Newsroom

Looking ahead to the new year, the 2023 calendar is filling fast, with historical happenings popping up across Illinois like mushrooms on a warm spring day. We’re already planning historical marker unveilings in East St. Louis, Peoria, Decatur, Secor, Bloomington, Mt. Vernon, and several other cities, thanks to a grant from the WilliamG. Pomeroy Foundation of Syracuse, New York, and the dedicated volunteers who promote local history in their communities. We’re also getting ready for the annual “Best of Illinois History” awards, which takes place in April and honors historians, archivists, exhibitors, museum curators, writers, and the lifetime achievements of individuals whose passion for local history has changed lives, attitudes, and neighbor- hoods. Watch for details in Illinois Heritage and make your reservations early to join us for the celebration in Springfield.

There is so much history in the November-December issue of Illinois Heritage, and our list of contributors continues to grow. Bucky Halker’s portrait of Woody Guthrie in Illinois is a fascinating look at a 20th century icon not generally associated with the Prairie State, and Dave Joens’ “Breaking up is Hard to Do,” a  discussion of Illinois’s contentious sectionalism, explores the many aborted paths to secession in our 204-year history. Chris Suerdieck’s “The First Burger King” tells us about a mom-and-pop hamburger joint in Mattoon that made headlines simply by sticking to a winning recipe, and we say goodbye to Dr. G. Cullom Davis, a friend and colleague who changed the way we do history.

The National Fund for Sacred Places, a program of Partners for Sacred Places in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, provides support to community-serving congregations to aid in the stewardship of their historic facilities. 

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.

Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the state’s efforts to curtail the spread of the virus, we have opted not to host our Sesquicentennial House of Worship Awards Luncheon on September 26, but will, instead, hold an invitation for those to attend the next gathering, should our public health officials clear our path to do so in 2021. We regret having to cancel this important gathering of Illinois houses of worship, as it has become one of our favorite events. Letters confirming this will be sent out shortly to all who have applied.