Naperville’s first digital history collection, the Naperville Heritage Digital Collection, was developed in partnership with Naper Settlement and the Naperville Heritage Society, in commemoration of the city’s 175th anniversary. Work on the project began in May 2006, when the Naperville Public Library applied for a competitive grant from the Illinois State Library, a division of the Secretary of State’s Office. The Library, in partnership with Naper Settlement, was awarded the grant, from funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), under the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). The funding of $8,997 allowed the Library to digitize important documents from the Nichols Library Local History collection.

The Naperville Heritage Digital Collection is a digital core collection of local historical primary sources. The collection includes the histories of Naperville area farm families, businesses that were based in Naperville in 1886, the earliest City Council minutes, background information about Centennial Beach, the main events from Naperville’s 1981 Sesquicentennial, the earliest telephone directories, and more! The collection includes primary source material from books, pamphlets, 35 mm slides, videos, DVDs, and microfilm. This collection is part of the Illinois Digital Archives, which was created and is maintained by the Illinois State Library.

View an annotated list of the primary sources that were selected for the Naperville Heritage Collection.