Tom Emery

 Times may change, but some things stay the same. Fortunately for music lovers across Illinois, the municipal band is a constant, a cherished part of the summer landscape in communities statewide for decades. Across Illinois and the nation, musicians in communities large and small keep the tunes playing for a devoted following, spending their precious […]

 Holy Week is a reflective time for people of many faiths, and Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday are marked by tens of millions around the world. However, Holy Week in 1865 was a defining period in American history. On Palm Sunday, April 9, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to […]

As in most wars, the men of the Civil War found it excruciatingly difficult to be away from loved ones at holiday time. Thanksgiving was no exception. The holiday itself has its roots in the Civil War. The first official proclamation declaring Thanksgiving as a national day of remembrance was issued by Abraham Lincoln in […]

 One of the many casualties of the state budget disaster has been the closure of the Illinois State Museum, which is scheduled to reopen next month, with an admission charge. It is not the only time in its history that the state museum has been subjected to such treatment. In 1887, the museum was thrown […]

 Like most states, Illinois has endured its share of disasters during its history. The catastrophes have ranged from natural to manmade, and from industrial to recreational. Some of the worst disasters in state history have involved coal mining. On Nov. 13, 1909, an underground fire broke out in Mine No. 2 at Cherry, in Bureau […]

 Though life was slowly improving for millions in Illinois as the 20th century opened, many still struggled for fairness, including women, the poor and minorities. In several instances, racial tensions exploded into some of the landmark moments in American social history. After the Civil War, some blacks began to migrate north, looking for better job […]

 In 1893, Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, a six-month extravaganza that thrust Illinois into the international spotlight. The event inspired an artistic and educational revival despite a string of nagging controversies. The right to host the exposition, organized to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the New World, became a battle among […]

Many people recognize the name of Jane Addams from high school history textbooks, but few know much else about this incomparable woman of 19th-century Illinois history. And she was hardly the only one. Few opportunities awaited Illinois women in the era. In 1900, only 16.3 percent of all Illinois women were employed, with the exception […]

It was far from the deadliest shipwreck in the history of the Great Lakes. But none is more enduring. Nov. 10 marks the 40th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a 729-foot ore carrier in Lake Superior that was lost amid one of the worst storms in Great Lakes history.  All 29 men […]