A handful of new books landed on my desk in the past few weeks: –Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader edited by Julie Malnig (November […]
Category: Illinois / regional
Lincoln scholar on WGN’s Extension 720
Douglas Wilson, co-author of the new book The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The Lincoln Studies Center Edition, will appear on WGN Radio’s Extension 720 on November 7 at 9:00 PM to discuss […]
Illinois Place Name of the Day – November 3, 2008
The official publication date of Edward Callary’s Place Names of Illinois has arrived. I conclude our month-long feature with the derivation of our state’s name. Illinois. State. The name is […]
David Zalaznik book launch in Peoria
The launch celebration for David Zalaznik‘s new book of photography, Life along the Illinois River, will take place November 7, 4:00-7:00 PM, at the Peoria Art Guild. Today’s edition of the Peoria Journal […]
Illinois Place Name of the Day – October 31, 2008
West Point. Hancock. Village (1893) eleven miles south of Carthage. Formerly known as Pumpkinville and then as Wigletown, named for early settler David Wigle. Renamed in 1856 for their former […]
Illinois Place Name of the Day – Oct. 30, 2008
Sneak Out. Franklin. Former community. Supposedly named for the otherwise respectable citizens who would sneak out of their houses, get drunk, and sneak back home. According to Sneed (Ghost Towns […]
Illinois Place Name of the Day – Oct. 29, 2008
Ipava [eye PAY vuh]. Fulton. Village (1853, 1872) nine miles west-southwest of Lewistown. Platted for John Easley as Easleyburg in 1846 and apparently replatted as Pleasantville later that same year. […]
Illinois Place Name of the Day – Oct. 28, 2008
On November 3, 2008, we are publishing Place Names of Illinois by Edward Callary. Every weekday since October 1 we have posted one of the book’s nearly 3,000 entries. Today […]
Illinois Place Name of the Day – Oct. 27, 2008
Nauvoo [nah VOO, naw VOO]. Hancock. City (1841, 1899) six miles south of Fort Madison, Iowa. The area around modern Nauvoo was known as Quashquema, named for a minor Sauk […]
Illinois Place Name of the Day – Oct. 24, 2008
Hoopeston [HUP stuhn]. Vermilion. City (1877). Modern Hoopeston is the result of an early 1870s merger of three communities: Hoopeston, laid out by Thomas Hoopes and Joseph Satterwhaite; North Hoopeston, […]
Illinois Place Name of the Day – Oct. 23, 2008
Coffee. Wabash. Precinct. Also Coffee Island and Coffee Creek. The traditional story is that a keelboat loaded with coffee was proceeding up the Wabash River and took shelter for the […]
Illinois Place Name of the Day – Oct. 22, 2008
Cairo. Alexander. City (1818, 1873). Chartered in 1818 as the City and Bank of Cairo by John G. Comegys, Shadrach Bond (the first governor of the state of Illinois and […]