Born in Vermont, made in America, John Deere helped humans move enough earth to impress even Ruaumoko, the Maori god of earthquakes. Deere’s death on May 17, 1886 marked the […]
Category: american history
200 Years of Illinois: Cal Coolidge, controversy, and Cairo
The 1927 Mississippi River flood disaster had a far-reaching social impact, inspired timeless music, influenced policy that includes what happened during Hurricane Katrina, and received its due in at least one […]
Hirum Cronk Remembered
He fought for his country at a time when Native Americans still played a major role in New York’s military conflicts. He died when film could be taken of his funeral. On […]
Backlist Bop: John Lennon knows politics ain’t easy
As the tumultuous late Sixties and early Seventies retreat into history, the zeitgeist is steadily sanding the many rough edges off John Lennon in order to enjoy his music without […]
200 Years of Illinois: Scott Field and the Balloon Man
On May 4, 1927, balloonist Hawthorne C. Gray, a captain in the Army Air Corps, reached new heights in human endeavor. Literally. Taking off from Scott Field near Belleville, Gray […]
Q&A with Debra Shattuck, Author of “Bloomer Girls”
Debra A. Shattuck is Provost and Associate Professor of History at John Witherspoon College. She recently answered some questions regarding Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers. […]
Backstreet Bop: Rhythm of the rails
On this day in 1947, the City of New Orleans made its first run between the Chicago and the Crescent City on the Illinois Central line. The City traveled the early 921-mile […]
200 Years of Illinois: John B. Anderson Versus the World
On April 25, 1980, longtime Rockford congressman and powerful House leader John B. Anderson launched his independent campaign for the presidency. Today, April 26, marks the anniversary of his first full […]
Backlist Bop: The French Connection
Today marks the birthday of Daniel Chester French, in his day one of America’s most popular sculptors. The famed often seem to have known the famed, and French was no […]
Backlist Bop: Pioneering women scientists
The hit film Hidden Figures re-acquainted the zeitgeist with the idea that women in general, and African American women in particular, have long participated in scientific endeavor. Science on the Home Front tells women’s […]
Backlist Bop: Rockmore, not less
You can’t have Women’s History Month without musician-genius Clara Rockmore (left in the photo). The appropriately named Rockmore was a master of the theremin, that haunting/creepy sound-maker that entered our consciousness through 1950s science fiction films, […]
Release Party: The Loyal West, by Matthew E. Stanley
A free region deeply influenced by southern mores, the Lower Middle West represented a true cultural and political median in Civil War–era America. Here grew a Unionism steeped in the […]