Marguerite Jenison Pease was a historian of Illinois and war. She was director of the Illinois Historical Survey, which helped preserve and tell the history of Illinois. Her history career started with enrollment at the University of Wisconsin in 1913. Her love of history was fist showcased as she worked with professors and refined her skills in finding and collecting historical pieces. This was exemplified by her bachelor’s thesis: “The Republican National Committee, 1892-1912.”

In 1917, she graduated from the university and worked at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison before moving to Washington D.C. for a couple of years to conduct research for the army. She attained the position of director of the war records section of the Illinois Historical Library in Springfield due to her experience in D.C. During this time, she wrote Volume V of Illinois in the War; titled the War Time Organization of Illinois.

After a few more years, she began working as an assistant editor of the Illinois Historical Collections based in Urbana and worked to complete her Ph.D. at the same time, It was there she met and fell in love with its editor, Theodore Calvin Pease, whom she married in 1927. Just like Marguerite, he was an avid historian who loved to read, collect, and write about history. The two worked in sync, editing and writing books together.

The most prominent example of this is the Story of Illinois, which tells the history of Illinois from the days of European colonization all the way to modern day of that time, the 1940’s. At the time, Theodore had risen to become director of the Illinois State Historical Society and had been asked to revise the previous version of this book.

Before he could finish, he tragically passed away in 1948. However, since Marguerite had been working alongside him, she was able to carry on his work and published the 1949 edition. She further revised this book to produce the 1965 edition.

In 1959, Marguerite was officially appointed director of the Illinois Historical Survey. During this time, she wrote descriptive guides of manuscripts and newspaper holdings of the Survey. She also published several articles in Illinois Libraries about different Illinois records. Overall, she wanted to help regular people who were not historically minded to be able to understand how to read and interpret transcripts. She retired in 1964, and handed the directorship to Robert M. Sutton.

In 1991, Marguerite donated several books to the University of Illinois Library. Two years later, she would pass away at the age of 98, having lived an incredibly long and fruitful life that ensured future generations would know the history of Illinois.