlington Heights/Palatine
* Aurora/Naperville/Oswego/Plainfield
* Bartlett/Hanover Park/Streamwood
* Belleville/East St. Louis/Collinsville/O'Fallon
* Berwyn/Cicero
* Bloomington/Normal
* Bolingbrook/Romeoville
* Buffalo Grove/Wheeling
* Calumet City
* Canton
* Carbondale
* Carol Stream/Glendale Heights
* Centralia
* Champaign/Urbana
* Charleston/Mattoon
* Chicago
* Chicago Heights
* Crystal Lake/Algonquin
* Danville
* Decatur
* DeKalb/Sycamore
* Des Plaines/Mount Prospect/Park Ridge
* Dixon
* Downers Grove/Woodridge
* Effingham
* Elgin/Carpentersville
* Elmhurst/Lombard/Addison
* Evanston/Skokie
* Freeport
* Galesburg
* Glenview/Northbrook
* Harrisburg
* Jacksonville
* Joliet
* Kankakee/Bradley/Bourbonnais
* Lincoln
* Macomb
* Marion/Herrin
* Moline/East Moline/Rock Island
* Mount Vernon
* Mundelein
* Oak Lawn
* Oak Park
* Orland Park/Tinley Park
* Ottawa/Streator/LaSalle/Peru
* Peoria/Pekin/East Peoria/Morton/Washington
* Pontiac
* Quincy
* Rochelle
* Rockford/Belvidere/Machesney Park/Loves Park
* St. Charles
* Schaumburg/Hoffman Estates/Elk Grove Village
* Springfield
* Sterling/Rock Falls
* Taylorville
* Waukegan/North Chicago/Gurnee
* Wheaton

Counties|

* Adams
* Alexander
* Bond
* Boone
* Brown
* Bureau
* Calhoun
* Carroll
* Cass
* Champaign
* Christian
* Clark
* Clay
* Clinton
* Coles
* Cook
* Crawford
* Cumberland
* DeKalb
* DeWitt
* Douglas
* DuPage
* Edgar
* Edwards
* Effingham
* Fayette
* Ford
* Franklin
* Fulton
* Gallatin
* Greene
* Grundy
* Hamilton
* Hancock
* Hardin
* Henderson
* Henry
* Iroquois
* Jackson
* Jasper
* Jefferson
* Jersey
* Jo Daviess
* Johnson
* Kane
* Kankakee
* Kendall
* Knox
* Lake
* LaSalle
* Lawrence
* Lee
* Livingston
* Logan
* Macon
* Macoupin
* Madison
* Marion
* Marshall
* Mason
* Massac
* McDonough
* McHenry
* McLean
* Menard
* Mercer
* Monroe
* Montgomery
* Morgan
* Moultrie
* Ogle
* Peoria
* Perry
* Piatt
* Pike
* Pope
* Pulaski
* Putnam
* Randolph
* Richland
* Rock Island
* Saline
* Sangamon
* Schuyler
* Scott
* Shelby
* St. Clair
* Stark
* Stephenson
* Tazewell
* Union
* Vermilion
* Wabash
* Warren
* Washington
* Wayne
* White
* Whiteside
* Will
* Williamson
* Winnebago
* Woodford

Illinois portal

* v
* t
* e

History of the United States by polity

States|

* Alabama
* Alaska
* Arizona
* Arkansas
* California
* Colorado
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Florida
* Georgia
* Hawaii
* Idaho
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Iowa
* Kansas
* Kentucky
* Louisiana
* Maine
* Maryland
* Massachusetts
* Michigan
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Missouri
* Montana
* Nebraska
* Nevada
* New Hampshire
* New Jersey
* New Mexico
* New York
* North Carolina
* North Dakota
* Ohio
* Oklahoma
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* South Dakota
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Utah
* Vermont
* Virginia
* Washington
* West Virginia
* Wisconsin
* Wyoming

Federal district|

Washington, D.C.

Territories|

* American Samoa
* Guam
* Northern Mariana Islands
* Puerto Rico
* U.S. Virgin Islands

Outlying islands|

* Baker Island
* Howland Island
* Jarvis Island
* Johnston Atoll
* Kingman Reef
* Midway Atoll
* Navassa Island
* Palmyra Atoll
* Wake Island

Authority control databases

National|

* United States
* Israel

Other|

* Yale LUX

*[Pop.]: Population
*[±% p.a.]: Per annum growth rate
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template