Civil War, politics, Italians, plague, and more

SPRINGFIELD - A wide range of topics from the Civil War to ethnic and social history will be presented during the Eighth Annual Conference on Illinois History scheduled for Thursday and Friday, October 12 and 13 in Springfield.  The conference is sponsored by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

 

            Sessions will be held at the Prairie Capital Convention Center with the Thursday evening banquet at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum.  Registration forms are available at www.illinoishistory.gov/conference.htm or by calling (217) 785-7933.  The registration deadline is October 10.

 

            Thursday, October 12 sessions include:  Southern Illinois and the Natural Environment; WPA Art in Illinois; Civil War Memories I; John Peter Altgeld; Sports; Science and Society in 20^th-Century Illinois; Panic and Plague in Antebellum Illinois; Frontier Illinois; Journalism; Twentieth-Century Chicago; Civil War Legacies; Economic and Social Development; History Sleuths; Railroads in the 1850s.  The Thursday evening banquet speaker will be author James Green, who will discuss the Haymarket riot.   

 

Friday, October 13 will feature:  Italians in Illinois; Twentieth-Century Politics; Illinois Families; Illinois Justice System; Creating Communities; Lincoln Studies; African American Experience in 19^th Century Illinois; Art in the Gilded Age; Civil War Memories II; Landscape and Architectural Design; Topographical Town Scenes in Vachel Lindsay's Universe; Abolitionists and the American Memory; The Civil War Home Front; World War I.  The lunch speaker will be author Robert Bray, who will discuss Peter Cartwright and Abraham Lincoln.

 

            Teacher workshops will be offered, including:  Juvenile Fiction on Abraham Lincoln; Resources to Use in Your History and Geography Classroom; Using Newspaper and Magazine Online Indexes for Research Topics; Enhancing Student Comprehension; Illinois Political History; and Illinois Abolitionist History.  Teachers can earn one Certified Professional Development Unit (CPDU) for conference session hour.