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From www.dailyherald.com:
Civil War mementos: Soon, surf to see museum's
Museum puts letters, diaries from troops online
BY RUSSELL LISSAU
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Friday, November 03, 2006
The ink on the letters has faded and the grammar and spelling are far from perfect, but the words paint a vivid picture of military and civilian life during the Civil War.
And soon - more than 140 years after being written and some 13 years after being donated to the Lake County Discovery Museum - they will be available for the entire world to read.
Dubbed the Minto Family Civil War Correspondence, the collection of letters, photographs and diaries is being prepared for display on the Internet.
"The Civil War is one of the wars that's always being studied, and this gives you good insight into what was going on," said Christine Pyle, historical resources manager for the Wauconda-area museum. "These people were living it and writing about it."
The collection is named after David Minto Jr., who was a 21-year-old farmer living in northern Lake County when he enlisted in the Union Army in 1862.
It contains 142 letters, 25 diaries and about 70 photographs that were meticulously preserved by Minto's descendants. The letters were authored by Minto and his mother, sister and other relatives, as well as friends of the family and other soldiers from Lake County.
The images are being scanned in now and should be available starting next week at www.digitalpast.org. The Web site offers visual access to photographs, diaries and other historical materials in collections located throughout Illinois.
The computer work is being funded with a $20,000 federal grant.
The museum acquired the letters and other mementos in 1993 from Minto's elderly granddaughters, both of whom have since died, Collections Coordinator Diana Dretske said. They cared deeply about the collection and wanted it preserved for future generations, Dretske said.
The collection is particularly remarkable because it includes many letters written to soldiers, Dretske said. Civil War soldiers typically discarded letters from home after reading them, she said, so not many remain.
"What makes this collection so unique is that you're getting the full gamut of what's going on," Dretske said. "It's not just one-sided."
Minto joined Company C of the 96th Illinois Infantry with other Lake County residents, but he was discharged for medical reasons before seeing any combat.
Even so, the letters his mother, Jane, wrote reflect concern for his safety. In one, she reminds him to read his Bible. In another, she expresses anxiety over a sore foot he experienced.
Letters from other soldiers relay tales of encounters with Confederate soldiers.
"They fired some 4 or 5 shots back and we were expecting a fight every moment but no fight came," Pvt. George Smith, a Minto family friend, wrote home.
The entire collection should be online by next summer, museum officials said.
"It's wonderful," Dretske said of the project. "Because if people don't know (the letters) are here, it's like they don't exist."
rlissau@dailyherald.com
Civil War mementos: Soon, surf to see museum's
Museum puts letters, diaries from troops online
BY RUSSELL LISSAU
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Friday, November 03, 2006
The ink on the letters has faded and the grammar and spelling are far from perfect, but the words paint a vivid picture of military and civilian life during the Civil War.
And soon - more than 140 years after being written and some 13 years after being donated to the Lake County Discovery Museum - they will be available for the entire world to read.
Dubbed the Minto Family Civil War Correspondence, the collection of letters, photographs and diaries is being prepared for display on the Internet.
"The Civil War is one of the wars that's always being studied, and this gives you good insight into what was going on," said Christine Pyle, historical resources manager for the Wauconda-area museum. "These people were living it and writing about it."
The collection is named after David Minto Jr., who was a 21-year-old farmer living in northern Lake County when he enlisted in the Union Army in 1862.
It contains 142 letters, 25 diaries and about 70 photographs that were meticulously preserved by Minto's descendants. The letters were authored by Minto and his mother, sister and other relatives, as well as friends of the family and other soldiers from Lake County.
The images are being scanned in now and should be available starting next week at www.digitalpast.org. The Web site offers visual access to photographs, diaries and other historical materials in collections located throughout Illinois.
The computer work is being funded with a $20,000 federal grant.
The museum acquired the letters and other mementos in 1993 from Minto's elderly granddaughters, both of whom have since died, Collections Coordinator Diana Dretske said. They cared deeply about the collection and wanted it preserved for future generations, Dretske said.
The collection is particularly remarkable because it includes many letters written to soldiers, Dretske said. Civil War soldiers typically discarded letters from home after reading them, she said, so not many remain.
"What makes this collection so unique is that you're getting the full gamut of what's going on," Dretske said. "It's not just one-sided."
Minto joined Company C of the 96th Illinois Infantry with other Lake County residents, but he was discharged for medical reasons before seeing any combat.
Even so, the letters his mother, Jane, wrote reflect concern for his safety. In one, she reminds him to read his Bible. In another, she expresses anxiety over a sore foot he experienced.
Letters from other soldiers relay tales of encounters with Confederate soldiers.
"They fired some 4 or 5 shots back and we were expecting a fight every moment but no fight came," Pvt. George Smith, a Minto family friend, wrote home.
The entire collection should be online by next summer, museum officials said.
"It's wonderful," Dretske said of the project. "Because if people don't know (the letters) are here, it's like they don't exist."
rlissau@dailyherald.com