Information on the environment and environmental issues can sometimes be found by researching laws that have been passed about an issue. Early volumes of the Laws of Illinois contain information on wolf eradication (bounties were placed on wolves), draining wetlands (also called swamp lands) and other issues. The following indexes can be used to find information on environmental laws.
The following indexes can be used to help find laws on the environment:
FDSys - an index to official publications of all government agencies, including some Congressional Publications. It can be used to find Laws and search the Congressional Record.
American State Papers (Readex) - Index to the papers of Congress from 1789-1838. Organized by topic, they contain 110 items related to Illinois. Once an item of interest is found, the full text can be viewed or downloaded online.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set - Index to reports and publications issued by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Once an item of interest is found, the full text can be viewed or downloaded online.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set Maps - Index to maps accompanying the reports and publications issued by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Once an item of interest is found, the full text can be viewed or downloaded online.
Laws of Illinois - early laws passed by the Illinois legislature impacted the environment of Illinois. For example, the index to the Laws of Illinois by Gross (1869) includes laws related to game, swamp lands and wolves (there were bounties on wolves in Illinois during the early 1800s).
A short video on Searching for Government Publications and Laws discusses the WIU Libraries' indexes available that might be useful for researching topics related to Environmental History. It and several other videos are available in the Library Instruction section of this Guide.