The following teaser is from The Sept. 30 Pantagraph.com:
SPRINGFIELD — What could be among the oldest surviving Chicago city records sit inside a special climate-controlled vault at the Illinois State Archives, largely indecipherable.
These are volumes that survived the Great Chicago Fire 150 years ago. Some appear to contain early property assessments or official confirmations. One is in a box labeled “General Ordinances A, March 4, 1837 to July 8, 1851,” potentially dating back to Chicago’s incorporation as a city.
But they are blackened and damaged from the fire, and what exactly they contain remains unknown. It could take infrared technology to read their contents and determine their legal, genealogical and historic implications.
“The fact is they’re legal records, and you never know what kind of a situation might arise where you need these records,” said Dave Joens, director of the state archives.
They are not the only city records that survived the fire, but these volumes are believed to have ridden out the flames inside a safe, where they were “baked” in the heat instead of turning to ash. The pages are crisp, and some are shattered into pieces.
They likely arrived at the state archives in the early 1970s, after workers in the Chicago city clerk’s office found them in a warehouse, the archives told the Tribune in 1987.
Today, they are stored in large wooden boxes in an extra-secure vault, where the temperature and humidity are controlled to prevent further deterioration. The vault is where what Joens calls the “holiest of holies” are stored, including documents related to Abraham Lincoln, all versions of the Illinois state constitution, correspondence with presidents and every act passed by the Illinois General Assembly.