News

Bloomington-Normal setting for 2007 Symposium

At the invitation of Illinois State University, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2007, the Illinois History Symposium will be held on the ISU campus in Normal from February 15-17. A call for papers centered around the theme "Knowledge on the Prairie" has been announced, with a proposal deadline of June 30, 2006. Paper proposals, panels, and workshops are welcome from professional and amateur historians, teachers, graduate students, and genealogists. Special consideration will be given presentations that focus on teaching in the classroom. For more information on the Illinois History Symposium, call 217-525-2781, or visit the Society's website at www.historyllinois.org.

Society offers CPDUs at teacher workshop

Lincoln Home National Historic Site and the National Park Service invite social science teachers to participate in a Teaching with Museum Collections teacher workshop from July 10-14, 2006 at the site, 426 South 7th Street, in Springfield. Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDUs) will be available through the Illinois State Historical Society. Educators will develop innovative web-based Teaching with Museum Collections lesson plans using the park's museum collections at the very place where history happened.

Museum artifacts, including original furnishings, photographs, and personal effects of the Lincolns associated with their seventeen years in the home will be made available for the first time to educators and students all across the country via the internet. These objects, together with the lesson plans developed in the workshop, will be made available for the first time to educators and students nationwide in a virtual museum exhibit.

Participants will get a comprehensive behind-the-scenes tour of the Lincoln Home and its collections. Teachers will learn about experiential, object-based learning. They will work in teams with NPS staff to create student-centered Teaching with Museum Collections lesson plans. The online lesson plans will provide teachers nationwide with an invaluable resource for teaching US history. Students throughout America will gain unique insights into the people and events that shaped this nation.

For more information call Susan M. Haake at (217) 492-4241 ext. 246 or e-mail her at susan haake@nps.gov.

Gifts and matching gifts

The ISHS Board of Directors and staff gratefully acknowledge the recent unrestricted gifts of Mrs. Paul Guenzel (Chicago), Henry Gordon (Patchogue, New York), Dan Buck (Springfield), Russell Lewis (Chicago), Joan Neumiller (Galesburg), Mark Plummer (Bloomington), and Roland Steibel (La Quinta, California). In addition, the Centennial Awards Committee extends its appreciation to Northwestern Business College, Brown, Hay and Stevens LLB, Midwest Bank, and Logan County Title Company, for their financial support of the Centennial Awards Program.

Does your employer match your contributions to not-for-profit organizations? Society member and director Lawrence Hansen of River Forest recently contributed $250 to the Society and his employer, the Joyce Foundation, matched his gift with a two-for-one donation.

When making your gift to the Society this year, remember that only contributions over the price of basic membership can be calculated for matching funds.

It's official

On January 1, 2006, Illinois officially welcomed Amhystoma tigrinum and Chrysemys picta into the family of state symbols. If those names are foreign to you, consider their common names: Eastern Tiger Salamander and the Painted Turtle, Illinois' amphibian and state reptile (respectively). Illinois students lobbied and participated online to elect these critters to our list of official symbols, which also includes the Monarch Butterfly (state insect), Bluegill (state fish), Cardinal (state bird), and Tully Monster (state fossil).

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Wanted—Century old

Is your business or not-for-profit organization 100 years old? If so, The Illinois State Historical Society wants to buy you dinner and welcome you to the Centennial Awards Program, which has honored more than 1,100 century-old Illinois corporations since its founding in 1984.

The 22nd annual Centennial Awards Banquet will be held on Friday, October 13, 2006, at the Palmer House Hilton hotel in Chicago. Illinois businesses and not-for-profit corporations celebrating their centennial years in 2006, as well as those achieving their 125th, 150th, and 175th anniversaries, are encouraged to apply for the Society's special recognition on-line at www.historyillinois.org. Applications are also available by calling the Society's office in Springfield at 217-525-2781.

To qualify, centennial corporations must provide businesses evidence of continuous operation for 100 years or more. Acceptable evidence includes original charters and minutes to corporate meetings, newspaper articles and city directories from the period, bills of sale, and other items contemporaneous with the business's founding.

The Centennial Awards Program, established in 1984, has honored more than 1,100 businesses around the state including the Walgreen Company, SBC, the Chicago White Sox, Rotary International, Illinois College, the Illinois Press Association, and more than 50 Illinois Carnegie libraries.

Centennial Award winners received a plaque inscribed by the current Illinois governor and Society president, use of the Centennial Awards logo on their business letterhead, a year's free membership in the Society, and statewide recognition. For more information about the Awards Program, call 217-525-2781.

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