Several years ago, IPHS Board members found the 1908 Jefferson Township Plat Book at a bookstore, in very bad shape. The plat book documents the entire northwest side of Chicago, including land subdivisions, and references the legal documents that made the subdivisions official.
Electronic Version of the 1908 Jefferson Township Plat Atlas
IPHS brought the book to a professional document restoration company and, over a several-year period, had it fully restored. It is now at its permanent home at the Ryerson and Burnham Library at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it will be cared for properly. You can visit the book in person. Everything you wanted to know about the library is here.
2/22/12 Donation of the Book to the Art Institute, (Right to left) President of IPHS James Natoli, Art Institute Archivist Mary Woolever, Jermaine Smith. Top Photo by Billy Brown.
Before donating the book, each page was photographically documented into the IPHS’s Digital Archives. Members will soon be able to access these documents and more.
Photographing the Plat Book for the electronic archives