Thomas Tredway Library records

The Augustana College Library was established in 1860. The first 5,000 books came from a donation from Charles XV, King of Sweden. The library moved with the college from Chicago, Illinois, to Paxton, Illinois, and finally to Rock Island, Illinois, in 1875. On the Rock Island campus, the library was first kept in the tower of the First Building. In 1890, the library – numbering 15,000 books – was moved to the third floor of Old Main. The books remained there until 1910, when the Denkmann Memorial Library was built. The 30,000 items in the collection were moved into the new building, until they outgrew it in the late 1980s. To accommodate the books and the library’s patrons, the Thomas Tredway Library was opened in September 1990. This building has remained the home of the library to the present day. Materials in this collection include acquisition records, correspondence, meeting minutes, exhibition information and labels, circulation statistics, reference statistics, and information about library staff.

This is an unprocessed collection. A detailed description of its contents is currently unavailable. For information about accessing this collection, please contact Special Collections well in advance of any planned research visit. Be advised that preparing unprocessed collections for research may take up to six months.