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On Tuesday, December 3, the Illinois State Historical Society hosts its annual Illinois History Symposium, in conjunction with a UIS "Lunch and Learn" program. Join us for one or all of the Symposium sessions. Morning and afternoon presentations are free to attend with complimentary snack refreshments. The Lunch and Learn program is $23/person and requires a reservation.  

This issue of Illinois Heritage will fill the hours with Prairie State wonders. New contributor Mark Pohlad, an architectural historian from DePaul University, shares his thoughts on the 100th anniversary of the conveyance of New Salem to the State of Illinois. Kristan McKinsey serves up another out-standing profile in our long-running series on Illinois Women Artists. And Mark Flotow and his camera capture the Lincoln Days festival and Civil War “battle” on Lake Pittsfield, which took place over Memorial Day weekend in Pike County. But that’s not all.

ISHS Director William Shannon IV takes us to East St. Louis to remember a civil rights struggle in 1963, where African-American protestors challenged the community to level the playing field for jobs and to create equitable opportunities previously denied them. Last but never least, John Hallwas presents another “Forgotten Voices from Illinois History,” this time on a little-known publishing house that turned heads around the world toward Prairie City, Illinois.

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

We open 2019 with three articles addressing murder, politics, and ethnoreligious identity in Illinois. In "Untouchable: Joseph Smith's Use of the Law as a Catalyst for Assassination," Alex Smith offers a fine-grained analysis of the Mormon prophet's understanding- and misunderstanding- of key legal concepts leading up to his murder at a Carthage, Illinois jail in 1844. 

Like the histroy of Joseph Smith and anti-mormonism, antislavery politics has generated a rich and variegated historiography. In "Free Soil, Free Labor, and Free Men: The Origins of the Republican Party in DuPage County, Illinois," Stephen Buck synthesizes many of the widely accepted explanations for the Republican Party's emergence in the 1850s, including the powerful ideal of free-soil in the trans-Mississippi West; opposition to the political clout of the "Slave Power" nationally; and genuine moral committments to the abolition of Slavery. 

Always a city of immigrants, Chicago has rightfully served as a key focus for a wide-ranging body of scholarship on the immigrant experience in America. Oddly, however, the French, the first Europeans to see and settle the area, have largely faded from view in histories of immigrant Chicago. Daniel Snow sheds much needed light on the French-American experience in the Windy City in "Of Three Nations: Devotion and Community in French-American Chicago, 1850-1950."

The Illinois bicentennial commemoration wrapped up for the Illinois State Historical society with our 2018 History Symposium on December 3 at the University of Illinois Springfield. Many thanks to our excellent speakers––Michael Wiant, Bill Kemp, Devin Hunter, and Bob Sampson––for donating their time and  talents to the program. 

This year brings us another anniversay to celebrate: the 120th anniversary of the ISHS, which was organized on May 19, 1899. The Society continues to be the leading advocate for the promotion of historical research and understanding of our Prairie State history. With our dedicated Board of Directors, Advisors, and staff we seek to expand the reach of our organization into every home in the state of Illinois and beyond, but that kind of mission requires the participation of every member of the Society too. Please do your part by renewing your membership (if you have not already done so), and by sharing our publications and programs with Illinois history advocates in your community. Consider sponsoring a public library membership, nominating a community museum exhibit or local history author for an award, or sharing news of a historical event in your hometown. We all learn when we share our history. 
 

The Illinois Bicentennial is now entering its fifth month. We hope you and your historical society or museum are finding significant and creative ways to celebrate and commemorate the anniversary, not just for the year, but for the future. Visit us on our website (www.historyillinois.org) and tell us what your community has planned. We’ll do our best to help you get the word out. 

In this issue of Illinois Heritage we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Illinois Vietnam Veterans Memorial, meet forgotten playwright Charles Dazey, learn how amateur historians and genealogists can change history, and sit down to lunch with Sesquicentennial Church congregations.

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