The American Imprints Inventory in Illinois

Abstract

Among the relief programs established during the depression of the 1930s were several that provided employment for white-collar workers. The American Imprints Inventory (AII) was one of these. The AII was organized to perform two tasks. The first was to locate and record books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in the United States from the earliest times up to the date of Frederick Leypoldt's "United States Catalog," which began in 1876. The second task was to publish lists of these American imprints with their locations, so that they would be readily available to scholars and historians of American life. This is a history of the AII in Illinois, of the work performed and its product. If it did not accomplish the whole of the task set before it, it nevertheless made an important contribution to the larger project of which it was a part.