CONTRIBUTORS' BIOGRAPHIES

Roger Biles is professor of history at Illinois State University. He is the author of several books and articles on Illinois history, including Crusading Liberal: Paul H. Douglas of Illinois (2002); Richard J. Daley: Politics, Race, and the Governing of Chicago (1995); and Illinois: A History of the Land and Its People (2005).

Kristin Camp has seventeen years' experience as an educator at the elementary and middle-school level in central Illinois public schools. She received a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Eastern Illinois University and earned a master's degree in educational administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is currently the enrichment specialist for the middle schools at Champaign School District Unit 4, a position that allows her to share her devotion to making history relevant and fascinating to students by creating social studies units that enhance the regular curriculum.

Janet Duitsman Cornelius has served as an adjunct professor of history at Eastern Illinois University since her retirement from full-time teaching and administration at Danville Area Community College, where she also organized and presented workshops for high-school social studies teachers. She has served on the board of directors for the Illinois State Historical Society and has chaired its annual symposium. She holds the Ph. D. from the University of Illinois and is the author of Constitution Making in Illinois, 1818-1870; "When I Can Read My Title Clear: Literacy, Slavery, and Religion in the Antebellum South; and Slave Missions and the Black Church in the Antebellum South. She has co-authored a manuscript on women reformers in Danville, 1890-1925, which is under revision.

Dan Guillory is professor emeritus of English at Millikin University. He has published four books: Living with Lincoln: Life and Art in the Heartland (1989); The Alligator Inventions (1992); When the Waters Recede: Rescue and Recovery After the Great Flood (1996); and Images of America: Decatur (2004). Guillory was one of the authors honored at the 2005 Illinois Authors Book Fair sponsored by the Illinois Center for the Book. In 2005 he presented poetry programs at the Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site, Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, and the Decatur Public Library.

Harold Harrison retired in 2002 from a teaching career of thirty-three-and-a-half years at Mt. Morris and Oregon, Illinois, high schools. He received a bachelor of arts degree in history from Southern Illinois University and a master of science degree in education from Northern Illinois University. Believing that interest in history is encouraged by "doing" history, he promoted research and writing in the courses he taught. Hundreds of his students participated in the Illinois State History Fair program and the Illinois History student writing program from 1975 to 2002.

Rosemary Laughlin received the Ph. D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago and currently teaches English at University Laboratory High School at Urbana, Illinois. She has published numerous articles on methods and lessons in journals devoted to the teaching of English. She authored four books for young adults published by Morgan-Reynolds: The Great Iron Link: The Building of the Central Pacific Railroad (1996); The Pullman Strike of 1894 (2000); John D. Rockefeller: Oil Baron and Philanthropist (2001); and The Colorado Coalfields Strike of 1913-1914 and the Ludlow Massacre (in press).

Cheryl Lyon-Jenness is director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of History at Western Michigan University. She holds the Ph. D. in history from Western Michigan University, an M. S. in biology from the University of Michigan, and a B. A. in English from Kalamazoo College. She worked for many years as an interpretive naturalist and as a museum curator. Her current research interests focus on horticultural and agricultural history. Her recently published book, For Shade and For Comfort: Democratizing Horticulture in the Nineteen-Century Midwest (2004), examines the historical significance of increasing ornamental plant use in mid-nineteenth-century domestic landscapes.

James J. Schebler is a part-time instructor in the Education Department at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. He teaches the Social Studies Methods course and helps supervise student teachers and students involved in clinical placements. He retired from the Rock Island Public Schools in 1998 after teaching in Illinois schools for thirty-nine years. He is also currently involved in researching local history in the Quad-City area.