An excerpt from the pamphlet reads: "Before Mr. Dillon became the [state] librarian quite a large collection of books, pamphlets, maps and manuscripts had been accumulated and carefully preserved in the office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court, the late Henry P. Coburn. When Mr. Dillon became librarian these were removed to the State House and remained in charge of Mr. Dillon until 1863, when ... he left the State, remaining absent until the year 1875 when he returned and resumed his residence in Indianapolis."

During this interval, the library of the Indiana Historical Society had been, in part, removed to the Statehouse, and a larger part scattered, lost, or stolen. In 1876, the pamphlet reads, "a few of the books were found in the State House, mingled with those of the State Library, and form a nucleus for a future collection. The last work of [Dillon's] life was the gathering and rearrangement of this fragmentary collection in an upper room of the Court House some ten days before his death."