NEW IPO Logo - by Charles Larry Home Search Browse About IPO Staff Links

Marking Illinois history

The Illinois Historical Society's Historical Markers Awareness Week


By Redd Griffin

How can the Illinois State Historical Society "foster awareness...of history in
ih050507-1.jpg
The Old State Capitol was the setting for part of Historical Markers Awareness Week.
Illinois"? The Society's leaders responded to this challenge from its mission statement when they bunched a week of activities to expand the public's historical awareness. The Society's Historical Markers Awareness Week from February 28 through March 6 featured programs at sites around the State, where people gathered to reflect on the meaning of their historical markers.

Springfield was central to the week geographically and thematically. A marker on the grounds of the Old State Capitol recounted its history. On March 3, eighty people came to commemorate it on the anniversary of fee authorization in 1837 to move the state capitol there. Guests heard presentations by the Society's Executive Director William Furry, President David Scott, Lincoln scholar Dr. Wayne Temple, Springfield High School Student Mike Evans, and myself. Mike Evans' school choir, The Seven and Senators, sang the national and state anthems. Meanwhile in the current capitol the Society had mounted an exhibit on the markers program.

This event and exhibit showed how people's awareness of what markers mean expands as they learn more about them. Information and insight to this end come from other sources, such as tours and print and electronic media.

ih050507-2.jpg
SHS student Mike Evans reads the Governor's Proclamation for The Illinois State Historical Society's Markers Awareness Week.

How information and insight about the site beyond the markers reveal its meaning

The Old State Capitol is where it is largely because of State Representative Abraham Lincoln. The bill and amendments he got passed in the Illinois General Assembly in Vandalia in February, 1837, cleared the way to move the capital to Springfield.

In this building Lincoln honed views and words that would one day stir the nation. He used concrete images from his living and reading to express more abstract ideas and lofty values in metaphors. His address, "A House Divided," given at the Old State Capitol during his campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1858, was based on such a metaphor. In his speech he compared the nation's being half slave and half free to a house divided against itself, which cannot stand.

What can be learned from the site that adds to its value

Curious visitors reading "A House Divided" closely are challenged to reflect on their moral choices as Lincoln's listeners did when he said they must one day choose whether to live in a nation fully slave or fully free.

Conscientious visitors can see their roles in history when they read in this speech: "Our cause, then, must be intrusted [sic] to...those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work—who do care [Lincoln's emphasis] for the result."

Reflective visitors can consider their view of history on reading Lincoln's as he expresses it in his eulogy on Henry Clay in 1852: "Let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, the continued care of Divine Providence, trusting that, in future national emergencies, He will not fail to provide us the instruments of safety and security."


ILLINOIS HERITAGE| 7      


ih050507-3.jpg
The Springfield High School History Club and invited guests at the dedication for the Hutchinson Cemetery historical marker.       photo courtesy Stu Fliege

How aspects of a marker touch visitors in varied ways

A different kind of marker was commemorated in the Northern part of our weeklong celebration in Homewood on March 5. Mayor Richard Hofeld and the Village Heritage Committee hosted a commemoration at the "Dixie Highway" marker. More than forty people, including three other mayors and organizational leaders of communities along the highway came. State Representatives from the area, George Scully and Will
ih050507-4.jpg
(Left to right) Former U.S. Representative Paul Findley, John Eden (owner of the Long Nine Museum), Dr. Wayne Temple, and Athens Mayor Debra Richardson at the rededication ceremony for the Long Nine Historical Marker.             photo courtesy Stu Fliege
Davis, and Society Treasurer Arthur Martin were introduced. Mayor Hofeld spoke first, welcoming all present, followed by Elaine Egdorf and myself.

Aspects of this marker, like most markers, affect visitors in different ways. Because of the text, readers imagine scenes from the highway's past: a path worn by animals that Native Americans and later trapper-traders used, trading posts Abraham Lincoln's friend, Gurdon Saltenstall Hubbard, set up along it, and the later state road with mile markers established by Lincoln's General Assembly. Visitors appreciate how ideas became realities when the innovative Carl Fisher built his dream highway. Passersby reflect on this as the first national road linking the industrial North and the agricultural South. Citizens stopping by feel grateful for the volunteers who put their own Dixie Highway ("DH") signs on poles to guide motorists and for the drivers who transported crucial supplies down this road during wartime.

Commemorations at other markers occurred that week in southern Illinois: the Kaskaskia Reservation Historical Marker at the John A. Logan Museum, Murphysboro; and in central Illinois: the Long Nine Historical Marker in Athens and the Hutchinson Cemetery Historical Marker in Springfield.

Partnering with the Illinois General Assembly

The Society's Markers Awareness Week was to help legislators and the public become more familiar with markers in their communities. At the Society's request, the General


8 |ILLINOIS HERITAGE


ih050507-5.jpg
Students from Springfield High School research the history of the Hutchinson Cemetery at the public library.
photo courtesy Stu Fliege


Assembly and Governor established the week statewide by resolutions and a proclamation. Their language encouraged legislators to meet with the public and Society leaders at sites in their home districts. Since only 25 of 102 counties lack markers, most Senators and Representatives have them in their districts. Considerable coverage by print and electronic media preceded and followed that week of commemorations.

Beyond this week, the Society proposes to work with legislators to deepen and broaden public awareness of history in Illinois. It plans to bring
ih050507-6.jpg
(Left to right) Carol Gelman, Homewood Village Trustee; Elaine Egdorf, Chairman, Homewood Heritage Commission and ISHS Director; and Redd Griffin, ISHS Director and former state representative (Oak Park) at the Historical Markers Awareness celebration in Homewood.
more sites to public awareness and more markers to interpret them. It aims to have the best historical markers program in the nation by 2018, the 200th anniversary of Illinois statehood.


Contributors to the Week's Success

The Executive Committee, Board of Directors and Advisory Board and Staff unanimously and wholeheartedly supported the idea of this week from the start. Steering the implementation of the week were Randall Witter, Larry Douglas, Stuart Fliege, Elaine Egdorf, William Furry, Mary Lou Johnsrud and myself. The following Society officers and Directors were most helpful: Marvin Ehlers, Lawrence Hansen, Jon Musgrave, David Scott, and John Weck.

Redd Griffin is a Director of the Illinois State Historical Society, former Illinois State Representative and initiator of the Society's Historical Marker Awareness Week.


ILLINOIS HERITAGE| 9      


|Home| |Search| |Back to Periodicals Available| |Table of Contents| |Back to Illinois Heritage 2005|
Illinois Periodicals Online (IPO) is a digital imaging project at the Northern Illinois University Libraries funded by the Illinois State Library