Untitled Document
It’s hot off the press, published Feb. 4
— and hot off the keys, cameras, and many footsteps of our own Carl
(retired head of Lincoln Library) and Roberta (retired art consultant,
State Board of Education) Volkmann. Here’s what the book is: 128
pages of what the title states, in five sections: “Where Government
Leads: Illinois State Buildings,” “Where Lincoln Walked:
Lincoln’s Neighborhood,” “Where Springfield Lives: Around
the Town,” “Where the Future Learns: Educational
Institutions,” and “Where the Past Rests: Oak Ridge
Cemetery.” You can tell that the book is good by the imaginative
divisions of what could have been mere cataloging. How did the couple work?
Carl took most of the photos (some were donated), Roberta wrote, and both
researched. A brief introduction leads each section, followed by pages of
nicely arranged pictures with descriptions, explanations, and locations.
The facts were carefully checked by five Springfield historians.
It would be a better book were Arcadia more than it
is, a press that publishes uniform local histories under uniform formats
and restrictions. Such books have value, but the limits frustrate. Roberta
was allowed only 40 to 70 words per picture, and though this is essentially
a picture book the pictures were also limited. Into the commentary she had
to pack facts, an explanation of why the item exists, and, if she had room
left over, any interesting bits — and it’s those bits we want
filled out. She managed pretty well with one of my cemetery favorites:
“A white marble Mattie Rayburn stands at the top of the imposing
40-foot polished Scotch granite shaft, second in height . . . only to
Lincoln’s tomb. Married to a charismatic itinerant pastor,
Mattie’s biography is sketchy and tinged with scandal. Ironically,
the inscription at the base reads, ‘What God has joined together let
not man put asunder.’ Bishop Rayburn is buried somewhere in
Europe.” There’s not room to quote Bishop Rayburn, who said
that he’d placed his second wife high up so she could look down on
those who had looked down on her in life. There’s additional info,
too, on the “receiving tomb” where Lincoln’s body lay for
nearly seven months: “It was available for those who in ‘sudden
bereavement’ had not chosen a lot. The fee for using the tomb was $5.
Victims of smallpox or cholera were forbidden.” It’s such bits
that make us hungry for more.
This project (conceived by Carl and grabbed by
Arcadia) became a community effort. The Volkmanns had six months to fulfill
their contract; word spread, and friends and strangers called to report
unknown or humble monuments. These led the Volkmanns into places untrodden
and to people the couple found stimulating to meet. I learned, talking to
Carl, that he often returned repeatedly to a plaque or statue until he got
a photograph suiting his exacting standards. The two were allowed access to
the Willard Ice Building, containing treasures few of us are privileged to
see, and we about learn state and federal laws that mandate the setting
aside of a percentage of a public building’s cost for art. We see
photos of the results at our schools, colleges, university, and public
structures. Here’s hoping we can persuade this capable pair
to continue with a book on how this one came into being and to include some
spots of interest from a wider area. They discovered too late (during a
scavenger hunt!) the little plaque, under a dogwood tree on the UIS campus,
dedicated to the beloved dog who led a student named Myrna in her
wheelchair through her college education. The book might start from there;
we’ll all have suggestions.
The Volkmanns will
sign books 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, at Prairie Archives; 11:30
a.m.-12:50 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12, in the Old State Capitol Rotunda; and
starting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, at Barnes & Noble.
Jacqueline Jackson, books and poetry editor of Illinois Times, is a professor emerita of English
at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
This article appears in Feb 7-13, 2008.
