Preserve Mercer County Illinois History

The Mercer County Historical Society and Essley-Noble Museum is seeking donations for our digitization project.

We have many bound materials, such as documents, books, and newspapers that contain valuable information that needs to be preserved. We have 280 bound newspaper books of the Aledo Democrat, Aledo Weekly Record, Aledo Republican, The Times Record, and numerous other Mercer County newspapers, some dating back to the 1800’s. Each book can contain anywhere from six months to one year of the newspaper. These newspapers are delicate and fragile, and some have begun to deteriorate. This newspaper collection is not available anywhere else and is irreplaceable.

Most of these items are too large to fit on a regular flatbed scanner and some are too delicate to turn upside down to be able to scan. The best way to preserve these documents is to scan them into a digital format on a large format scanner. Scanning preserves these historical records, ensuring that future generations have access to the information, including researchers, historians, and genealogists.

We have committed to purchasing a scanner that will permit us to scan items up to 25" x 36” in size, including our newspaper collections and large maps. Each item that is scanned will be searchable by keyword, making it easier to be able to find the information needed.

We will also be offering to digitize records belonging to other Mercer County organizations, libraries, churches, funeral homes, businesses, etc. We will try to save as much of Mercer County’s history as we can.

To complete this project, we must raise $56,000. We are a non-profit organization that does not receive any local, state, or federal funding. We rely on memberships, sponsorships, and donations to continue our projects.

Please consider a tax-deductible donation to help us preserve and protect Mercer County’s history for future generations. Through your generous donations, we aim to safeguard these irreplaceable treasures. Donations of any size will help us meet our goal.

 *All donations of support will be honored on our website.

 *All business donations will be honored on our website with a link to your website.

We thank you for your support!

Mercer County Historical Society and Essley-Noble Museum

1406 SE 2nd Avenue

PO Box 269

Aledo, IL 61231

mercercountyhistoricalsocietyil.org