The Conrad Seabaugh & Company: How Store Records Expand Our Understanding of Antebellum Hinterland Life

This presentation explores how to utilize the financial records of general stores and businesses to amplify the narrative of rural communities and the relationships between producers and suppliers.  I utilize records from my case study of north central Illinois in the 1830s and 40s to focus on these relationships.  In the presentation, I first explain the different types of store records that are typically found in local archives.  Then I utilize a 629-page day book from a general store and the ledger book from a grist mill from LaSalle County in the late 1830s as examples for delving deeper into local-level commercial relationships.  I use these records to discuss family-level consumer consumption, the role of gender in commercial relationships, and to breakdown conceptions of subsistence cultures in the hinterland regions of northern Illinois.  I will also discuss how these records are tied to aspects of public history in several ways.  They can bring historical perspective to these nascent communities that are often overshadowed by larger urban areas and supply invaluable genealogical information to the public.

Discovering a 1946 Letter to My Grandfather—and a Link to the Plot to Assassinate Hitler

Bruce Mainzer uncovers the story behind a newly found letter linking his grandfather to a former business associate executed in 1944 by the Nazis for plotting to assassinate Hitler.