Illinois Heritage

This March–April issue of Illinois Heritage highlights the recognition of thirty Illinois churches and synagogues that have been in continuous fellowship for 150 years or more. Currently, more than 200 churches and synagogues have been recognized by the ISHS.

The Bicentennial Year is well underway with many special events planned by local historical societies, libraries, government agencies and other community organizations. As an individual, consider reading one or more books listed in the Illinois Classics: A Bicentennial Reading List, a twelve-month reading list that includes novels, nonfictional works, and poetry, all by Illinois authors and expressive of the Illinois experience. 

This issue expresses not only the variety of interests in the state, but what is important at different periods in our state’s history.

The January-February 2018, issue of Illinois Heritage invites its readers to celebrate the state’s bicentennial.  Adventures around the Prairie State take us on a veritable road trip around the state without leaving our hearth.  Art and literature are celebrated with a look a Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Carl and Mark Van
Doren and the art of Irma Rene Koen. Traveling the state with authors Stephen Leonard and Keith Sculle will surely jog a reader’s memory of their own trips.  Finally, be sure not to miss our state’s bicentennial time travel in the first installment of “Illinois in Time.” 

The Prairie State kicks off its 200th birthday party celebration on December 3, 2017, and the Illinois State Historical Society invites you to let us know what you are doing in your county to celebrate this milestone.  Our website features an Events calendar that will highlight your events--bicentennial or otherwise historical--but only if you go to www.historyillinois.org and submit your information.  Let us help you get the word out and while you're there, check out "Today in Illinois History" for a sampling of what people have been doing here for the last two hundred years or so.

Our year-end issue of Illinois Heritage is a veritable feast of delights.  John Hallwas and Kathleen Spaltro highlight writers with Illinois connections and Cindy Reinhardt takes us to the "almost lost" town of Montgomery Station.  Continue farther down into Egypt with photographer Gary DeNeal for a look at misty autumn moments downstate.

As we come to year's end, it's also time to reflect back on our Johnny Appleseed trees--all of which have gone to good homes throughout the state, and look forward to recognizing historic businesses and churches in Illinois.  If you have a business in your town that is 100 years old or a church that is 150 years old (or older), please consider nominating them for recognition by the ISHS.  Applications for both programs can be found in this issue.

Happy, happy holidays! 

The coming of autumn conjures up memories of an America that was and our connections to our state’s past. Visiting Shiloh Cemetery, the burial place of Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln, leads to a reflection on the mortality of our ancestors, and ultimately, to our own mortality. Cemeteries are not so much a place to bury the dead as they are a place where the once-living have finally settled down.  So it is with the stories passed down to us over the years as we find our own way to pay tribute to the past by sharing the tales in our turn.

Each of the 102 counties that make up Illinois has a wealth of heritage to share with visitors and residents. Whether we are selecting the perfect pumpkin or biting into a crisp apple newly picked from the orchard, it is the time of year when we can savor some of the harvest bounty of our state. 

With the September/October, 2017 Illinois Heritage embarks on a third decade of stories unique to the Prairie State.  Share your Heritage.

Southern Illinois is the place to be this August as we anticipate a total solar eclipse, with center stage located over the state's first capital, Kaskaskia. Will two minutes and forty seconds of darkened skies start crickets chirping and bring out the fireflies? We'll just have to wait and see and hope for a cloudless day for the people planning to check out the path of totality. And we'll also have to wait and see whether our great state can come to terms with its budgetary woes and see brighter days ahead.

Welcome to Kristan McKinsey, Director of the Illinois Women Artists Project, as she picks up the excellent editorial work of the late Channy Lyons. Our friends at Illinois Humanities are forging ahead with plans for the upcoming state bicentennial and we can travel with Stephen Leonard and Keith Sculle on their road trip of discovery along the east-west Route 36 across Illinois.

Despite the quagmires of government, the quicksand of politics, and the mosquitoes of summer, Illinois is a glorious place to call home.