Official Records
The records of the U.S. District Courts for the Districts of Illinois are included among Record Group 21 at the:
National Archives at Chicago
7358 South Pulaski Road
Chicago, Illinois 60629-5898
Email: chicago.archives@nara.gov
A guide to the holdings of the regional archives is available at: https://www.archives.gov/chicago/holdings
A finding aid for a portion of the records is available at: https://www.archives.gov/chicago/finding-aids/courts/us-courts-chicago.html
A published description of the records is also available in the Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States, 1995 (http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/index.html) .
Bibliography
Cahan, Richard. A Court that Shaped America: Chicago's Federal District Court from Abe Lincoln to Abbie Hoffman. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2002.
Chicago Bar Association. Pictorial History of the Courts of the United States in Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Bar Association, 1996.
Cunningham, H. Stuart, et. al. "History of the Federal Court in Chicago." Chicago Bar Association Record 77 (May 1996): 18-39.
McNabb, Charles A. "The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois 1855." The Chicago Bar Association Record 36 (September 1955): 469-72.