Guy Sternberg, director of Starhill Forest Arboretum in rural Menard County (the largest research/collection center for the study of oak trees in the nation), is also the arborist for Oak Ridge Cemetery, home to the largest habitat for rare and hybrid oak trees in Illinois, if not the Midwest. Every October Guy recruits more than […]
William Furry
William Furry is executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society and editor of Illinois Heritage, its popular history magazine. He is a former editor of Illinois Times.
Posted inOpinion
Cranes over Hiroshima
On Aug. 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., the Enola Gay, a U. S. B-29 bomber, dropped and detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, a city of approximately 255,000 in western Japan. Three days later, on Aug. 9, a second bomb was dropped over Nagasaki, where some 40,000 people were likewise incinerated. Temperatures from the blast […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Resurrecting Billy Sunday
Part commemoration, part reenactment and part revival, the Billy Sunday 1909 Celebration: “Six Weeks that Saved the Soul of Springfield” (A Trilogy, Part 1) blew through the capital city like a Pentecostal whirlwind May 28, inspiring and energizing a faithful crowd of about 300 at the Bank of Springfield (BOS) Center. Sponsored by the Ministerial […]
Posted inMusic
Sangamon Songs brings history to life and music
When I wander through antique stores I’m always drawn to postcards, especially those of local scenes penned – and sometimes charmingly penciled – more than 100 years ago. They are portals to another time, and often the messages speak across the decades. “Daisy had six puppies last night,” or “We visited granddad in Salem last […]
Posted inNews
New Salem gets an infusion
Finding funds for maintenance and restoration of state historic sites has been difficult in recent years, what with budget impasses, hiring freezes, pandemics, agency shifts and the public’s indifference to what it takes to maintain a historic site. When Gov. Bruce Rauner disestablished the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA), which operated the 50-plus historic sites […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Oak Ridge angels
Cemeteries are mysterious places with magical names – cenotaphs, crypts, footstones, headstones, memorials, plots, tombs, urns, vaults and such – words that seldom surface in everyday discourse, unless you operate a funeral home. I’ve always been intrigued by these places, especially knowing I’ll probably end up in one. And I’ve been known to wander Springfield’s […]
Posted inNews
Saving historic trees on Route 97
Though Illinois Route 97 existed as a road for more than 175 years, it was officially designated a state highway in 1937. The 104.43-mile asphalt ribbon extends from exit 98 off of U.S. Interstate I-55 in Springfield to Highway 150 near Galesburg, but the stretch best known to central Illinoisans is that from the junction […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Frederick Douglass in Springfield
On April 3 and 4, 1866 – 144 years ago this month — Springfield was visited by one of the greatest orators of the 19th century and the best-known, and most photographed, civil rights activist in the world. Born a slave in Maryland in 1818, Frederick Douglass learned to read and write, and emancipated himself […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Dapper Dan
They called him Dan, Danny, Danny Boy, Dapper Dan, Mr. Dan and Mr. Buck, and all who knew him marveled at his resilience and the illumination he brought to nearly every conversation. Daniel R. Buck died on Thursday, Dec. 7, at the age of 95, a fitting day for a WWII veteran who always wore […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A song in her heart
Mary Link was born with a song in her heart to parents Fred C. and Myra Fern (Garrett) Brown, both of Springfield, an expression of joy she carried with her all of her 90 years. She was a pianist, a music teacher, a quilter, a ceramics artist and a member of the Red Hat Society […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Society of the Living Dead
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women By Kate Moore, 2017, Sourcebooks, 404 pages, $26.99 Back in 2007, a group of students from Ottawa High School were invited to perform a 20-minute play, The Society of the Living Dead, at an Illinois history symposium event at Illinois State University. It was a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Timeless hunger
Of all the stories of the settling of the American West, none is as compelling, heroic and tragic as that of the Donner Party, which stepped into history on April 15, 1846, from Springfield, Illinois. Now Michael Wallis has given us an impeccably researched book that tells this history with a sparkling narrative and far […]
