NIU’s Regional History Center, housed in Swen Parson Hall room 155, contains many resources which can be valuable for an NIU student researching the past.

The center has been open since the 1977-78 school year, when the already-existing University Archives received a grant from the National Endowment for Humanities to expand. The Archives has been operating since 1964.

The goal of the center is to acquire, preserve and make available to the public the most significant historical records of the northern Illinois region, according to the official literature.

Three sets of records are available to researchers at the center. The available records are Regional Collections, University Archives, and Local Government Records.

The holdings in Regional Collections include manuscripts and records from private individuals, institutions and organizations in the region. The Chicago and North Western Railway Historical Society Collection is the most popular, said Cindy Ditzler, curator of the center.

The University Archives holds all official university records of permanent historical or administrative value. The Local Government Records collection holds tax records, court records school board and other records.

Genealogy can be traced through the center. The records utilized the most for this kind of information are birth, death, will and marriage records. Tax records, deed records and census records also are housed here and can be used for genealogy tracing purposes.

The center received 500 letters regarding genealogy last year, according to Rebecca Looney, Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) intern. The amount of records available is dependent on each county.

The center contains a reading room open to users of the center and a five-floor stack tower, restricted to center employees only. The materials in the reading room cannot leave the facility.

The center is open to students, faculty and the public. All materials are open for use, except for NIU president John La Tourette’s papers. Papers from previous administrations are accessible, and after La Tourette’s term, his papers also will be open for research purposes.

Guides to the many collections are available. A few of the items available include every printed issue of The Northern Star as well as every NIU catalog and yearbook. The Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily.