Seventh annual Illinois History Conference offers archaeological sessions, past to present         

[AUG. 19, 2005]  SPRINGFIELD -- Everything from Illinois' archaeological past to the present will be covered during the seventh annual Conference on Illinois History, scheduled for Oct. 27-28 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield.

"This increasingly popular two-day conference is designed for anyone with an interest in history," said Robert Coomer, director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which sponsors the conference. "Whether you like watching The History Channel or teach college-level history, there's something here for you."

The conference schedule is available at www.Illinois-History.gov/conference.htm. [To download Adobe Reader for the PDF file, click here.]

To register, visit the website or contact Donna Lawrence, [phone], [e-mail].

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Conference on Illinois History
Oct. 27-28, Springfield
Sponsored by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency

Thursday, October 27

Concurrent sessions, 8:30-10:15 a.m.

Lincoln, Illinois, and the crisis of the 1850s

• "How Radical Were the Radicals? A New Look at the 1854 Republican Party Convention in Illinois"
• "The Mathematics of Division: Lincoln on Slavery in the 1850s"
• "Owen Lovejoy's Political Enemies, 1852-1858"

The struggle for integration

• "From Exclusion to Inclusion: A Case Study of African American Secondary Education in Danville, Illinois, from 1900 to 1954"
• "White Flight from a Middle-Class Community: Chatham-Avalon Park and the Myth of Middle-Class Racial Tolerance, 1954-1963"

Educational issues

• "Fixing the 'Country School Problem': Progressive-Era Rural School Reform in Illinois"
• "The Master Plan or System of Systems: The Emergent 'Republican' Models for Higher Education in Illinois and California, 1960-1974"
• "'For the Total Child': Delinquency and Child Guidance at the Institute for Juvenile Research, 1909-1949"

Teacher workshop

• "Illinois Trails"

10:30 a.m. to noon

Urban space: race, class, and gender in Chicago

• "Block is Beautiful: The Second Great Migration, The Chicago Urban League and Community Development in Chicago, 1945-1955"
• "Punishing the 'Welfare Queen': Surveillance and Criminalization in Illinois State's Anti-Welfare Fraud Initiatives"

Illinois educators

• "Almira Blanchard Morse, Founding Mother of Higher Education in Greenville, Illinois"
• "Mr. White and the History of Public Education in the Philippines: The Legacy of Frank Russell White of Millburn, Illinois, 1901-1913"

Approaches to the immigrant experience

• "Grounding Local and Ethnic Church History in Time and Place"
• "The Immigrant Experience in Illinois Literature: Props, Pawns, and Self-Portraits"

Labor history

• "Labor Arbitration in the Progressive Era: A View from Chicago"
• "Prelude to Defeat: Caterpillar's Global Tracks and the UAW Bureaucracy in the Globalization Era"

Teacher workshop

• "A Step Back in Time: Living the Depression, an Interdisciplinary Approach"

Noon to 1:30 p.m.

Lunch

Lunch program -- Darroch Greer, documentary film-maker and historical researcher, will be the featured speaker. Greer researched the casualty figures for "The Civil War in Four Minutes," one of the exhibits in the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield. He has written, produced and directed documentaries for PBS, Discovery Channel, History Channel and VH1. Greer will discuss the development of "The Civil War in Four Minutes."

1:45-3:15 p.m.

Civil War stories

• "Perspectives and Personalities of a Community at War: An Analysis of Illinois Civil War Fighting Teachers"
• "The Influence of the Civil War on Northeastern Illinois Farm Families"

The reform impulse

• "The Foundation and Early Work of the Chicago YMCA, 1853-1865"
• "Danville's 'Sin City' and Reformers' Responses, 1890-1920"

Teacher workshop

• "Family History Resources at The Newberry Library and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library."

Poetic and pictorial interpretations of Illinois

• "Preaching the Gospel of Higher Vaudeville: Vachel Lindsay's Poetic Journey from Springfield, Illinois, Across America and Back"
• "Images of Everyday Life: Amateur Film in Illinois"

Chicago migration

• "'I Hear You Calling Me… Goodbye, Dixie Land': The Founding and Early Success of the Chicago Defender, 1905-1930"
• "The Beginnings of Chicago's American Indian Community"

3:30-5 p.m.

Native American studies

• "A Second Possible Computer Model of the Rise and Fall of Mississippian Cahokia"
• "Potawatomi Trail of Death and Regional Historic Trail"

County history

• "Carved in Stone: A Socio-Economic History of Monument Cutting in Coles County, Illinois, 1850-1910"
• "'Earthquake Christians' and the Organist at Carl Shelton's Funeral: Or, What You've Always Wanted to Know About Wayne County (But Were Afraid to Ask)"

Civil War justice

• "'Such Conduct Must Be Put Down': The Constable Arrest in Civil War History"
• "The Provo and the JAG: Illinois Soldiers and Military Justice in the Civil War"

Built history

• "Illinois: Leader in the Precut 'Kit' Housing Industry, 1908-1951"
• "Saving the Robie House"

Teacher workshop

• "History Fairs and State Teaching Standards"

5:30 p.m.

Banquet, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum

Banquet program -- The banquet speaker will be Edna Greene Medford, associate professor of history at Howard University. She is a nationally recognized scholar and frequent lecturer on African-Americans in slavery and freedom. As a member of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Scholars Advisory Board, she participated in discussions for planning the museum's content. She is also a member of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Advisory Committee. Medford will speak on blacks' perceptions of emancipation.

Friday, Oct. 28

8:30-10:15 a.m.

Nineteenth-century political history

• "The Chicago Lakefront's Last Frontier: Streeterville, 1886-1920"
• "Maintaining Industrial Order: The Chicago Police after the Civil War"
• "Race and Reconstruction in Illinois Politics from 1871 to 1872"

The evolution of place

• "Abraham Lincoln's Wilderness: 'My Childhood Home'"
• "Culture and Leisure in St. Charles, Illinois, from 1900-1930"
• "Victory at Sea: The Wartime Contributions of Naval Training Center Chicago on Navy Pier"

Coal mining history

• "Rural Radicals: Illinois Coal Miners and the Farmer-Labor Party"
• "A Turning Point: The Lasting Impact of the 1898 Virden Mine Riot"
• "Driscoll Scanlan: The Last Great Hope of Avoiding the Centralia Mine Disaster"

Comparative studies

• "A Historic Profile of Illinois' African American State Legislators: Their Contributions to Illinois' History, 1877 to Present"
• "Veterans of Illinois: A Comparative Study"

Teacher workshop

• "Workshops at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library"

10:30 a.m. to noon

The French in Illinois

• "Siege at Le Rocher 1684"
• "Mont Joliet, The Sad Fate of an Ancient Historic Landmark"

Dealing with competition

• "John Deere and the Battle for the 'Moline Plow'"
• "Sparks College: All About Business"

The power of the press

• "Quincy Newspapers and the Mormon Exodus to Illinois, 1838-1839"
• "Politics vs. Pennies: Chicago's Pre-fire English Newspapers"

Lincoln revisited

• "'I have done my duty as I best know and Providence must take care of the rest': Reconsidering Mary Todd Lincoln's Insanity Case and Robert Todd Lincoln's Motivations Behind It"
• "Children's Biographies as History: An Analysis of Juvenile Biographies of Abraham Lincoln"

Panel discussion on teaching history in Illinois community colleges

Noon to 1:30 p.m.

Lunch

Lunch program -- Carl J. Ekberg, professor emeritus of history at Illinois State University, is an expert on the French in colonial Illinois. He has written the award-winning books "French Roots in the Illinois Country: The Mississippi Frontier in Colonial Times"; "Francois Valle and His World: Upper Louisiana before Lewis and Clark"; and "Colonial Ste. Genevieve: An Adventure on the Mississippi Frontier." His presentation will be on French-ness and Indian-ness in Illinois.

1:45-3:15 p.m.

Cultural history

• "The Mississippi River Festival at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, 1969-1980"
• "Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives: His Illinois Roots"

Illinois stories

• "The 1975 Appointment of John Paul Stevens of Illinois to the United States Supreme Court"
• "Champaign's Fallen Heroes"

Germans in America

• "Two Young Bachelors in Alton, 1836-1838: Rev. Joseph Rieger and Owen Lovejoy"
• "Frederick Hecker: From German Revolutionary to Illinois Civil War Colonel"

Illinois archaeology

• "Food Storage on the Illinois Frontier"
• "Cisterns: 'Dead Water' Hardly Fit to Wash the Backsettler's Face"

Public sculpture

• "The Creation of the Abraham Lincoln Statue in Lincoln Square, Chicago"
• "The View from Here: The Story of the George Rogers Clark Statue in Quincy, Illinois"

3:30-5 p.m.

Unexpected interests

• "Lincoln's Loyal Confidante: Eliza Caldwell Browning"
• "Illinois Women in the Civil War -- One Special Soldier: Jennie Hodger/Albert D.J. Cashier, 19th Illinois Infantry"

Philanthropy in Illinois

• "Gail Borden, Elgin, and Condensed Milk"
• "Chauncey McCormick of Chicago: 'Democratic Patrician'"

Conspiracy and deception

• "'The Last Act of the South': Assassination and Conspiracy as Political Tools Following Abraham Lincoln's Death"
• "The Spy Who Came in From the Coal Field: A British Spy in Illinois"

Local history

• "Dickson, Webster and Lincoln": The Riddle of Rock Island City -- Solved"
• "'The deep, surly misery note of maschestoes': Cairo and the Central Mississippi River Valley"

Saturday, Oct. 29

Another history-related event, "Historic Preservation Knowledge Day," will be Oct. 29 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. The Illinois Association of Historic Preservation Commissions will have its annual meeting there.

A networking brunch begins at 10 a.m., followed by a tour of the museum.

"Common Historic Building Maintenance/Care Myths that Can Beguile Landmarks Commissions" will be presented by one of the Midwest's leading authorities, David Arbogast of Iowa City. In addition, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency staff will present "Dos and Don'ts of the Property Tax Freeze Incentive Program."

To register for the Oct. 29 Historic Preservation Knowledge Day, contact Catherine O'Connor at [phone] or Catherine_O'[e-mail].

[Illinois Historic Preservation Agency news release]

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