Early each fall I get a large number of e-mails from Illinois students in grades 6—12 who are starting their annual history fair topic search. The Illinois History Fair http://www.state.il.us/hpa/departments/illinoishistoryfair.htm is sponsored by the Education Services Division of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. It promotes the study of local history through a series of state-wide competitions that culminates in the Illinois History Expo that next will be held in Springfield on May 9, 2002.

For students in Cook and surrounding counties parallel competitions are sponsored by the Chicago Metro History Education Center http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cmhec/ with winners also going to Springfield. Student entries may take the form of research papers, essays, exhibits, models, media presentations or dramatic performances. All projects must include an explanation of how research was done and what things were learned.

I always advise students to select a very specific topic and to seek primary source documents, newspaper accounts, and to get interviews with witnesses and participants when possible. Formerly only in libraries and archives, more and more of this material is making its way online. A good starting point for the ever popular "Deaths, Disturbances, Disasters and Disorders in Chicago" is http:/www.chipublib.org/004chicago/chidisaster.html. This Chicago Public Library site contains short summaries of such usual History Fair suspects as the Chicago Fire, Iroquois Theatre Fire, Lady of Angels Fire, and the Eastland Disaster, but also presents lesser known topics such as the 1866 Lager Beer Riots. Each article provides a list of sources and sometimes a link to a primary source document.

Many students like to investigate famous trials and court cases. For Chicago related cases a great starting point is the archives of the Cook County Court Clerk http://www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org/Archives/Famous Cases/famous cases.htm. Highlighted cases include: the Black Sox Scandal, Haymarket Affair, Leopold and Loeb, and John Wayne Gacy. Each web site includes a narrative summary, digital images of case documents, and advice on how to get further information. The 1919-20 Chicago White Sox case is really People v. Edward Cicote, et. al. and is also featured at the University of Missouri — Kansas City, School of Law site http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/blacksox/blacksox.html. (Did you know that Shoeless Joe Jackson's grand jury testimony mysteriously disappeared from the case file?) The 1886 Haymarket Affair is also featured at UM-KC but the trial transcripts and proceedings for People v. August Spies, et. al. are actually located at the Chicago Historical Society http://www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/transcript/trialtoc.htm.

Also in 1886, Chicago baseball player Billy Sunday was converted to Christianity at the Pacific Garden Mission. You can read and hear Billy's testimony while "Hitting the Sawdust Trail" at the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/ Sunday/Sunday01.html.

Students, whose "grandparents" may be aging "hippies," can start their research of the 1968 Democratic Convention at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1553 and find the "Chicago Seven" trial account complete with audio clips and posters at http://wwAv.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/ chicago7.html.

A good place to start exploring downstate Illinois history is John Musgrave's Underground Railroad site http://www.illinoishistory.com/ugrr.html. To separate fact from fiction concerning the "Outlaws of Cave-in-Rock" start with http://www.illinoishistorv.com/outlaws.html. Speaking of outlaws, you can learn about the Charlie Birger Gang and Prohibition at illinoishistory.com or at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/7847/birger.htm.

The Illinois State Historical Library has an extensive site illustrating the life and times of abolitionist minister and editor Elijah Lovejoy at http://www.state.il.us/lipa/lovejoy/table.htm. while Exodus Newsmagazine summarizes eyewitness accounts of the 1917 East St. Louis Race Riot and Massacre at http:\\www.exodusnews. com/HISTORY/ History010.htm. Students interested in labor history can view the 1925 "Herrin Massacre" of coal mine strikebreakers at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/7847/massacre.htm.

Finally, although George Rogers Clark http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/ihb/ihbgrc.htmlgets very little student interest, I get several requests each year for the great Tri-State Tornado of 1925. A starting place for the monster storm that killed 540 people in southern Illinois is http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/7847/tornado2.htm.

If you have suggestions for Illinois History Online articles, please e-mail Mark Sorensen at: msorensen@ilsos.net.

Mark W. Sorensen is Assistant Director at the Illinois State Archives. He lias maintained the "Illinois History Resource Page" since 1995 at http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~sorensen/hist.html.

ILLINOIS HERITAGE 17