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The Illinois State Historical Society seeks a new editor for the 112-year-old Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, the leading academic publication for historical research about the state of Illinois.

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.

Our Fall 2019 issue brings together culture and commerce, in three distinctive contexts. In “Florenz Ziegfield and the Creation of a Cosmopolitan Chicago,” Susan E. Hirsch explores the rise of high culture–classical music, opera, theater, the fine arts–and its corresponding ethic of cosmopolitanism through the work of the German immigrant, Florenz Ziegfield. The talented classical pianist was one of Chicago’s busiest cultural entrepreneurs during the Gilded Age. 

The commercial opportunities presented by the variety of forms of popular entertainment in Chicago attracted figures less noble than the Ziegfields. In “When Chicago Went to the Dogs: Al Capone and Greyhound Racing in the Windy City, 1927-1933,” Steven A. Riess traces the fascinating history of Chicagoland dog racing and its deep connections to the city’s crime syndicates. 

Our final article traces the trajectory of racial attitudes and policies in an affluent Chicago suburb. In “Race, Town, and Gown: A White Christian College and a White Suburb Address Race,” Brian J. Miller and David B. Malone summarize the evolution of Wheaton College and the larger community of Wheaton, Illinois on matters of race. Before the Civil War both college and town were well-known for abolitionism and relatively enlightened racial views.

A Bicentennial Commemorative of the Prairie State: Readings from the "Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society"
Edited by David W. Scott, with a foreword by Leah Joy Axelrod

Culled from the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society’s 110-year archive of scholarship, this volume of more than thirty articles illuminates the colorful episodes, meaningful events, and significant characters in the rich history of Illinois. Selected by committee and edited by David W. Scott, A Bicentennial Commemorative of the Prairie State celebrates the state’s two-hundred-year history with a broad scope of voices and perspective.

A Bicentennial Commemorative of the Prairie State: Readings from the "Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society"
Edited by David W. Scott, with a foreword by Leah Joy Axelrod

Culled from the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society’s 110-year archive of scholarship, this volume of more than thirty articles illuminates the colorful episodes, meaningful events, and significant characters in the rich history of Illinois. Selected by committee and edited by David W. Scott, A Bicentennial Commemorative of the Prairie State celebrates the state’s two-hundred-year history with a broad scope of voices and perspective.