Illinois Heritage

Mark Pierce, author of “When the Stars Came Out: Stories of the Mississippi River Festival,” will be the presenter for the April Madison County Historical Society’s Speaker Series on Sunday, April 16 at 2.p.m.

The Madison County Historical Society (MCHS) and Friends of the Wildey Theater are hosting “Thomas Jefferson: The Man and Legacy” featuring historian Kurt Smith at the Wildey Theatre on Thursday, May 11, at 7 p.m.

Robert D. Sampson will be talking about and signing copies of his book, Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins: Inside Early Baseball in Illinois, at 11 a.m., April 15 at Books on the Square, 427 East Washington Street, Springfield.

Join us at the 2023 ALHFAM Conference

June 23-26
Saunder Village in Northwest Ohio
Visit ALHFAM.org for more information

     The Elkhart Historical Society will welcome historian Mark Sorensen of Decatur to the podium for the Friday, March 24, 2023, dinner lecture, The Secrets of Lincoln’s Illinois Photographs. 

      Between 1856 and 1861 there were 32 known photo images of Abraham Lincoln taken in Illinois. From the daguerreotype of slick-haired Lincoln preparing to go to Congress, to the only ambrotype of lawyer Lincoln in his “Matlockesque” white coat, to the newly bearded president-elect Lincoln leaving Springfield, historian Mark Sorensen will reveal the back story of thirteen of these images in his illustrated presentation.