A wide range of topics about the state’s past await participants at the 14th Annual Conference on Illinois History scheduled for Thursday and Friday, October 11 and 12 in Springfield. Sessions will be held at the Prairie Capital Convention Center and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. A full schedule and registration information is available at http://www.illinoishistory.gov/conference.htm.
Sessions during the two-day conference will include 20th century Chicago; African American experiences; poets; the Metro East area; 20th century politics; the law and courts; the Gilded Age; stories told by historic structures; the Civil War; the French in Illinois; race riots; Lincoln in politics and the law; Illinois universities at home and abroad; women who built with Frank Lloyd Wright; Illinois baseball stories; and several other topics.
The Thursday evening, October 11 banquet speaker will be Megan McKinney, author of The Magnificent Medills: America’s Royal Family of Journalism During a Century of Turbulent Splendor. She will talk about the true story of a family whose power and influence shaped American journalism for four generations.
Jacqueline Hogan, author of Lincoln, Inc.: Selling the Sixteenth President in Contemporary America will be the Friday, October 12 luncheon speaker. Hogan will discuss the ways in which Lincoln is presented and depicted across the United States.
The Friday, October 12 luncheon speaker will be Gillum Ferguson, who will discuss his book, Illinois in the War of 1812. Ferguson is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and a regional history researcher.
The Conference on Illinois History sessions, banquet and luncheons require advance registration and payment. Visit http://www.illinoishistory.gov/conference.htm to register.
The Conference on Illinois History is sponsored by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation.
