Author talks and book signings will be held at
Books on the Square in Springfield on Saturday, September 8, 2018. The sessions, held in their recently opened presentation space at 427 E. Washington St., will feature a variety of history-related topics.
In honor of the Illinois bicentennial, Illinois State Archives staff has compiled a list of the 100 most valuable documents housed in its collection. The Illinois State Archives is the repository of all official Illinois government documents of permanent value. More than 75,000 cubic feet of paper, microfilm, photographs and audio and film recordings are housed in the Margaret Cross Norton Building on the capitol complex in Springfield. Paper records date back before 1818 statehood and include governors' correspondence, public acts, departmental histories, census records, military records, election results and more.
Illinois Humanities announced today the second round of grants as part of the “Forgotten Illinois” initiative, which is meant to help celebrate the Illinois Bicentennial in 2018 and to spark curiosity about Illinois history and its implications for our state’s present and future. The program is carried out in partnership with the Illinois State Historical Society.
DeKalb Area Agricultural Heritage Association (DAAHA) today announced plans to dedicate on September 11 an ISHS historical marker recognizing yet another example of local agricultural innovation that has had national and international ramifications. The marker recognizes the transformative impact on global agriculture of DeKalb AgResearch, aka, DEKALB Genetics Corporation. The company’s early and sustained success in the development and commercialization of hybrid seed corn, and later in the development and commercialization of other crop seeds and animals, helped to transform agriculture and with it, the livelihoods of countless people.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate Advisory Board, Quincy
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas portrayals and a speech by the National Park Service’s Lincoln Home historian on the evening of October 11 will celebrate Quincy’s observance of the 160th anniversary of what some local historians call the city’s greatest day.
On October 13, 1858, the Lincoln-Douglas debate in Quincy drew more than 12,000 people from three states to Quincy’s Washington Park. That sixth of the seven debates was for Lincoln the “turning point” in his campaign to win Douglas’s U.S. senate seat. It was in Quincy that Lincoln “took off the gloves” in his contest with Douglas.