The Illinois State Historical Society Officers

The Illinois State Historical Society Officers

A Publication of The Illinois State Historical Society

July-August 2005                                                                               Volume 8 Number 4

3        Letters

3        News

27     Membership report

6        Remembering the long march
Potawatomie descendents to honor trail of exiled ancestors

8        Statues with soul
The Lincoln bronzes of sculptor John McClarey

10     Colossus above St. Louis
Remaking the Mississippi at Melvin Price Locks and Dam

14     Evanston and its neighbors
105th Annual Meeting held in North Shore suburbs

18     St. Stanislaus Kostka
A brief history of a landmark Chicago church

24     Robert Mize Sutton, 1915-2005

"Jolliet and Marquette, August 1673," a painting by Robert Thom, commissioned for the Illinois Sesquientennial in 1968, from the collection of The Illinois State Historical Society.

   
Summer is flying and here at The Illinois State Historical Society our sights are focused on the fall. The Illinois Symposium (December 1-3) and Centennial Awards (September 30) are two of our biggest events and this year promise to be more than memorable. We hope you will put these dates on your calendar and join us in Springfield for the Symposium and at Chicago's Palmer House for the Centennial Awards Banquet. We need your presence to bring our history alive.

But first there's the matter at hand. In this issue of Illinois Heritage, Todd Shallat takes us to the Mississippi River at Alton to explore an engineering wonder of the world—the Melvin Price Locks and Dam; Dan Guillory introduces us to John McClarey, the Decatur sculptor who has given us new and novel perspectives to a familiar face; Nathan Hall revisits the Potawatomie Trail of Death; and Christopher Young offers a postcard from the oldest Polish parish in Chicago. We also have included a few highlights from the 105th Annual Meeting of The Illinois State Historical Society, which was held in April in the Northshore communities of Skokie, Evanston, and Wilmette. We also say good-bye to long-time friend and past president Robert Mize Sutton, who shared his life, expertise, and resouces with the Society for more than half a century.

As always, we ask that you share your Heritage with others. Please note the list of new and renewing members of The Society. If you are not a member, or have let your membership lapse, please renew now. Help keep our Prairie State's past in your future.

William Furry
Executive Director and
Editor, Illinois Heritage