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The veterans of American Legion post 1247 and the Illinois State Historical Society cordially invite the general public to the dedication ceremony of the Lake Michigan Aircraft Carriers historical marker.

A team of six retired teachers have completed one week of a Junior Historians Camp through the Sterling-Rock Falls Historical Society and in partnership with the Sterling and Rock Falls Optimists Clubs.  Our theme for the entire week was “Illinois’ Bicentennial.”  Twenty-two students participated in the week’s activities in our new Lincoln Learning Center next door to our historical Lincoln-Manahan Home. 

David Joens serves as guest editor of this issue of Illinois Heritage. His gifts of enthusiasm, professionalism, and passion for the history of our Prairie State––and most  especially his love of the architectural wonders of our Illinois statehouse––make him a splendid guide. To accomplish his task he has enlisted the help of John Lupton, director of the Illinois Supreme Court Historical Society; Mark Sorensen, past ISHS president and ex officio historian of the capitol; and illustrator William Crook Jr., who has shared one of his exquisite watercolor/pen and ink portraits of the statehouse for our cover. David also tells the story of a twelve-year collaboration between the ISHS and the Illinois House of Representatives to restore an amazing 19th-century montage that now hangs in the state capitol. The montage features individual photos of the entire 1879 House of Representatives.

Thank you for reading Illinois Heritage. To receive your own copy of Illinois Heritage, please consider becoming an ISHS member. Your membership and gifts keep this organization vital and relevant. We cannot serve Illinois history without you. 

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A Bicentennial Commemorative of the Prairie State: Readings from the "Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society"
Edited by David W. Scott, with a foreword by Leah Joy Axelrod

Culled from the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society’s 110-year archive of scholarship, this volume of more than thirty articles illuminates the colorful episodes, meaningful events, and significant characters in the rich history of Illinois. Selected by committee and edited by David W. Scott, A Bicentennial Commemorative of the Prairie State celebrates the state’s two-hundred-year history with a broad scope of voices and perspective.

I Grew Up in War Housing: The History of Defense Housing Projects in East Alton, Illinois 1941-1954, a new book by Philip David Walkington, offers a firsthand depiction of growing up in a WWII defense housing project during an unparalleled time in American history.