Illinois and New York's At large House seats

[rob in cal]

Until the mid 1940's Illinois and New York, off and on up till that point, elected one or sometimes two house members at large state wide, like US senators are elected.  I don't know why they did it that way, perhaps to avoid having to do some redistricting, but it does provide an example of state wide House elections in a populous state, which perhaps if the US went to proportional representation we would see more of.