News

Research scholarships announced

The King V. Hostick Awards Committee met in late May and awarded five research grants to graduate students whose dissertations focus on Illinois history. The 2006 Hostick Scholarship winners and their proposals are:

Bryan W. Nicholson, Urbana, $2,300
"The Price of Americanism: Youth, U.S. Nationalism, and the American League, 1935-1970."

Will Cooley, Urbana, $2,860
"Holding the Line: Status, Race, and the Middle Class on Chicago's Southside. 1945-1983."

Joshua A.T. Salzmann, Oak Park, $3000
"Safe Llarbor: Chicago's Waterfront and the Political Economy of the Built Environment, 1877-1916."

Thomas W. Bahde, Ellensburg, Washington, $3,000
"Race and Justice in the Heartland: Three Nineteenth-Century Lives."

John Reda, Park Ridge, Illinois, $3,000
"Joining the Union: Land, Race, and Sovereignty in the Illinois Country, 1763-1824."

The Hostick Awards are presented annually to graduate students in history and library science who are conducting research about and in Illinois. The awards are sponsored by the Illinois State Historical Society and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Individual stipends of up to $3,000 are awarded to scholars who qualify.

Applications for the 2007 King V. Hostick Awards are now being accepted. For more information write Thomas F. Schwartz, Illinois State Historian, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, 112 North 6th Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701, or call 217-782-2118. For on-line instructions, visit www.historyillinois.org.

Block Documents go on display in Harrisburg

Your Obedient Servants: The Block Document Collection of Presidential Papers, an exhibit of more than 40 signed presidential documents and lithographs from the Madison to Coolidge presidencies, will be on display from August 21-September 9 at Williams & Associates Insurance Company, 401 East Poplar Street in Harrisburg. Exhibits sponsors include Williams & Associates Insurance Agency, Lincoln Financial Advisors, and Farmers State Bank. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Hours are 8-5 p.m., Monday thru Friday. A reception for members of the Illinois State Historical Society and invited guests will be held on Sunday, August 20 from 2-4 p.m. For group tours of the exhibit, call 618-253-7165. The Block Document exhibit is made possible by a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council.

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State Representative Mark Beaubien (left), a descendant of Fort Dearborn massacre survivor Josette Beaubien, and three members of the Schultz family greet each other.

Marker dedicated to Fort Dearborn survivor

On Sunday, May 21, the village of Franklin Park unveiled a new Illinois State Historical Society marker at the gravesite of Josette Beaubien, a survivor of the 1812 Fort Dearborn massacre. Beaubien, who was of Pottawatomi and French heritage, was the wife of Jean Baptiste Beaubien, one of Chicago's earliest settlers. Her brother was Claude LaFramboise, a chief of the Pottawatomi tribe who was given land that later comrpised much of present-day Franklin Park and Schiller Park. Those in attendance at the marker dedication included Illinois State Representative Mark Beaubien (B-Wauconda), a distant relative of Josette Beaubien; Franklin Park May Dan Pritchett; ISHS President Marvin W. Ehlers; ISHS Director Bedd Griffin; and Bobert Schultz, whose family helped discover the gravesite.

Prize money for student scholars

Do you know a young Lincoln scholar who could use $1,000 for college? Illinois high school students are invited to participate in the Orndorff Scholarship competition, an essay contest about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era.

Essays should be between 1,000 and 1,500 words with an annotated bibliography and suggestions for further reading. The focus of the essay should be on Abraham Lincoln or a significant event in the Civil War period in Illinois. The Illinois high school student whose research paper is selected will receive a $1,000 scholarship, plus a certificate from the Society.

Cub Scout Troop 158 performed color guard duties at the dedication of the Josette Beaubien Historical Marker.

The winning essay and author will be honored at the Illinois History Symposium Banquet in February 2007. His or her essay will be published in the January/February 2007 issue of Illinois Heritage magazine, the popular history magazine of the Illinois State Historical Society. For more information, call 217-525-2781, or visit the Society's web site at www.historyiHinois.org.

Entries should be sent to the Illinois State Historical Society, Orndorff Scholarship, 210 1/2 South Sixth Street, Suite 200, Springfield, Illinois 62701.

The deadline for the 2006 award is October 31.

Wild Illinois History

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has recently upgraded a remarkable website resource for Illinois teachers, students, and natural history lovers. The interactive website 'Wild Illinois History" (www.wildillinois.org) helps students in grades 3 through 5 focus on early exploration, geography, and wildlife issues.Teachers and students will find new features that make it a great supplement to Illinois history exploration. The improved site contains new lesson plans, streaming video, free photos, classroom materials, and grant information. "Wild Illinois History" correlates with Illinois Learning Standards.

With a mouse click, visitors can journey back to the earliest days of the Illinois Territory when voyageurs and Native Americans hunted and traveled the prairies, forests, and rivers. Students can learn how wildlife helped Native Americans and early settlers survive; they can see how wildlife is a part of our lives today. A fictional French trapper from the 18th Century Illinois Territory leads students on the trip. Brief story-telling slideshows are mixed with fun, interactive activities. Lesson plans and activities are correlated to Illinois Learning Standards.

Correction:

The photograph on page 11 of the May-June issue of Illinois Heritage is of Beecher Chapel, not of Old Main, on the campus of Knox College in Galesburg.

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