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This issue of Illinois Heritage looks to the history of previous pandemics and offers some thoughtful instruction on how our ancestors coped with contagion without antibiotics, the CDC, or the Internet. Thanks to Allen Croessmann and John Hallwas for their research and fascination with public health history. 

We also meet some very interesting individuals who added art and perspective to our vision of the Prairie State through our ongoing series “Voices from Illinois History” and “Illinois Women Artists.”

Our other feature articles in the May-June issue deserve your attention too. Beth Young’s article about Civil War-era nurse Louise Maertz is a tribute to our current care providers on the frontlines of the war against COVID-19; the summaries of civil rights pioneer Frederick Douglass’s lectures from his 1866 visits to Springfield are revealing of Reconstruction-era politics; and Guy Fraker’s analysis of a forgotten Lincoln legal case should illuminate lawyers and arm-chair scholars alike.

Be safe, practice self-distancing, be kind to others, and share your Heritage.

Although the Madison County Archival Library is closed until future notice due to COVID-19 and the Museum for renovation, the Madison County Historical Society and museum staff continue to offer access to information about Madison County history through its website (https://madcohistory.org/) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/madcohistory/). 

The Conference on Illinois History is accepting paper or panel proposals on any aspect of Illinois’s history, culture, politics, geography, or archaeology. We encourage submissions from professional and avocational historians, students, and those engaged in the study of Illinois history at libraries, historic sites, museums, and historical societies.

To our readers:

The nominations are in and buzz is building. If you have not already done so, mark your calendars for Friday, April 24 and the “Best of Illinois History Awards Gala,” the night the Illinois State Historical Society celebrates the people, organizations, authors, museums, and historical societies that made history in the Prairie State in 2019. If you haven’t already received your invitation in the mail, call us. We’ll have one in the mail before you can name the state fossil.

This issue of Illinois Heritage contains articles on several fascinating people, places, and events in our state’s past that will stir your imagination, bring you closer to the essence of Illinois and, perhaps, stoke your own creative fires.

Thank you for reading Illinois Heritage. Your membership and gifts keep this organization vital and relevant. We cannot serve Illinois history without you.

We close 2019 with three outstanding scholarly contributions to Illinois history. In “Getting to ‘Lake Michigan’: a 350-year Onomastic Odyssey,” Michael McCafferty, a linguist at Indiana University Bloomington, explores the origins of the placename, “Michigan.” While popular translations have long affixed the meaning “big water” to the placename “Michigan,” McCafferty finds that this myth is not supported in the linguistic evidence.

In “A Writer of More Than Usual Charm: The Dynamic Influence of Dr. Milo Milton Quaife and Harriet Martineau on Juliette Magill Kinzie’s Contributions to American Frontier Literature,” literary historian Franklin E. Court traces Quaife’s influence in both elevating Kinzie to, and preserving her place in, the canon of early nineteenth century American frontier literature.

In “Sorrow Comes to All: Bloomington, Illinois’s Demonstration of Community Participation in Civil War Grief,” Megan VanGorder explores the rituals and practices surrounding death and grief in the Civil War.