News Archive

The Madison County Historical Society has donated to the Illinois State Archives original Civil War muster rolls, enlistment papers and miscellaneous documents related to the 144th Infantry Regiment, a state militia unit based out of Madison County.

New Digital Exhibit Coming March 22nd!

From eating at Maid-Rite, America’s first Drive-Thru in Springfield to attending the Cheap Thrills concert at The Mansion in Riverton in 1990. Each of us has a story to tell about our Hometown.

The Sangamon County Historical Society is now taking applications for funding historic special projects within the county that carry out its mission, which is to preserve and promote interest in the history of Sangamon County.

The Illinois State Historical Society has, for 121 winters, celebrated each new year with the promise of greater perspective, greater diversity, and the very best scholarship about our Prairie State’s past. We could not dream of a future without you, our members, making this journey with us. If you have not renewed your membership, please do so today. We need you.

This issue celebrates many fascinating aspects of our history, and our writers, board, and staff would love to know what you think of our efforts. Please send your email comments to executivedirector@historyillinois.org, and, with your permission, we will publish them in Illinois Heritage.

Thank you for your support, your perseverance during the late pandemic, and for your fortitude in these challenging times. Spring is coming, bringing the promise of unimaginable joy. Share your joy. Share your Heritage.

The Summer 2020 issue of the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society is printed. The Journal, the scholarly publication of the ISHS, is published quarterly and is a benefit of membership in the Illinois State Historical Society. Each issue includes articles, essays, book reviews, and documents about history, literature, art technology, law, and other subjects related to Illinois and the Midwest. Click on our Membership tab in the Menu Bar for membership options and information. Click on the “Read More” button for a list of articles and reviews included in this issue.  

Join us for a new ISHS History Happy Hour - January 2021 Edition with Tina Beaird and her lecture 'Pandemic 1918! Battling Influenza During the Great War.'

A new exhibit, Ink to Paper: Exploring the Advancement of Letter Writing and its Uses, has just opened at the Madison County Archival Library at 801 N. Main Street, Edwardsville. In the exhibit, David Thompson, explores something that is becoming a lost art: letters. The exhibit looks at the instruments used to write them, the various types of letters, and even the stamps that were used to send letters. Many items in the exhibit come from the recently donated Flagg Collection.

Blanket Fort Radio Theater (BFRT) is a new collection of serialized audiobooks from Southern Illinois University Press. In contrast to standard audiobooks, BFRT productions have a distinctive sound that features musical underscoring and many actors playing various roles, giving the recordings the nostalgic feel of radio theater shows. BFRT productions are released weekly as podcast episodes.

The presence of humans in the Illinois Country goes back at least 12,000 years, and some archaeologists would push that envelope even further into the past. We find footprints of prehistoric peoples all over the landscape of the Prairie State, and we have ample evidence of their physical presence in cultural artifacts found in museums and historical society collections from Galena to Golconda, Chicago to Cairo. In this issue of Illinois Heritage, our goal is to shine a spotlight on the people who called Illinois home before Europeans arrived on America’s shores.

We also profile southern Illinois historian John Allen and visit the sites of three new historical markers around the state.

Be safe, share your Heritage, and, if you are able, make a donation to the Society in support of our annual appeal. As always, thanks for your membership in the ISHS. With your help, we do great deeds.

November’s ISHS History Happy Hour program is entitled Native Americans of the Illinois Country and is presented by Mark Walczynski. Mark is the Park Historian for the Starved Rock Foundation located at Starved Rock State Park, Utica, Illinois. Mark’s studies focus on the Franco-Amerindian history of the Western Great Lakes and the Illinois Country during the last 40 years of the 1600s. He is also an affiliate with the Illinois Archaeological Survey.