Jim Nowlan began his career as a very young member of the Illinois legislature representing a conservative district in central Illinois from 1967 through January of 1973. His time in the legislature corresponded with the tumultuous events of 1968, the adoption of a state income tax and the state's acceptance of a new constitution. He left that world behind in 1973, returning in the late 1970s to help with several campaigns. For the rest of Nowlan's career, however, he has been thinking, teaching and writing about Illinois's politics, for which there is an inexhaustible supply of important topics to discuss. From 1995 to 2013 he was the Senior Fellow at the UIUC Institute of Government and Public Affairs, and since 2014 he has been a columnist, with his columns regularly appearing in many Illinois newspapers.
Interview Links
Feature Excerpt
Touhy and Income Tax
Abstract
Interview Session 1 - Audio
Early life and years in the Illinois legislature from 1969-1973
Interview Session 2 - Audio
Thompson admin, Percy & John Anderson campaigns and teaching career
Interview Session 3 - Audio
Illinois’s economic decline, demographic and journalistic changes
Photos
Caption
A photo of Jim Nowlan from the 2010s. He was living in Toulon, Illinois at the time, publishing a local newspaper, the Stark County News.
Where:
Toulon, Illinois
When:
2010s
Ownership:
May be restricted. Patrons desiring to use this photograph should contact the ALPL Audio-Visual Curator.
Caption
Bill Campbell, Jim’s friend, a former 82nd Airborne Ranger and quadriplegic due to an auto accident, became an editorial cartoonist and teacher. One of Bill’s students drew this caricature of Jim, which he cherishes.
Where:
Unknown
When:
Unknown
Ownership:
May be restricted. Patrons desiring to use this photograph should contact the ALPL Audio-Visual Curator.
Caption
Jim holds up a portrait of Abraham Lincoln during at event at the county courtroom in Toulon, where county board meets as well.
Where:
Toulon, Illinois
When:
Unknown
Ownership:
May be restricted. Patrons desiring to use this photograph should contact the ALPL Audio-Visual Curator.
Caption
Jim Nowlan makes a point during a meeting of a Stark County board meeting in the county courthouse in Toulon, Illinois.
Where:
Toulon, Illinois
When:
Unknown
Ownership:
May be restricted. Patrons desiring to use this photograph should contact the ALPL Audio-Visual Curator.
Caption
A young Jim Nowlan as a teen sits at the linotype machine working on his father’s newspaper in Toulon.
Where:
Toulon, Illinois
When:
1960s
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Nowlan is shown here campaigning in a Latinx neighborhood in Rock Island during the 1972 campaign of Ogilvie-Nowlan for governor and lieutenant governor.
Where:
Rock Island, Illinois
When:
1972
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
While in the last year of Edgar’s administration, Gov. Jim Edgar signed this photo of himself with Jim during a private dinner. Following Edgar’s time as governor, they worked together at the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs.
Where:
Unknown
When:
1998
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain.
Caption
This photo appeared in the the Peoria Journal-Star on April 13, 2003. The caption read “Political guru Jim Nowlan peers out of the blinds from inside the Stark County News, where he serves as editor and publisher in his boyhood home of Toulan.”
Where:
Toulan, Illinois
When:
2003
Ownership:
May be restricted. Patrons desiring to use this photograph should contact the ALPL Audio-Visual Curator.