Welcome to the North Central College Archives

You can find information about material in the North Central College archives that is available to researchers by searching our finding aids.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's a Finding Aid?

Just as a library has a catalog record for each book it holds, an archives has a finding aid for each collection or part of a collection it has. North Central College Archives finding aids give you useful information about:

Who created the records
Why they created them
When they created them
If there are restrictions on the records' access or use, and why
What language the records are in
How the records are arranged
Titles of folders in each box of records
How much material makes up the records (measured in boxes, cubic feet, or linear feet)
Whether you need special equipment to access the records (such as a cassette tape player, VHS player, computer in the reading room, etc.)
If there is related material elsewhere in the archives
If the archivist had to do something to the records to make them more easily accessible (photocopying, scanning, arranging in a logical sequence, etc.)

What collections can I find?

This database contains information on four main collections (referred to as repositories) in the North Central College Archives:

North Central College Archives (records of North Central College)

Harris W. Fawell Congressional Papers (papers of US Representative and North Central College alumnus Harris W. Fawell)

Shimer College Archives (records of Shimer College)

Suburban Studies Archives (records of organizations active in the western Chicago suburbs after World War II)

You can browse the repositories and collections (groups of archival material produced by the same organization or individual within repositories), or you can search by keyword across them. You can also refine your search by date.

What if I find something I want to see?

Email the archivist at archives@noctrl.edu. Share what you are interested in seeing. Some materials are digitized and available online, such as student newspapers, the alumni magazine, yearbooks and a small selection of photographs. But the vast majority of items are not digitized, so the archivist will email you back to the schedule an appointment for you to visit.

Who do I contact if I have questions?